Google Goes To The Far EastGoogle Goes To The Far East

China represents a huge market opportunity for companies around the globe, and Google Inc. on Wednesday said it could help businesses get a piece of the action. Its advertising service, AdWords, is now available in two Chinese dialects, letting advertisers create ad campaigns for native-Chinese-speaking Google users around the world--not to mention increasing Google's own revenue.

"There are over a billion people there [in China], and I think that something like 280 million are online. For Google that means that 280 million extra people could be clicking on their site, and it's generating revenue for them," says Chris Winfield, president of 10e20 LLC, an Internet marketing and Web-development company. "It opens them up to a completely new market, a relatively untapped market for online advertising. It's a tremendous step for Google."

AdWords already supports 16 languages and is available in 180 countries, and now ads on Google can appear in both simplified and traditional Chinese dialects. AdWords uses a cost-per-click pricing system, so advertisers only pay for clicked-on ads.

Google's AdWords was launched in early 2002. More than 150,000 advertisers use AdWords, including CareerBuilder, Dow, Expedia, Lloyds TSB Insurance, Renault, and Sears Canada, according to Google.

"One of Google's successes is that they've been able to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing environment," Winfield says. "The fact that they can adapt, that they've been shown to adapt, and basically transform themselves to what their customers are looking for shows that they will be able to succeed in China."