Google’s share of the paid search market in China fell a little more than 13% in the first quarter of 2010, marking Google’s first drop in that category since Q2 of 2009.
The stats come from the Beijing-based research company Analysys International and are being reported today by Bloomberg.
Google’s share of China’s paid search market fell from 35.6% in the last quarter of 2009, to 30.9% in Q1 of this year. Analysts blame Google’s decline on the company’s censorship battle with the Chinese government, which led Google to stop censoring its search results one month ago. That move was essentially Google deciding to get out of the Chinese search market.