Baidu, China's Google, jumps on mobile, launches speedy Android browser
Baidu, the dominant leader in China's search market, has leapt on to Android with a new browser for the Google-owned mobile OS. The browser features a new HTML5 and Javascript engine that the company says is fast enough …
Context & Ripple Effects
Baidu’s Android browser is a narrower but complementary step in a mobile strategy that had already included a preview of its own mobile OS and a cloud-centric smartphone platform. The company is building mobile touchpoints both within Android and alongside it, rather than treating search as its only product surface.
The browser’s claimed HTML5 and JavaScript performance makes the web client a product in its own right within that strategy, while Android supplies the distribution base.
First-order effects
- Baidu adds an Android browser to its mobile stack, giving it a direct user interface on Google’s operating system alongside its separate platform ambitions.
- Android users gain a Baidu-built browsing option whose speed proposition rests on the company’s new HTML5 and JavaScript engine.
Second-order effects
- Baidu’s mobile-platform effort gains an on-ramp that does not depend on users adopting a separate Baidu operating system or phone platform.
- Google’s Android ecosystem becomes a venue where Baidu can compete at the browser layer while continuing to rely on Android as the underlying OS.
Third-order effects
- If major search providers use Android as a distribution layer while building their own browsers and platforms, control of the mobile web experience can fragment across the OS, browser, and search layers.
- The move points to mobile competition shifting from standalone search services toward ownership of the software surfaces through which users reach the web.
The trend: Baidu’s browser launch is one data point in the shift by search companies toward controlling mobile entry points, from operating systems to browsers.