21 Ci

China differs from most of the major internet markets as most of the users search in Chinese, unless they are looking for information specific to English speaking countries like USA and UK. To be successful in the local market, the search engine should have a good understanding of the needs of the Chinese people, which is why the largest search engines worldwide like Google are not the major players in the Chinese market.

It is believed that Chinese government also plays a vital part in the promotion of the Chinese search engines, due to which foreign search engines cannot be accessed often and are not very popular.
Some of the major search engines in China are:
1. Baidu
2. Sohu
3. Google China
4. Yahoo

Though China has the largest number of internet users in the world, internet usage is heavily censored. The communist government has a specialised internet police, who monitor the websites accessed by internet users in China and block the websites which do not conform to the governmental internet policies.

The Chinese government encourages the use of the internet for education, scientific research and trade. The Alibaba website which lists a large number of Chinese manufacturers and exporters is widely believed to be supported by the Chinese government. The internet also helps Chinese companies contact new buyers in foreign countries and increase the exports of their products in a  cost effective manner.

However, websites which are about activities against the Chinese communist government by dissidents are blocked. Websites which have news articles or photos like the Tianmen Square massacre or protests in Tibet usually cannot be accessed by internet users in China