China's search engine market reaches $877 million

Beijing: The size of China's search engine market hit 5.53 billion yuan ($877 million) in the first quarter of 2012, according to new statistics.

The figure represents a 70.4 per cent year-on-year increase, but a 4.7 per cent decline compared to the last quarter of 2011, showed the statistics from Analysys International, a Beijing-based tech and internet information provider.

Dong Xu, an analyst with the firm, attributed the quarter-on-quarter decline to the traditional seasonality of Internet use.

Thanks to its good overall performance, however, the keyword section has attracted steady advertising budgets, Xinhua quoted Dong as saying.

Keyword advertising also meets the needs of brand marketing with advertisers, who are gradually recognizing its promotional value. Therefore, China's search engine market will keep a stable development, he added.