【英语科技】谷歌：我们的中国营收还在增长

Google is trying to balance the loss of search market share after its partial retreat from China by aggressively expanding the business of placing video and banner advertisements on other websites, according to its top executive in the country.

“Over the last 12 months, China has been one of Google’s largest display markets in the world, and it continues to grow rapidly,” John Liu, the company’s vice-president for greater China operations, told the Financial Times.

“Display” refers to Google’s growing advertising network business, rather than to the ads placed next to search results on its own website.

The interview marks the first time that the company has discussed the business consequences of confronting the Chinese government over censorship in January and moving its China web search to its Hong Kong site in March.

It also comes as US diplomatic cables released on WikiLeaks at the weekend highlighted Google’s relationship with the Chinese government again. They showed the increasing pressure last year from Chinese authorities for stricter self-censorship of Google’s China site.

According to one source quoted in the cables, Chinese authorities demanded that Google cut the link from its self-censoring China search site to its international site after a senior Chinese leader found reports critical of him in a search for his own name on the uncensored global site.

Mr Liu refused to comment on the cables’ contents and avoided addressing in detail how the showdown with the Chinese government has eroded Google’s hard-won share of the Chinese online search market.

Google’s share of China online search revenues fell to 21.6 per cent in the third quarter, from a high point of 35.9 per cent in the fourth quarter last year, immediately before Google’s move, Analysys International, a Beijing-based research firm found.

Mr Liu insisted he was upbeat about business prospects in the country. “We still have good traffic, and revenues are growing quarter on quarter,” he said.

The company’s bet on growing display revenues in China is in line with its global strategy. Eric Schmidt, chief executive, has identified the segment, as a growth driver.

Mr Liu said he considered the Chinese display ads market much larger than that for search ads.

According to eMarketer, a digital marketing consultancy, the Chinese display market is forecast to reach $1.78bn this year, compared with $1.44bn in search ads.

Apart from display ads, Google has high hopes of attracting ads from Chinese companies to its websites in other markets – a business it calls export.

This “accounts for a very substantial part of our China revenues,” said Mr Liu. Estimates of the importance of ads on Google sites outside China range from one-third to half of the company’s China revenues.

Adwords, Google’s main advertising platform, uses search technology to help advertisers target ads at foreign markets where they might produce the strongest interest.

Mr Liu said Google employs roughly the same number of research and sales staff in China as last year and is still hiring.

“The team is committed; the team is enthusiastic,” he said. He suggested that users’ loyalty and preference for Google would keep the company’s following strong.

“People love Google. You can hear them crying, ‘Google, we want you to stay’. Sometimes they face difficulty in accessing the site, but they find all kinds of ways around it,” he said.

However, Google could face further challenges in China.

So far, its map service for China, unlike web search, remains on its mainland website – and provides a useful marketing and advertising platform. But new Chinese rules on online mapping require companies offering such services to apply for a licence and place their servers in mainland China – something Google has not yet done.

In theory, the Chinese government could use the regulatory regime to make fresh censorship demands on maps.

Beijing has extended a deadline for Google and Microsoft’s Bing to apply for the licences from the end of the year until March.

谷歌(Google)一位中国高管表示，该公司正试图大举扩大在其它网站放置视频及标语广告(banner advertisements)的业务，来弥补部分撤离中国市场后丧失的搜索市场份额。

谷歌大中华区业务副总裁刘允(John Liu)向英国《金融时报》表示：“过去12个月，中国一直是谷歌全球最大的‘显示’市场，并持续快速增长。”

“显示”指的是谷歌日益增长的广告网络业务，而非放在其网站搜索结果边上的广告。

这是谷歌在今年1月与中国政府就审查制度发生对峙、并在3月份将其中国网络搜索业务转移至香港站点之后，第一次谈及此举在商业上的后果。

谷歌接受采访之际，维基解密(WikiLeaks)网站周末披露的美国外交电报，也再度让该公司与中国政府的关系成为焦点。这些电报表明，去年中国政府对谷歌不断加大压力，要求该公司加大对其中国网站的自我审查。

电报中援引的一个消息来源称，一名中国高级领导人在谷歌未经审查的全球网站上搜索自己名字时，发现了批评自己的报道。之后，中国政府要求谷歌断开其自我审查的内地搜索站点与其国际站点之间的链接。

刘允拒绝就电报内容置评，并避免详细谈论谷歌与中国政府的摊牌，对其来之不易的中国在线搜索市场份额有多大的侵蚀。

北京研究公司易观国际(Analysys International)发现，谷歌第三季度在中国的在线搜索收入份额降至21.6%，而在其与中国政府陷入僵局之前的去年第四季度，这一比例高达35.9%。

刘允坚称，自己对谷歌在华业务前景感到乐观。他表示：“我们的流量仍然很大，营收环比不断增长。”

谷歌押注于中国日益增长的显示广告收入，符合其全球战略。谷歌首席执行官埃里克?施密特(Eric Schmidt)已将这块业务作为增长引擎。

刘允表示，他觉得中国显示广告市场的规模远大于搜索广告业务。

数字营销咨询公司eMarketer预计，中国显示市场的规模今年将达到17.8亿美元，而搜索广告业务为14.4亿美元。

除了显示广告，谷歌还对吸引中国公司在谷歌其它国家站点发布广告——其称为出口业务——寄予厚望。

刘允表示，这块业务“在中国营收中占据相当大的份额”。谷歌中国营收的三分之一至一半，就是来自中国公司在谷歌国外网站上所做的广告。

谷歌主要广告平台Adwords使用搜索技术，帮助广告商瞄准兴趣可能最浓厚的外国市场。

刘允表示，谷歌在华雇佣的研发及销售人员数量基本与去年持平，且目前仍在招聘。

他表示：“团队忠诚而充满热情。”他暗示，用户对谷歌的忠诚和偏爱，给了该公司强大的支持。

刘允表示：“人们热爱谷歌。你能够听到他们在呼喊，‘谷歌，我们希望你留下来’。有时他们登陆网站会遇到困难，但他们找出了各种方式绕开限制。”

然而，谷歌可能在中国面临进一步的挑战。

迄今为止，谷歌提供的中国地图服务与网络搜索不同，仍然保留在其内地网站上，并且提供了有用的营销和广告平台。但中国对在线地图服务的新规定，要求提供此类服务的公司申请执照，并将服务器放在中国内地——谷歌迄今尚未做到这一点。

理论上，中国政府可以利用监管制度，对地图服务提出新的审查要求。

中国政府已将谷歌以及微软(Microsoft)的必应(Bing)申请牌照的最后期限，从今年年底延迟至明年3月。

译者/何黎