In 2013, Jingdong’s total revenue exceeded RMB69.34 billion ($11.28 billion) and its net profit was RMB6.86 billion ($1.11 billion) with net profit rate of 9.9%. Jingdong ranked top in China Internet enterprises by revenue, followed by Tencent and Alibaba in 2013.

Jingdong.com, one of the most popular online shopping website in China. It had approximately 38,000 merchants on its online marketplace as of June 30, 2014 and a total of 62,061 full-time employees as of July 31, 2014.

Tencent, one of most successful Internet enterprise that featured with gaming products and social applications. Instant Messaging client QQ and mobile app WeChat are the flagship products of Tencent. See more about Tencent: Whitepaper: The Story of Rise of Tencent Empire

Alibaba Group is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2013, according to the IDC GMV Report. See its investment timeline: here.

Here is the list for China Top 100 Internet Enterprises in 2013:

Read more: How Wechat Moments Are Used As Sales Channel in China

Wechat was the most popular mobile app in China in September 2014 with 377.92 million monthly active users, followed by QQ (308.742 million) and Baidu (145.047 million) according to data from EnfoDesk.

The top 3 mobile apps in China remain the same from August. QQ Zone’s active users increased to 110.87 million which had an increase from August while QQ music had a little decrease in MAUs in September.

Top 100 Mobile Apps in China

Download a PDF copy here.
Also read: China Mobile App Distribution Channels Market Share

Check out this infographic to have an overview of Alibaba Group’s investment and acquisitions since 2005 before its IPO.

Key investment and acquisitions of Alibaba and its co-founder Jack Ma, the richest man in China:

• 2005
  • Yahoo paid US$1 billion in cash for 40% stake in Alibaba; it also merged its China-based subsidiaries into Alibaba
• 2006
  • Yipai.com, similar to Taobao, was merged into Alibaba Taobao. Yipai had 7.29% market share in Q3 2005.
  • Alibaba acquired Koubei.com, one of China’s largest online classified listing companies, which was founded by an ex-Alibaba employee
• 2009
  • Alibaba paid RMB 540 million to acquire Net.cn, a leading basic Internet services provider (web hosting, domain names, etc.)
• 2010
  • Alibaba invested in Shanghai Baozun, an e-commerce outsourcing service provider
  • Alibaba purchased shares of private courier company – Xing Chen Ji Bian
  • Alibaba acquired U.S. E-Commerce software firm Vendio
  • Alibaba invested $35 million to Emapgo (EMG; develops digital navigation maps) to become its biggest shareholder.
  • Alibaba acquired Auctiva, a company that develops eBay auction management software
• 2011
  • Alibaba joined in Meituan’s (a group-buying website) US$50M Series B financing
• 2012
  • Alibaba invested in DDMap, a lifestyle e-commerce service provider
• 2013
  • Alibaba, Tencent and Ping An Insurance co-founded Zhong An Online Property Insurance Co. which was expected to be China’s first property insurance company selling all products online.
  • Alibaba acquired a leading music service company Xiami, founded by a former Alibaba employee
  • Alibaba invested in Taxi booking service provider Kuaidi
  • Alibaba bought a stake of about 18% in Sina Weibo for $586 million
  • Alibaba acquired mobile analytics provider Umeng for $80 million
  • Alibaba invested in travel experience sharing app Zailushang (117go.com)
  • Alibaba invested $294 million and took a 28% stake in digital mapping company AutoNavi Holdings Ltd; it bought AutoNavi in Feb 2014 in a deal that values the Chinese company at $1.5 billion
  • With registered capital of 5 billion yuan, Alibaba set up Cainiao Network in Shenzhen with its partners to build their own logistics network to cover entire China.
  • Alibaba invested in travel website Qyer.com
  • Alibaba invested RMB 3.1 billion in UCWeb in March 2013 and fully bought out UCWeb in Jun 2014, who is the maker of one of China’s most popular web browsers.
  • Bought a minority stake in online shopping company ShopRunner
  • Alibaba acquired Kanbox, the personal cloud storage service
  • Invested $50 million in app search engine Quixey
  • Alibaba’s Alipay took control of Tianhong Asset Management Co with 1.18 billion yuan investment for 51% stake.
  • Alibaba invested HK$2.82 billion in Haier, including HK$1.86 billion to form a new joint venture with Haier’s wholly owned logistics unit Goodaymart
• 2014
  • Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm founded by Jack Ma, bought pharmaceutical data provider CITIC 21 CN for $170 million
  • Alibaba invested $15 million in 1stdibs, the fast-growing luxury e-commerce site
  • Invested in TutorGroup, a leading online education platform
  • Alibaba announced it would invest about $692 million in Intime Retail Group Co., owner of department stores and supermarkets
  • Invested in Baicheng.com, a travel website focusing on outbound trips
  • Invested $215 million for a minority stake in the messaging and free-calling app Tango
  • Hundsun, a well known supplier of financial software and network services, was acquired by Zhejiang Rongxin owned by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma with 3.299 billion yuan (USD 534.38M)
  • Jack Ma and other partners agreed to pay 6.54 bln yuan ($1.05 bln) for a 20% stake in China’s Wasu Media Holding. Alibaba and Wasu would cooperate for online content and Internet TV
  • Alibaba (16.5% stake), Yunfeng (2%) agree to buy $1.22 billion stake in Youku Tudou
  • Alibaba announced to invest SGD 313 million in Singapore Post for 10.35% stake
  • Alibaba agreed to take a 50% stake in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club

