Alternative ways to search the Web in China

When you come to Shenzhen, China you find that you don’t have access to the normal Internet tools and that the internet is turned upside down. In China, there is the Web and there is WeChat and you may need to search both channels. These channels are quite separate however there are ways to search both read on below to learn how to search in China.

This article will give you tips for searching on…

• WeChat App
• Sogou Web Search Engine
• Baidu Web Search Engine

How to search WeChat in China on WeChat App

WeChat can search within the app and you can search both WeChat content and WeChat accounts.

Tap the WeChat Discover Tab and then tap the search option.

In search you can type in your search term in the box or select the type of content you want to search.

After searching you get customized content based on whom you follow and you can sort and filter by various types of content.

An advantage of using the WeChat in App search is that you can also search your own moments and the content is customized based on what accounts you follow. There are also some useful filters you can apply along with the interface being in Chinese.

Sogou Web Search

As mentioned above Sogou allows you to search WeChat content and WeChat Accounts. It is also a search engine for the web.

If you are on your desktop and want to search from your browser that offers other kinds of flexible search you can use Sogou.

Sogou seems to be the most English friendly Chinese search engine. They have a special English version at english.sogou.com. If you are on the main Sogou website you can also click on the Chinese characters “英文” for English.

You can see that when we search for “Shenzhen” this site appears on the first page of the English results.

Search Sogou web for English Content

Since Sogou is aligned with Tencent this search engine allows you to search WeChat content and also accounts on the web as well.

Search for WeChat Shenzhen Related Accounts

Search WeChat content for Shenzhen related articles

Baidu

Baidu is the most famous search engine for expats in China and started as a close copy of Google. As the Chinese internet has moved onto WeChat and since Baidu is not aligned with Tencent it is missing some of the features.

Search for Shenzhen on Baidu

Summary

When you are in China and need to find something you have to get creative and learn the tools of the locals. General search on WeChat and web are essential for day to day functioning in a digital society.

Contact us if you want help ranking your content in these search engines.

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