Baidu, the Beijing based company, dominates the search engine market in China, but it seems that Google is now stepping forward to take the popular Chinese search engine's place. The task, apparently, will not be easy as Baidu dominates most of China's market.

During the year's third quarter, according to Jennifer Li, Baidu's chief financial officer, the search engine's market share was 77%, a substantial hike from second year's share of 75.6%. Also, she was quick to point out that Google ended up losing its share of the Chinese market, dropping to 17% for the third quarter from second quarter's 19% share.

Searches through mobile phones, however, is a segment which is currently dominated by Google, but Baidu is now taking all the necessary steps to ensure that it can bite into that share as well. The main reason for Google's dominance seems to be its tie up with China Mobile, the country's largest carrier.

To counter the same, in October, Baidu announced that it has managed to strike a deal with China Unicom's 3G services, so that customers can make the most of mobile search.

Both Google and Baidu have both good and bad points going for them. While Google has been praised for its understanding the nuances of the Chinese language, Baidu has been criticized for mixing ads and organic search results. On the other hand, Baidu has the advantage of being local and the huge share is a definite advantage as well.