Beijing: Billionaire Li Ka-shing's Tom Online Inc. said it has stopped using Google Inc.'s search engine as the US company sidestepped local censorship laws by offering Chinese users unfiltered searches via an offshore site.
"Our practice is to work with companies that are compliant with regulations," said Elaine Feng, executive vice-president at Tom Online. She said the Chinese internet company stopped using Google's search services after the expiry of an agreement, without giving details.
"If traffic at Google's Hong Kong site is not as good as the Chinese site, advertisers will switch" to other online search providers, said Elinor Leung, head of internet research at CLSA Ltd. Operators including Baidu Inc., Tencent Holdings Ltd., and Sohu.com Inc. will benefit, she said.
Tom Online was using Baidu's search services on its website Wednesday though the unit of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s Tom Group Ltd. was offering Google's search engine as of last week. Traffic redirected to Google's Hong Kong site was still subject to Chinese government filters on Tuesday morning.
Stocks rise
Baidu, operator of the country's biggest search engine, rose 1.8 per cent to $579.72 on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday, while Sohu gained 0.9 per cent to $54.76. Tencent, China's biggest internet company by value, rose 1.2 per cent to HK$157.70 as of the midday break on Tuesday in Hong Kong.
Baidu, based in Beijing, accounted for 58.6 per cent of China's online search market last quarter, compared with 35.6 per cent for Google, according to research company Analysys International.
