On a manual basis, 24/7 has managed paid search campaigns on Baidu since 2005 for clients like Chinese online travel service eLong. To streamline bid- and content management, 24/7 has incorporated Baidu's application programming interface (API) into its search marketing technology platform, Decide DNA.

"API connectivity with the big search engines was responsible for the birth of bid-management," explained Ian Leuchars, senior vice president of search engine services for 24/7 Real Media. "It allows you to bid more frequently, change content and move it around more frequently, and implement testing scenarios much more easily."

"This will be very beneficial for advertisers with global search campaigns," Leuchars added.

Earlier this year, WPP Group purchased 24/7 for $649 million. The move doubled the size of the British holding company's search business, and gave it a strong search marketing concentration in Asia, thanks to 24/7's existing relationship with Dentsu, Japan's largest ad agency.

24/7--which also recently opened its first Asian office in Seoul, South Korea, through its joint venture with Dentsu--sees great potential for growth outside the U.S.

"Along with the big three U.S. search engines, we've always included Baidu and Naver, Korea's search engine," said Leuchars.

"We are positioning 24/7 Real Media to be a significant beneficiary of the strong growth that is projected over the upcoming decade for many markets throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim," David Moore, chairman and chief executive officer of 24/7 Real Media, said in a recent earnings report.

Said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Intelligence: "24/7 is taking a bet because most of the search marketing firms are not investing in China at the moment."

The size of the China search engine market reached $153 million in the first half of 2007--increasing 29% year-over-year, according to research firm Analysys International. The China online ad market is projected to reach $1.5 billion by the end of 2010.

China's leading search engine, Baidu presently reaches 62% of China's 162 million Internet users.

According to a Chinese government-sponsored survey, Baidu's market share may be as high as 75%, while Google's has fallen this past year from about 25% to 14%. The China Internet Network Information Center based its findings on phone surveys of more than 3,000 Web users.

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