Download a high resolution PDF version of this infographic here.

Related: INFOGRAPHIC Alibaba V.S. JD.com by Numbers

AutoNavi is almost sure to become food on Alibaba’s plate. According to latest news, the two companies has already nailed an acquisition agreement, meaning that Alibaba will acquire the remaining 72% of AutoNavi’s stake, with an evaluation of around $1.5 billion, up more than 40% from last May when Alibaba first bought AutoNavi’s shares. At the moment, AutoNavi’s board of directors has already approved the transaction, which is to be completed in the third quarter this year.

Alibaba became AutoNavi’s largest shareholder last May when it bought 28% of AutoNavi’s stake with $294 million. By February this year, Alibaba had decided to take over AutoNavi, making the digital map and navigation service provider one of the subsidiaries of the e-commerce giant family.

In the 10 months following Alibaba’s first move to procure AutoNavi, the two companies had put in considerable efforts to fit in, especially on “double 11” last year, when AutoNavi made its official debut within Alibaba Group on the occasion of Alibaba’s first trial in O2O business with Yintai department store. Since the openning of 2014, Alibaba and other Chinese internet giants are becoming increasingly ambitious in O2O business. AutoNavi announced its integration with one of Alibaba’s affiliates, Taodiandian, introducing location-based food ordering service for the first time.

Following Alibaba’s announcement of its acquisition plan on 10 February in 2014, AutoNavi’s CEO Cheng Congwu remarked at the company’s quarterly financial report analysis conference in February, that AutoNavi had become Alibaba group’s vanguard in O2O business, closely cooperating with entities under Alibaba Group such as Ali Cloud, Taodiandian and Alimama. The lastest version of AutoNavi’s map app features an integration with Alipay, allowing users to pay taxi fares through Alipay while enjoying a discount from Kuaidi Taxi, a popular Alibaba-backed taxi hailing app.

Statistics show that by the end of last year, AutoNavi’s map/navigation app had achieved a total installation of 300 million. Users can enjoy some 500,000 group purchases, buy coupons, booking rooms in 100,000 hotels, reserving tables at 200,000 restaurants, buying film tickets in over 400 cinemas, checking out apartments for rent or sale in over 35,000 residential quarters or buildings, as well as looking for cleaning service or designated driving service.

Map data is of vital importance in this age of moblie technology. Whoever obtains map data will have a greater hold over the market, and a more solid foundation in O2O business. While AutoNavi is falling into Alibaba’s pocket, its major competitor in the field, Navinfo, is going through a trade suspension at the A-share market. The two companies together account for over 90% of market share in the business of pre-installed onboard navigation system for cars.

