Google China gets new chief as Liu resigns

Google Inc, the world's No. 1 Internet search engine, has appointed a new China head as the company looks to turn around its fortunes in the country after losing market share to local rivals like Baidu Inc and Qihoo 360.

Liu Yun, who was Google's vice president and China president for almost six years, has stepped down to "pursue other opportunities." He has been replaced by Scott Beaumont, who operated Google's partnerships business in Europe, Google said.

"Beaumont will continue our focus on helping Chinese businesses of all sizes grow locally and globally," it said in a statement yesterday.

Google's share in the Chinese search engine market has dropped dramatically since it decided to stop censoring searches on the mainland and move its servers to Hong Kong in March 2010.

Google held an 8 percent market share in terms of page views in June 2011, trailing far behind Baidu with 81 percent. Its share has fallen 6 percentage points over two years according to last month's data, dropping to the fifth place behind Baidu, Qihoo 360, Sohu's Sogou and Tencent's Soso, according to research firm CNZZ.