Baidu.com, China’s leading search engine, is maintaining a commanding lead over its closest competitor, Google China.  According to first quarter figures, Baidu captured 57 percent of the search market in China, with Google capturing 18.7 percent.

According to Business Week,a key advantage that Baidu maintains over Google China is the ability for users to search for MP3 files.  Baidu provides “”deep search” services that allow listeners to download free MP3s from the databases of other sites without ever having to go to those sites themselves.”

Eric Zhu is just the sort of customer that Western music labels want to reach in China. The 28-year-old Beijing resident is a sales director for a local company and enjoys listening to Western pop, from the Backstreet Boys to the Spice Girls, on his MP3 player. Zhu doesn’t pay for his tunes, though. Like millions of other young Chinese, he downloads them for free using Baidu.com, the country’s biggest search engine. Baidu makes it so easy—just hit the MP3 tab on the home page, type in the name of the song, and click.

According to figures complied by Havocscope, an estimated 20 percent of searches on Baidu .com is for unlicensed MP3s.

For more on the Counterfeit and Piracy market in China, please visit our China Counterfeit Market page.