Navinfo is now trying to introduce strategic investors. Speculation among insiders has it that the company is very probably being contended by two other internet giants, Baidu and Tencent. In its invitation for bids, Navinfo provided that the bidder should have a registered capital of no less than 1 billion yuan (USD 161.76 million), a net asset of no less than 1.5 billion yuan (USD 242.63 million) and most specifically, a direct or indirect possession of internet resources that can serve as a solid support for the company’s current operations.

Navinfo has worked closely together with Baidu, providing significant parts of Baidu Map’s base data. Meanwhile, A new figure has just appeared among Navinfo’s independent directors – Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Sogou, a search engine company which merged with Tencent’s Soso last year. Navinfo is also going to establish connected transactions on a regular basis with companies such as Sogou, with estimated value no more than 110 million yuan (USD 17.79 million).

The war on map data launched by Alibaba’s acquisition of AutoNavi has just begun and is sure to escalate once Navinfo brings in new investors.

Baidu recently released its Q4 financial report, which showed its thriving mobile market development. Baidu mobile search was growing steadily, it’s very unlikely that mobile search would threaten web search. Therefore, Baidu’s search concentrated business model would be sustainable. But Baidu’s solely profit pattern remained unsolved.

Baidu used to rely heavily on web search, which arouse much worries about whether Baidu could seize a large part of mobile search market share. The rising importance of mobile search was attributed to the popularity of smartphone. Baidu has made breakthroughs on several bottlenecks, which are:

1. Regain Search Users on Mobile: Because of the huge difference between mobile and web entrances, Baidu’s mass web search user base was of little use to mobile search. Now Baidu has successfully regained mobile search users, search volume in mobile end accounted for 35% to 40%. It is expected to surpass web search in the second half of 2014.
2. Mobile Customized Websites: We found that most of big websites have made adjustments for mobile devices, though it still cannot compare with PC , the browsing experience has been improved evidently.
3. Advertisers’ Willingness on Mobile Search Ads: With an increasing number of Baidu mobile search users, it will not remain as a big problem. Mobile search CPC is much lower than web search, and this is mainly because mobile search is more about local life service and business related search is mostly done in PC end.

In the past 2013, Baidu purchased 91 Wireless and PPS to grow its mobile market.

Baidu’s mobile platform revitalized its mobile search. The chart below showed Baidu’s apps downloads, most of them reached 10 million times.

The cutting-edge mobile platform could bring mobile search volume, for example, Baidu Android App Store made users more likely to install its games, music, and SNS apps because of the search convenience. More importantly, mobile users formed the habit of opening baidu.com to search information.

Baidu mobile assistant app had over 400 million registered users, increasing 70 million compared to Q3 2013. The estimated active users were between 150 to 160 million. Baidu revealed that it accounted for 41% of mobile android app distribution market share in Q4 2013. Unlike developed countries, iOS accounted for quite a small percentage in China.

Mobile Search

Baidu also improved its revenue structure, in Q1 2013, revenue generated from mobile search accounted for 10%. By Q4 2013, the percentage was increased to 20%. It was a big achievement for Baidu in mobile search field. When most people worried about the business prospect of mobile search in 2012, the percentage was merely 3%.

Goldman Sachs also expected mobile search remained high level growth rate while web search slowed down.

Baidu mobile search accounted for 57% share, lower than its web search market share. Still, it’s satisfying considered the complex mobile market competition.

Encroached by Qihu 360, Baidu web search market share was shrinking and yet it remained above 60%. But Qihu 360 faced great difficulty in making profit, Baidu could still benefit from the growing general search volume.

Changes in  2014

Baidu has made some changes in the attempt to gain real users: Baidu Tieba requires users to login when they browse some specific topics; and Baidu prepares to enter O2O payment part.

In 2014, Baidu will focus on four parts:

1. mobile search and cloud service
2. LBS service (Baidu map and groupbuy)
3. Consumer service (game, music and social network)
4. Probable overseas expansion

It is expected that Baidu would lay emphasis on fighting for mobile search entrance, that is, promoting its own apps. Baidu’s management revealed Baidu would spend a large quantity of money in purchasing, the expense would probably increase by USD 700 million. Because of huge investment, Baidu’s net profit will not grow in 2014 which is quite rare in IT industry.

