What is the search engine market share in China?
Baidu leads, but the number you see depends on the month, the device and what is being counted.
The short answer
Baidu leads China with 49.00% of measured search referrals in October 2026, followed by Bing at 21.69%, according to StatCounter. Bing leads on desktop at 46.01%, while Baidu leads on mobile at 60.37%. These figures count clicks to tracked websites, not searches or people, and they swing widely between months.
- StatCounter puts Baidu at 49.00% and Bing at 21.69% across all devices in China in October 2026.
- Baidu's monthly share ranged from 44.64% in April 2026 to 63.97% in November 2025.
- Baidu's yearly average fell from 78.26% in 2021 to 50.75% for January to October 2026, by our calculation from StatCounter's export.
- Bing has led Baidu on desktop since March 2026, and in 32 of the 43 months since April 2023, per StatCounter.
- CNNIC counted 782.06 million search engine users in December 2025, down from 877.82 million a year earlier.
ChatGPT
Claude
PerplexityBaidu is first. That part of the answer is easy, and every guide gives it. The harder part is which percentage to trust, because nearly all of them trace back to one sample.
This page gives the current numbers, what they count, and how far you can lean on them. To decide which engines to work on, see which Chinese search engines a foreign company should target.
What is each search engine’s share in China?
Baidu has 49.00% across all devices and Bing has 21.69%, according to StatCounter for October 2026.1 The order changes by device, so read the columns separately.
| Engine | All devices 1 | Desktop 2 | Mobile 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
 Baidu | 49.00% | 29.65% | 60.37% |
 Bing | 21.69% | 46.01% | 7.20% |
 Yandex | 11.77% | 4.20% | 16.24% |
| Haosou (360 Search) | 8.67% | 16.70% | 3.96% |
 Google | 6.83% | 2.19% | 9.72% |
 Sogou | 1.72% | 1.17% | 2.02% |
| Shenma | 0.21% | Not listed | 0.33% |
- Baidu49.00%
- Bing21.69%
- Yandex11.77%
- Haosou (360 Search)8.67%
- Google6.83%
- Sogou1.72%
- Shenma0.21%
Don’t take the Yandex and Google rows at face value. We explain why below.
What do these numbers actually measure?
They measure clicks from a search engine to a website carrying StatCounter’s code.
In StatCounter’s words: “It’s the click to a website that we measure, not the actual search queries that were performed.”4
So a share here is neither a share of searches nor a share of people.
| StatCounter counts | StatCounter doesn’t count |
|---|---|
| Page views referred by a search engine | Searches that end without a click |
| Sites running its tracking code | Sites without that code |
| A global pool of over 1 million sites | People or accounts |
| Referrals as recorded, with no weighting | Any adjustment for who is in the sample |
Three details rarely make it into the guides:
- Sample size. StatCounter’s FAQ lists 213 million page views for China in July 2022, of which 151 million on mobile.4 That’s the latest China figure we could read there.
- No weighting. StatCounter says it applies no artificial weights.4 The result reflects the sites in the sample, not a model of Chinese internet use.
- Revisions. Figures lock after 45 days.4 Baidu’s September 2026 share read 46.65% on October 31, and 46.85% on November 1.1 That fits a revision, but we can’t confirm it.
The method has critics, and they aren’t all neutral. In May 2023, the Economic Observer quoted three of them.8
- A person close to Baidu said many Chinese sites and apps can’t be tracked this way.
- A person at a Baidu competitor said the data was inaccurate and that the sample could be optimized for.
- iiMedia CEO Zhang Yi said that, as far as he knew, more people in China use Edge to open Baidu. He voiced doubts about the data.
We found no test published by any of them. We also found no other current, public, per-engine series for China, so StatCounter stays the best available source, not a precise one.
Why do guides give different numbers?
Mostly, they read the same source in different months. Here is what several pages report for Baidu, all credited to StatCounter.
| Guide | Baidu, all devices | Month |
|---|---|---|
| The Egg 10 | 63.97% | November 2025 |
| Elite Asia 11 | 58.23% | January 2026 |
| Digital Applied 12 | 59.10% | August 2026 |
| StatCounter today 1 | 49.00% | October 2026 |
- The Egg63.97%
- Elite Asia58.23%
- Digital Applied59.10%
- StatCounter today49.00%
Three of the four still match the current export. Elite Asia’s 58.23%, published on February 3, 2026, now reads 58.06%.1 That small gap fits the revision window.
Each figure is a dated snapshot of a noisy series, often quoted later without the date.
So when you cite a figure in a board deck, give the source, the month and the device. “Baidu has 49%” is less accurate than “49.00% of StatCounter’s measured referrals in October 2026.”
How much do the shares move?
