The Chinese language is spoken as a first language by about 1.3 billion people in the world, mostly in China, making it the most commonly spoken language in the world. In fact, the United States alone holds about 2 million Chinese-speaking people. Concerning the Internet, there are over 144 million Chinese speaking Internet users in the world.

When it comes to written Chinese, there are two forms: Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese is the oldest written form, the most complex and is mostly used by Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Simplified Chinese, on the other hand, was created about 40 years ago so that the general public could become literate. It is easier to write, less complex and most commonly used in the People's Republic of China and Singapore. In today’s Internet context, simplified Chinese search engines are targeted to mainland China (& Singapore) while traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and by the vast majority of Chinese expatriates in the US, Canada, Europe etc... When translating your website, it is important to decide which, if not both, form of written Chinese you would like to use depending on which area of China you would like to target.

Considering that China represents around 1.3 billion Chinese-speaking natives, it is obvious that it is a very important market to target. China itself is the manufacturing hub of the world, has a steadily increasing economic growth rate and has created many flexible investment zones, free trade zones, high tech zones, export processing zones, etc. Due to its market size, presence in international business affairs, and growth potential, the Chinese-speaking population is a necessary market for international business.

Chinese search engines directory:
	Traditional Chinese AOL Taiwan aka Asia Online http://www.aol.com.tw/ TC only AsianNet- Taiwan http://www.asiannet.com/ TC only Asiabot CHINA http://search.asiabot.com/ TC only Chinese Yahoo : http://tw.yahoo.com TC/SC both Google in Chinese: http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN TC Gais http://gais.cs.ccu.edu.tw/ TC Google in traditional Chinese: http://www.google.com/intl/zh-tw TC only Hyber-C, ChinaVista http://www.chinavista.com/ TC/SC both Yam: http://www.yam.com TC only MSN Hong Kong http://tw.msn.com/ TC MSN - Taiwan http://search.msn.com.tw TC Timway- HKG http://www.timway.com/ Open Find: http://www.openfind.com/taiwan/ TC only Sina Hong Kong http://search.sina.com.hk/ TC only Zhongsou www.zhongsou.com TC Simplified Chinese AOL China http://chinese.aol.com/ SC only China pages: http://www.chinapages.com/ SC only Chinese Yahoo : http://cn.yahoo.com TC/SC both www.163.com: http://www.163.com/ SC only Beijixing: http://www.beijixing.com.cn/ SC ONLY Hyber-C, ChinaVista http://www.chinavista.com TC/SC both China 139 : http://www.china139.com SC only Baidu http://www.baidu.cn/ China Channel: http://www.china-channel.com SC only SINA: http://www.sina.com/ SC only Sohu: http://www.sohu.com SC only Google http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ TC by default - SC search setting Zhongsou http://www.zhongsou.com/ Sogou: http://www.soghu.com SC only 21CN www.21cn.com If your website is already translated in Chinese click here for Chinese optimization/meta tags and Chinese search engines submission services only - RE-OPTIMIZATION and SUBMISSION SERVICES