Besides, the increasing traffic acquisition cost and copyright cost (iQiyi) would also lower its net profit. It’s estimated that Baidu’s net profit would begin growing fast next year.

In regards of departments, search accounted for 90% of net profit. Other products, such as 91 Wireless, Nuomi and Qunar did not bring much profit and could hardly maintain balance. But they increased the use of search indirectly, therefore, they were indispensable to Baidu. Although the growth rate of subsidiaries was not slow, it’s difficult for them to make profits. As users increased, the revenue grew as well as cost.

Potentials of O2O

In short term, O2O and LBS could not realize their business value mainly because of their scales were not large enough. For each local community, online users accounted for a small percentage. The shops would not perceive O2O as a big market, as a consequence, they were not passionate about entering the market. In return, online users had trouble finding suitable shops in O2O and could barely meet their needs. To break the dead cycle, it could only begin with increasing online users. If O2O attracts more users in the next few years and improves local merchants’ enthusiasm, its operating profit rate might reach 30%.

Except for gaining revenue from shops, Baidu could also display location-based advertising to users which would bring high conversion rate. It might also take years to achieve certain effects.

Nuomi needed to work harder to compete in groupbuy market:

Baidu map had dominant advantage in LBS market:

Chinese users had great search demand in restaurant, bank, entertainment and hotel, Baidu could easily cooperate with restaurants, entertainment enterprises and hotels to generate profits.

Compared With Google

Apparently, Baidu is not so innovative as Google. But Baidu has good business sense, and a growing potential market.

Comparison of Chinese internet enterprises valuation:

In 2013, competition between Chinese brands were extremely fierce. Some brands provoked the war, some were forced to confront. As for old enemies like Wang Lao Ji and Jia Duo Bao, they already got used to combating with each other. Social media rose to be important battle fields in recent years.

NO.1 Jia Duo Bao VS Wang Lao Ji

Wang Lao Ji is a Chinese herbal tea drink, its brand is owned by Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The brand was leased to Jia Duo Bao Beverage Co., Ltd. in 1997. The lease would expire in Dec 31 2011. Jia Duo Bao Beverage managed the operation of Wang Lao Ji, after 2002, its successful marketing strategy made Wang Lao Ji the top beverage brand in China. In 2011, the total revenue of Wang Lao Ji hit 16 billion yuan (USD 2.62 billion). The brand value of Wang Lao Ji was worth 108 billion yuan (USD 17.69 billion).

Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical sued Jia Duo Bao Beverage for bribery to extend brand lease contract to 2020, and the court annulled the brand lease contract. This became the beginning of war between Jia Duo Bao and Wang Lao Ji. Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical wanted to expand Wang Lao Ji brand to a variety of health related products, such as medicinal liquor, cosmeceuticals and healthcare products, which Jia Duo Bao Beverage disagreed because it would dilute the brand value of Wang Lao Ji drink. In the end of 2011, Jia Duo Bao Beverage began eliminating Wang Lao Ji. First, they wiped out “Wang Lao Ji” in advertisement, added “Jia Duo Bao produce”. Second, they added brand name “Jia Duo Bao” on the other side of the can.

In 2013, the lawsuit between Jia Duo Bao Beverage and Guangzhou Wanglaoji Pharmaceutical continued. A ban forbade Jia Duo Bao to use any advertisement that involved “Wang Lao Ji changed its brand name to Jia Duo Bao” or one that had the same meaning. Later, Jia Duo Bao posted on Weibo crying about their incompetence of winning the lawsuit which gained public compassion. Their apologize phraseology on Weibo became a meme in 2013, many brands imitated Jia Duo Bao’s marketing strategy. In December, by Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court first instance verdict, Jia Duo Bao Beverage lost the case and was forced to compensate 10.8 million yuan (USD 1.77 million). Jia Duo Bao Beverage would appeal to a higher court.