A lot. Baidu moved 19.33 points within 12 months, and it lost 12.25 points in one month between August and September 2026.1
- Nov. 202563.97%
- Dec.57.69%
- Jan. 202658.06%
- Feb.53.47%
- Mar.50.89%
- Apr.44.64%
- May47.15%
- June47.19%
- July51.15%
- Aug.59.10%
- Sept.46.85%
- Oct.49.00%
StatCounter
Here are the 12-month ranges. The averages are our simple mean of the monthly figures.1
| Engine | Oct. 2026 | 12-month average | Low | High |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baidu | 49.00% | 52.43% | 44.64% (Apr. 2026) | 63.97% (Nov. 2025) |
| Bing | 21.69% | 19.46% | 14.20% (Jan. 2026) | 23.31% (June 2026) |
| Haosou | 8.67% | 13.32% | 6.52% (Aug. 2026) | 18.17% (Apr. 2026) |
| Yandex | 11.77% | 10.22% | 5.85% (Dec. 2025, Jan. 2026) | 15.01% (Sept. 2026) |
| Google | 6.83% | 2.29% | 1.42% (Aug. 2026) | 6.83% (Oct. 2026) |
| Sogou | 1.72% | 1.98% | 1.62% (Feb., Mar. 2026) | 2.63% (June 2026) |
| Shenma | 0.21% | 0.24% | 0.13% (June 2026) | 0.54% (Dec. 2025) |
Is Baidu losing share?
Over five years, yes, in StatCounter’s sample. Over the last two, there’s no clear direction. The averages below are our simple mean of each year’s months.1
| Year | Baidu average | Baidu low | Baidu high | Bing average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 78.26% | 69.71% | 86.82% | 3.09% |
| 2022 | 72.14% | 59.59% | 84.36% | 10.23% |
| 2023 | 61.27% | 50.47% | 69.63% | 15.17% |
| 2024 | 55.02% | 45.15% | 61.11% | 25.94% |
| 2025 | 55.49% | 46.32% | 63.97% | 23.57% |
| Jan. to Oct. 2026 | 50.75% | 44.64% | 59.10% | 20.20% |
Since 2024 the path has been jagged. Baidu hit 45.15% in December 2024, climbed to 63.97% by November 2025, then dropped to 44.64% in April 2026.1
Bing moved the other way. Its high in this series is 37.74%, in December 2024, and it sat at 14.20% in January 2026.1
Sogou and Shenma fell much further, with rebounds along the way. Sogou went from 21.55% in January 2021 to 1.72% in October 2026, and Shenma from 3.86% in July 2023 to 0.21%.1
This is a share of one sample, so it doesn’t prove that Baidu lost users. The sample’s device mix moves too, as the next section shows.
Why does Bing lead on desktop but not overall?
Because desktop is at most half of the measured referrals, and usually less. Bing has 46.01% on desktop and 7.20% on mobile, and the all-device figure blends the two.123
Nearly all of Bing’s measured share runs through cn.bing.com: 20.77% out of 21.69%.5
Bing’s desktop lead isn’t new, and it isn’t fixed. In the export from January 2022, Bing first passed Baidu in April 2023. It has led in 32 of the 43 months since.2
Baidu led in the other 11, most recently from November 2025 to February 2026. Bing moved back in front in March 2026, by 35.02% to 34.86%.2
StatCounter doesn’t publish the blend between devices, but you can work it out. Baidu’s three figures imply a desktop weight, and so do Bing’s.
The two results agree to within a point each month, so the arithmetic holds.
| Month | Implied desktop weight (our calculation) | Baidu, all devices 1 |
|---|---|---|
| November 2025 | 36% | 63.97% |
| April 2026 | 50% | 44.64% |
| August 2026 | 39% | 59.10% |
| October 2026 | 37% | 49.00% |
Over the 12 months, that weight ran from 36% to 50%. The calculation ignores tablets, which were 1.35% of all measured traffic in October 2026.15
This isn’t StatCounter’s platform chart, which covers all page views, not just search referrals. There, desktop was 42.78% in October 2026.15
So part of Baidu’s swing appears to come from the sample’s device mix, not from Baidu.
It isn’t the whole story. From November 2025 to October 2026, Baidu also fell within each device: 77.86% to 60.37% on mobile, 39.38% to 29.65% on desktop.23
Which mix is right? We can’t say. In December 2025, CNNIC found that 99.6% of internet users go online by phone, 32.5% by desktop and 31.2% by laptop.6
Those shares overlap, and they describe access, not searching.
More on the desktop gap in our guide to Bing in China.
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Are Yandex and Google really that big in China?
Treat both numbers as unexplained. We found no credible cause for either, so don’t build a plan on them.
- Yandex. It shows 11.77% in October 2026, against 3.16% in January 2024, and 16.24% on mobile.13 The traffic is spread over many hosts, led by yandex.com at 7.39%. Yandex.tm went from 0.06% in September to 2.45% in October.5
- Google. It jumped from 1.45% in September 2026 to 6.83% in October, and from 1.12% to 9.72% on mobile.13 Yet http://www.google.com was blocked in all 10 conclusive GreatFire tests of the last 90 days, the latest on October 24, 2026.9 It has spiked before: 7.38% in March 2023, back to 2.39% by June 2023.1
There’s a precedent for numbers like these not lasting. Here is April 2023 as reported at the time, against the same month in today’s export.
| April 2023, all devices | Reported in May 2023 78 | Export today 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Baidu | 39.64% | 50.47% |
| Yandex | 21.81% | 1.65% |
| Bing | Under 10% | 22.25% |
In May 2023, StatCounter’s CEO was quoted saying the China figures showed an anomaly under investigation.7 The series changed at some point, but we found no published explanation.
