China search market grows 53% in Q2 - Research

China's search market by revenue grew 53.2% in the second quarter to 2.64 billion yuan ($390 million), data as shown from technology research firm iResearch on Monday.

Baidu's (BIDU.O) market share rose to 70.8% in the second quarter from 67.8% in the first quarter, as the firm ate into Google's market share.

Google, which has faced difficulty in China since threatening in January to refrain from the market on censorship concerns and after a serious hacking episode, saw its market share fall to 27.3% in the second quarter, down from 29.5% in the first.

Before its high-profile spat with Beijing, Google was slowly gaining ground on Baidu. In the fourth quarter of 2009, Google's market share was 32.8% versus Baidu's 64.8%.

Baidu told Reuters earlier this month it saw only marginal gains if China ousted rival Google Inc from the Web search market, and was banking instead on rapid Internet adoption in that country.

Baidu reports its second-quarter results on July 21.