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Google announced two deals in China. It will make an investment in Xunlei Network Technology Co. which provides video downloads on the mainland. The Chinese company has 54 million subscribers. Not bad.
Google also entered into a venture to provide search capabilities to customers of China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless company.
Google’s problem is that it is fundamentally an English language company. Consequently, local search company Baidu has 64% of the search market in China.
It is, however, a stretch to believe that a download service will drive much search traffic. It does not appear to be a key component of YouTube, Google’s own video service.
Baidu is in first place, but a wider margin that Google is in the US. That is not likely to change.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.