No.2 Wahaha VS Qiulin

Other than Chinese herbal tea and cola, Gewasi drink (Kbac Drink) joined the war of beverage in 2013. At the beginning of this year, Wahaha Gewasi spent a lot of money on the advertisement in popular TV programs such as “I am a singer” , “JSTV You are the one” etc.  Hence, the brand awareness soared stunningly. In June, the traditional brand Harbin Qiulin Gewasi could not stand it anymore, and posted a series of posters on Weibo, criticizing that Wahaha copycatted their traditional century brand Gewasi. Qiulin challenged the Wahaha Gewasi from the manufacturing process to the raw material. This movement gained plenty of support from Harbin fans.

Qinghou Zong, the CEO of Wahaha made a quick response to this event and claimed that “Gewasi can be produced by anyone, but to gain the consumer acceptance is crucial”.

No.3  NongFu Spring VS Huarun Yibao

The next war is also about beverage. Nongfu Spring was entangled in a reputation crisis. In April, the Beijing Times reported that the water quality of Nongfu Spring packed water was questioned and it’s acknowledged to be even worse than tap water.

About this series of constant negative reports, Nongfu Spring attributed the blame to Huarun Yibao’s intentional attack and posted on Weibo , saying” we had reason to believe the plotter of this incident is Huarun Yibao.” One of the reasons was that on March 22th which is Water Day, Huarun Yibao sent out the flyers about national water pollution from 2008 to 2012 with an eye-catching headline “Do you dare to drink the water carried from nature?”   It’s obviously that Huarun Yibao pointed to Nongfu Spring. In the same month, “the plotter” Huarun Yibao announced to sue Nongfu Spring for the reputation damage.

In the second half of the year, the battle between Nongfu and Yibao seemed to lead nowhere. But following the battle, a piece of news reported that Nongfu Spring was going to sue the Beijing Times for their false reports, claiming for 200 million yuan (USD 32.8 million) compensation.

N0.4 China Mobile VS China Unicom VS China Telecom

On December 18^th, China Mobile officially introduced a new master brand “he”, which means “and”, to signal the launch of its 4G network. For 4G network, China Telecom and China Unicom will continuously use the brand “Tianyi” and “Wo” which were created in the 3G networking. A netizen jokingly summarized the brands of three main operators as “Tianyi And Wo”.

To seize the 4G networking opportunity, these three operators rolled out overwhelming campaigns. In December, China Telecom’s slogan “The faster the better. A wonderful life is approaching” appeared in land mark locations in main cities. China Unicom’s slogan was “In the 4G era, the fantasy is still in Wo”. And China Mobile who strived even harder as it lost  lots of users in 3G era, put emphasis on “taking the lead”. It’s inevitable for the fight to be fierce between operators, since a big reshuffle is coming along with the 4G era.

No.5 Baidu Maps VS Autonavi

On August 28^th 2013, the Baidu map announced that Baidu Navigation would be free. Baidu Navigation is a smartphone app and used to cost 30 yuan($5) in the app store. On the evening of that day, Autonavi also declared the free charge of all the products and announced the coming of product press conference in the next day. On the 29^th, Baidu map dropped another bomb and made a statement that Baidu Company would refund all the previous buyers.

At the press conference held in the afternoon of 29^th, a top executive responded to this action and criticized the Baidu Company that the company was an internet company whose navigation service was not professional enough to charge. Baidu should not only refund the buyers but also pay the loss to its users. The rivals began to criticize each other on the free-charge topics. Baidu Navigation official weibo published a series of posters which began with “We are sorry” and @ Autonavi at the same time. These three messages are” We are sorry. we just want our products to be user-friendly” , ”We are sorry. We are just an Internet company” and “We are sorry. We are not professional enough yet.”

Autonavi posted a Weibo saying “No need to say sorry to me. Apologize to the users who were navigated to the sewer. ”and “No need to say sorry to me. Try harder to sell the fake medicine to make more money for your buyers’ refund”

The battle became a sensation on Weibo and attracted throngs of media to cover the story. No matter how fierce the battle was, it’s always beneficial for the users and the vast masses only memorized the “free “service.

