In China, many Internet users are getting their first-ever experience of the Web on mobile devices instead of PCs. This is challenging search engine giant Google (News - Alert) to come up with new services geared toward these mobile users.

 

China represents a significant mobile market opportunity for Google, Reuters said in a Thursday report, but the company may need to go though a few rounds of acquisitions before it has the resources necessary to best serve China’s mobile device users who, in the next few years, will become mobile Internet users as well.

 

The Reuters report quoted Lee Kai-fu, Googl’s president for the greater China region, as saying that mobile users in that country have very different usage patterns than their American counterparts. One important difference is that most such users own a mobile device but no desktop PC.

 

China is the second-largest Internet market after the U.S., Reuters said. The country has 1.3 billion citizens; 500 million people subscribe to mobile communications services and 162 million use the Web.

 

Lee noted in the Reuters report that Google does not shy away from acquisitions if they’re necessary to grow the company, and this is as true for the China market as anywhere else. Recently the company bought stakes in a variety of companies including firms in the multimedia and social networking spaces to further its China strategy.

 

For example, Reuters noted, Google in August acquired a stake in Tianya.cn, a Chinese social networking Web site. Earlier in the year, Google invested in Xunlei Network Technology Co., which offers person-to-person file sharing network and downloading services.

 

Still, despite Google’s efforts, home-grown companies like Sohu.com (News - Alert), Alibaba and Baidu have both an edge both in terms of early market entrance and cultural understanding, Reuters said. For example, Baidu.com still dominates China’s 812 million yuan ($109 million) Web search market, for which it holds a majority share of 61.5 percent as of 3Q07. Google comes in second with 22.5 percent share; Yahoo! China is in third place (10.6 percent), Reuters said.