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Google China’s about four years old, and to be fair, deserves a bit of recognition for surviving so long under inhospitable conditions.  But it’s still floundering in terms of market share and profitability, and its president, Kai-Fu Lee, now seems ready to switch focus in response.

A recent iResearch report pegged Google China’s market share at 19.8 percent in the second quarter of 2009, down 1.1 percent from the first.  The division isn’t making money, either, even as its biggest competitor, Baidu, is both gaining share and practically printing money.

So Lee told The Daily Telegraph, "We are betting heavily on the mobile market.  In five years we think there will be more mobile searches than desktop searches."

Lee later added, "Market share will depend on the extent to which mobile search takes off . . ."

Lee has been thinking about mobile search since at least October of 2007, so he may have some interesting things lined up.  Or this may be another example of a longstanding effort producing little in the way of results.

Either way, though, it sounds like Google China will be getting very friendly with the Android team.

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