No.6 Jing Dong and T mall

In 2012, Taobao Mall changed its name to Tmall (Tian Mao) which has phonetic similarity between its English and Chinese names. At the same time, a cat was designed as its mascot because of the name– Mao, which is cat in Chinese. One year later, Jingdong(also known as JD) suddenly changed its logo and designed a dog named Joy as its mascot. A war between a cat and a dog was triggered in the online shopping fest Double Eleven, November 11^th.

Before the coming of November 11^th , Jingdong launched a series of posters to promote their fast speed package delivery. Since Jingdong stocked its own items, their warehouse-to-doorstep delivery service was ensured timely and efficiently—in contrast to Tmall’s relatively slower transportation. As Tmall’s merchants relied on third-party mailing company. In the last poster, a picture of “Horse Stepping on Flying Swallow” was read as a satire aiming at Jack Ma( the CEO of Taobao) whose family name means horse in Chinese. In this battle, Tmall competed on price and put on the slogan “all 50% off”.

These two companies competed not only on different strategies and slogans, but also on advertisement. On CCTV, Jingdong’s advertisement always followed Tmall’s advertisement. In the cinema they showed up alternatively. Even in the subway, their advertisements were facing opposite with each other.

No.7 Voice of China VS Supper Boys

This summer, the fierce war in the TV circle was on the verge of explosion. Among the battles the most exciting one was the competition between the “Supper Boys” on Hunan Satellite TV and the second season of the” Voice of China” on Zhejiang Satellite TV. Since these two programs had the same broadcasting time, they two strived at the same time on the television ratings, website attraction and users opinions.

After the programs finished the broadcasting, both of them acknowledge having the first rating nationwide. When the media of www.qq.com  reported that “Super Boys” won a landslide victory over “Voice of China”, www.sohu.com reported the other way around by using the exact same headline but changing the ranking. Both of the two programs declared to have more online viewings than the other. Anyway due to the difference of the statistical analysis methods, it’s hard to tell which the winner was.

The war of words not only appeared on the screen but also behind the screen.  The program “Voice of China” claimed that its singers are more competent even ten times at singing skill than the singers from Super Boys. To fight back, “Super Boys” questioned the Voice of China and asked them if they dared to do the live broadcast. The most dramatic plot was the performance of the song “chasing after the dream”by Zhang Hengyuan, the singer from “Voice of China”. What is ironic is that the song is the theme song of 2013 “Super Boys”.

NO.8 Yixun VS Wechat

In 2013, it was witnessed that micropayment grows rapidly. E-commerce company Yixun.com owed by Tencent began to take on the business of Wechat payment. In the meantime, Alibaba endeavored to promote the taobao mobile shopping app. The two rivals was having a trial of strength in the dark

In August, Taobao l blocked the QR code image which led to the external links. This action definitely prevented the visit to Wechat. In November, Laiwang, a social networking app owed by Alibaba, carried out a promotional campaign on Double Eleven (November 11th). The sharing link was blocked by Wechat. Taobao fought back afterwards. When the taobao users clicked the links shared via Wechat, a download page of Taobao mobile app appeared. Acknowledged by Taobao, this conduct was designed for security concerns.

At the end of this year Taobao spent 36 million yuan to buy all arrangement of double color (a kind of welfare lottery) as gifts to all Taobao users. During the same time, Wechat also cooperated with Haidilao(a popular hot pot restaurant famous for their considerate service) about the micropayment. From the sparkling battle, it showed that these two foes exerted themselves to the utmost to seize the market opportunity.

No.9  Baidu VS 360

It’s quite a busy year for Qihoo 36O.  On one hand, Qihoo was fighting a battle with Sogou browser, on the other hand Qihoo created another battle with Baidu search engine. The story began in November. 36o Company developed a new function of double clicks of Ctrl and then posted the slogan” Double clicks of Ctrl, to know faster” on their official Weibo and @Baidu. After two days, Baidu responded with the edited poster originally made by 360 Company. On the edited poster, it’s written “The winner will be working on the product,whereas the loser can only bully others  “

After seeing the edited poster, 360 pursued and attacked with the poster written “How dare someone to declare originality when he will even plagiarize the poster” Two hours passed by, Baidu promptly launched a hand-writing poster and a set of posters to criticize back the plagiary of 360 products.  In the next day, 36O launched the fourth set of posters with only characters to satirize the originality of Baidu products. In these short four days, the opponents fought 3 rounds back and forth with around 30 posters at an astonished speed.

