Doing business in China can be very different from doing business in the rest of the world, as Google has found, and every other company would do well to note.

The search-engine advertising leader may dominate the market elsewhere around the world, but research firm Analysys International found that Google lagged far behind its main rivals in China in a study of first-quarter 2006 performance results.

In terms of revenue, Baidu.com is China's leading search engine, with 43.9% of the market share, according to the Analysys report.

Yahoo China, which is operated by Alibaba.com, had the second largest share at 21.1% (Yahoo Inc. holds a 40% stake in Alibaba).

Google came in third with a 13.2% share of the market. Sohu.com's search engine was ranked fourth, with 9.2% of the market share.

Overall, China's search engine market was worth RMB303 million (or US$37.7 million) as at end-March 2006, said Analysys. Market leader Baidu's first quarter results show its advertising revenue at RMB132 million.