Google Launches Free Music Service in China to Gain on Baidu
Earlier this week, Google unveiled a post-beta music service that allows Internet users in China to stream or download music at no cost, thanks to the ad-supported model it is based upon.
In conjunction with more than 140 music labels, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music, EMI Group and Sony Music Entertainment, along with Top100.cn, Google thrust its offering out of its seven-month long beta stage. Google has an unspecified stake in Top100.cn, which is co-owned by international basketball star Yao Ming.
To start, the site will offer 350,000 songs, but will eventually offer more than 1 million songs within the next few months.
There are two main prongs to this offering.
One is the objective to combat the rampant illegal downloads in China, where the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimates 99 percent of all downloads are illegal.
By sharing the ad revenue with its partners, Google will allow musicians and their labels to collect money from the work they generate.
“It’s really a case of innovate or die for the music companies in China,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China Ltd., to Bloomberg News.
The second aspect of this offering is a direct attempt of strengthening Google’s market share in the Chinese search market, where homegrown Baidu has a Google-like stranglehold. At the end of 2008, Baidu held 62 percent of the market, while Google claimed 28 percent.
Baidu has offered free songs for a while now and has benefitted, as is evident by its strong position in the market.
According to a Baidu representative, the leading search engine in China does not appear to fear Google’s entry.
Google does not plan on expanding this type of offering outside of China.
SpiralFrog attempted to offer free songs for download by way of an ad-supported model. It shut down earlier this month due to financial difficulties.
There are similar sites in the U.S., including imeem and Ruckus.
Sources:</strong
http://www.google.cn/music/homepage
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a.MlTx0tqlEo&refer=asia
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123841495337969485.html
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/03/china-gets-ad-supported-music-through-google.ars
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/30/google-china-signs-big-music-for-free-mp3-search-engine/