No.10 Yixin VS Wanglai VS Wechat

Yixin, a free social networking app launched by China Telecom and the internet company NetEase in 2013 August, had currently become a competitive rival against Wechat, Weixin in Chinese. Alibaba joined this intense competition afterwards in September, and developed an app named Laiwang.

In this fierce battle, Yixin placed lots of advertisement in Weibo and subway with ironic words, attacking the number limit of group chat, the service of charging expression and the abusive articles of chick soup for souls. Immediately after the incident, Laiwang, criticized that Wechat intentionally blocked the linking from the friend circle shared in Laiwang, and launched a series of print ads attacking the monopoly behaviors conducted by Wechat, appealing to the Wechat users to literally “open the social circle and dismantle the wall”. Wechat responded with a counterattack and informed the opponent not to play tricks and hype up the crowd. They claimed that the truly good products was made not hyped.

It seemed that Laiwang and Yixin still had long way to go in the competition with WeChat which launched earlier and seized the main market at the early stage with more than 300 million users. As to the vast majority of users, the competition was obviously good for them since they could enjoy better service from the competition.

This is the part 3 of a series of posts that gives you insights on China LBS travel market users behaviors. Part 1, Part 2.

Travelers who used mobile map apps showed a relatively high demand for POI information. 69.8% of them demanded for detailed shops information in the neighbourhood, 53.5% asked for shops coupons nearby. 69.8% consumers searched restaurants on mobile map app, 58.1% searched for tourist site.

Mobile map app began to enter catering industry, and Dianping still had advantage in catering industry with 58.7%. Baidu map ranked the second with 41.3%, followed by Autonavi with 26.1%.

Consumers would gain comment, coupons, group buy information on mobile food apps.

Vertical mobile app for searching hotels in travel had great advantages, except for Baidu map, which ranked top with 48.9% gained wide recognition for its one-stop services. Ctrip ranked the second with 37.8%, and Qunar hotel ranked the third with 28.9%.

In tickets booking market, vertical apps won the hearts of consumers, 63.6% consumers used Qunar to book air tickets, train tickets and tourist sites tickets. Ctrip ranked the second with 54.5%. Tickets booking mobile app still needed to expand their market, about 10% users barely used these apps.

Mobile taxi apps were just in the beginning stage, consumer using habits still needed to cultivate. 70% consumers barely used taxi apps. In the future, with the growing of DIY tour, the demands for taxi mobile apps would grow.

This is the part 2 of a series of posts that gives you insights on China LBS travel market users behaviors. Part 1, Part 3.

With the basic understanding of consumer demographics features, now we take a further look at social sharing apps’ usage in travel. Sina Weibo and Wechat ranked the first and second in social sharing networks in travel. Demands for LBS information were large. 91.7% of consumers said they had used Sina Weibo to share their information, while 72.9% used Wechat.

71.4% consumers would choose comprehensive travel app, and only 28.4% would choose multiple travel app in professional areas.

Picture was the top sharing content of travelers, with 85.1%. Status about their feelings ranked the second with 68.1%. Location information came to the third with 46.8%.

In travel, most used mobile app was Baidu map, with 39.6%. Followed by Autonavi with 18.8%. According to Enfodesk, in the future, the competition in mobile map app would remain in the big companies. If small companies want to remain their market share, they need to differentiate their products. Mobile map app began to transition from tool app to a platform app to offer one-stop services.

There was a growing need of one-stop services demands for mobile map apps.

Enfodesk released its report on China LBS market, by the end of 2013 Q2, China mobile navigation apps accounts reached 120 million, with a QoQ increase of 8.5% and a YoY increase of 43.6%.

Autonavi, Careland and Mapbar were the top three navigation apps in 2013 Q2.