What does market share leave out?
It leaves out everything that doesn’t end in a click to a tracked website. These are different measures, so don’t compare user counts with shares.
- The size of the market. CNNIC counted 782.06 million search engine users in December 2025, or 69.5% of internet users, against 877.82 million and 79.2% a year earlier. It’s the lowest year-end count in the report’s 2021 to 2025 chart.6
- AI answers. CNNIC counted 602 million generative AI users in December 2025, and it says smart search products are weighing on traditional search engine users.6 See DeepSeek, Doubao and AI answers.
- Search inside apps. StatCounter’s FAQ doesn’t address it.4 That’s why WeChat search has no row in the table above.
- Engines tied to an app. A low click count may understate them. Shenma is the obvious case, though we have no figure to prove it.
What the numbers support for each engine
They support a rough order, and little more. This table separates what the data shows from what it can’t tell you.
| Engine | What the data supports | What it can’t tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Baidu | First on all devices and on mobile in each of the last 12 months 13 | How many people would find your site |
| Bing | First on desktop since March 2026, weak on mobile 23 | Whether your site appears on cn.bing.com |
 360 Search | Mostly a desktop engine, with a wide 12-month range 12 | Why it swings so far between months |
| Sogou | Around 2%, down from over 5% in early 2024 1 | Use of its search outside tracked sites |
| Shenma | Under 1% on StatCounter 1 | Its real use within apps |
How to use these numbers in your plan
Use them to order your work, not to forecast an audience. A share of referrals can’t be turned into a traffic estimate for your site.
- Pull the latest data. On StatCounter, choose search engines, China and a monthly range, then download the CSV.1
- Skip the newest month. It stays open to revision for 45 days.4
- Average 6 to 12 months. A single month can mislead by more than 10 points.
- Pick the device column. If your buyers research at a desk, look at desktop. StatCounter doesn’t split by B2B or B2C, so this is your judgment call.
- Set Yandex and Google aside. Until there’s an explanation, leave them out of your plan.
- Replace it with your own data. Once your site is live, sort referrals by host, such as baidu.com, m.baidu.com, cn.bing.com, so.com and m.so.com.5
Check first that your analytics works from China, since Google Analytics is unreliable there.
The bottom line
Baidu leads with 49.00% and Bing follows with 21.69%, on StatCounter’s October 2026 data. On desktop, Bing is ahead.
Read those numbers as a noisy sample of clicks. Always quote the month and device, average several months, and trust your own referral data once you have it.
How Index in China can help
We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer, work on getting it indexed on Chinese search engines and send a monthly report on Chinese traffic.
We don’t promise rankings or traffic. See what we do, or book a 30-minute call.
Book a 30-minute callCommon questions
Is there an official Chinese figure for search engine market share?
We didn't find one. CNNIC, China's internet statistics body, reports how many people use search engines, and its latest report gives no split between engines.6 Searches for current figures from Baidu Tongji and 51.la returned nothing usable. That is why StatCounter, a foreign company's sample, ends up behind most of the numbers in circulation.
What is Baidu's share of search worldwide?
It's small. Digital Applied, reading StatCounter data, gives Baidu 0.62% of search referrals worldwide in August 2026, down from 0.76% a year earlier.12 Its weight sits in China, so a global ranking tells you very little if you're targeting buyers there.
Do these figures include Hong Kong and Taiwan?
No. StatCounter reports them separately, and they look nothing like the mainland. In October 2026, Google held 89.59% in Hong Kong and 80.02% in Taiwan, while Baidu had 0.43% in Hong Kong.1314 If those are your markets, your search plan will differ, and your Chinese script may too.
Which row is 360 Search in StatCounter's data?
Haosou. Its figures match the 360 hosts: in October 2026, so.com had 6.05% and m.so.com 2.63%, which adds up to Haosou's 8.67% after rounding.15 If a report shows both names, don't add them together. Our 360 Search guide explains the names.
Sources
- StatCounter: Search engine market share in China, all devices (monthly CSV export, January 2021 to October 2026)
- StatCounter: Desktop search engine market share in China (monthly CSV export, January 2022 to October 2026)
- StatCounter: Mobile search engine market share in China (monthly CSV export, November 2025 to October 2026)
- StatCounter: Global Stats FAQ
- StatCounter: Search engine host market share in China (page and monthly CSV export, September and October 2026)
- CNNIC: 57th Statistical Report on China's Internet Development (Chinese)
- IT Home: report on StatCounter's China figures for April 2023 (Chinese)
- Economic Observer, via The Paper: report on Bing's share in China (Chinese)
- GreatFire: www.google.com test results
- The Egg: Most popular search engines in China, 2026
- Elite Asia: Top 10 Chinese search engines every business needs to know
- Digital Applied: Search engine market share 2026, global data report
- StatCounter: Search engine market share in Hong Kong
- StatCounter: Search engine market share in Taiwan
- StatCounter: Desktop vs mobile vs tablet market share in China