Google, Baidu eye new mobile market

As China ushers in a new generation of snazzy smartphones and 3G networks, Google and Baidu are shifting their battle from the Internet to China's mobile search market.

The country's mobile search market is likely to become the world's largest, with the potential promise of billions of dollars in revenue.

However, experts said that putting a price tag on the potentially massive market is tough.

Any future riches could be years off due to a lack of clear business models and potential competition, as well as the political risk in China's tightly controlled media markets, the experts said.

"Everything is growing very fast, but who is going to make money?" asked Wallace Cheung, an analyst with Credit Suisse.

"The (mobile search) market is so diverse, even globally there is no sure business model yet," Cheung said.

Google, a distant second to Baidu in China's 1.8 billion yuan ($263.66 million) PC search market, is the world leader in mobile search by revenue and determined not to cede control of mobile search in the Chinese market.

Google said recently it expects mobile search revenues to surpass PC search revenues in a few years.

China's mobile search market, where Google and Baidu are currently tied with a market share of about 26 percent each, is potentially huge due to China's more than 700 million mobile subscribers. That's about double its 338 million Internet users.

Billions of dollars in revenue could be at stake if the market develops along lines similar to PC Internet search.