By the end of June 2013, China telecommunication companies’ mobile navigation apps accumulated accounts reached 41.55 million, with a QoQ increase of 13.1% and a YoY increase of 108.9%.

In 2013 Q2, China telecommunication companies’ mobile navigation apps paid accounts reached 5.8 million, with a QoQ increase of 14.4%. Paid accounts occupied 14% of total navigation app users.

In 2013 Q2, both China Telecom’s enavi app accumulated accounts and paid accounts grew quite a lot.

In 2013 Q2, China pre-installed car navigation market revenue was 190 million yuan (USD 31 million), with a QoQ increase of 18.8% and a YoY drop of 29.6%.

Autonavi and NavInfo occupied China pre-installed car navigation market with 55.1% and 42.8% share.

China portable car navigation sales reached 1.68 million in Q2 2013, 1.3% more than last quarter.

Careland topped with 69.9% in China pre-installed car navigation in Q2 2013, followed by Rtnavimap with 14.7%. NaviInfo ranked the third with 7.1% share.

According to EnfoDesk, Onstar ranked the top in China pre-installed car navigation vehicle networking, with 48.3% market share. G-book and Inkanet ranked the second and third.

According to iResearch, in the first half of 2013, China mobile app developers kept losing money and the percentage of net loss developers increased significantly. Besides, most app users’ number could not reach a million.

The research showed that more than 60% mobile app developers suffered net loss in the first half of 2013. 35.6% developers even faced with severe net loss. In 2012, the percentage of severe loss was 9.1%.

16.8% developers had made profits, the percentage in 2012 was 22.3%. One reason for the decrease was that a lot of new developers entered the market in the beginning of 2013.

The major business model of Chinese mobile app developers were paid download, free download with pre-installed ads, free download with value-added service. Most developers chose free download with pre-installed ads. In general, paid download and free download with pre-installed ads were not so optimistic, some paid app even offered free download such as Autonavi.

In terms of the number of users, Chinese mobile app developers were facing severe challenges. 96% apps users were under 500,000, and about 0.6% apps had over 1 million users.

Baidu announced on August 28, 2013 that Baidu Mobile Navigation would be free hereafter. Merely four hours later, AutoNavi, a leading map and navigation Chinese company, responded with free navigation service promptly. The war over mobile navigation market accelerated immediately.

Free is a sharp weapon to break original market structure and win market dominance. Baidu free navigation service would not only bring down B2C navigation enterprises, but also shake professional navigation market. It will affect vehicle networking in the long run.

Baidu Expands Navigation Market, AutoNavi Defends Passively

Baidu has been progressive and made a few moves on expanding mobile market in the recent, including buying 91 wireless. Baidu equals with AutoNavi in mobile map market, but AutoNavi has dominance in navigation market. Baidu just launched Baidu Navigation last year. Free navigation would infect AutoNavi in a degree, it will lose a lot of income from Navigation service. Baidu’s sacrifice is relatively small, and it can win market share fast in the short term.

Professional Navigation Might be Harmed

Navigation is a professional software which is sold together with auto navigation hardware. Due to high development cost, its business model mainly is B2B. AutoNavi was the first to offer mobile navigation app. But AutoNavi remained the service fee charging business model. This time, Baidu and AutoNavi free navigation will end the major business model of navigation manufacturers.

For professional manufacturers, if they don’t offer free apps on Android and iOS, they will suffer the loss of users. They could no longer make money from selling software. B2B market will also be affected.

Free Navigation Means the Change from Tool App to Entrance and Vehicle Networking

As a tool app, software service fee is a reasonable business model. As a free navigation service, it must make money in  a different way. Baidu and AutoNavi both announced free navigation service showed navigation might become the entrance to vehicle networking. For navigation manufacturers, they are going to face several changes:

1. Navigation companies have to rely on big company due to less and less income from navigation service.
2. Big companies would add other apps into navigation. Nuomi, a group buy website purchased by Baidu, and LBS are the advantages of Baidu. AutoNavi is supported by Alibaba. Navigation competition might turn into an open platform competition.
3. Baidu and AutoNavi will compete with vehicle networking companies.