Easou speeds past Web giants
0 
Wang points out that his marketing strategy was the key to his success. "You can't expect every rural family to have a computer with Internet access, but nearly every individual in China has a cell phone," he said. "Where there is a cell phone, there is my business opportunity."
Over the past six years, Wang said small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been the key drivers of his business. "More than 85 percent of my clients are from smaller cities and rural areas." He found that SMEs in those areas have the demand to promote their products and services, but they do not have a lot of money for advertising.
Wang provided an alternative by allowing SMEs to promote their products nationwide on his mobile search engine rather than spending a lot of money on TV advertisements.
Easou has a market penetration of more than 40 cities in China, and Wang expects it to enter first-tier cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, next year.
"The company's strategy helps it to avoid direct competition with Baidu and Google in first-tier cities," said Xiao from IDC. "But it should be concerned about its future development in first-tier cities and competition with Baidu and Google in smaller cities later on, since those companies have already started to invest in developing their own mobile search engines."
Go to Forum >>0 Comments