May 19 (Bloomberg) -- As Yahoo! Inc. mulls acquisition offers from Microsoft Corp., Baidu.com Inc., the operator of China's most- used search Web site, has rallied by viewing online gaming ``as a life saver and growth driver,'' Pali Capital Inc. said in a report.

U.S. investors in particular have been ``skeptical'' about growth prospects of online gaming in China, where the Internet fills a void of ``limited'' entertainment options for young people, New York-based analyst Tian X. Hou wrote in a report this month.

``Online gamers comprise approximately 28 percent of Internet users in China, versus 55 percent in South Korea,'' the Pali report said. ``We believe gamer growth will eventually catch up.''

The chart of the day compares shares of Baidu; NHN Corp., South Korea's most-used search engine; Yahoo, which faces a control battle with takeover specialist Carl Icahn after rejecting Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion offer; and Alibaba.com Inc., owner of China's biggest site for business trading.

The chart shows key events and starts Jan. 30, two days before the initial bid by Microsoft for Sunnyvale, California- based Yahoo, which owns 39 percent in Alibaba's parent company.

``In the Internet industry, the value of second-top players is significantly lower than that of the leader, as users incur literally no switching cost,'' Mirae Asset Securities Co. said in a research report about NHN on May 13. ``As such, new Internet users choose the top player's services.''

``Even those Internet companies with differentiated content are questioning their survival while the market leaders expand their earnings,'' the Mirae report said. NHN has more than 70 percent of Korea's search-engine traffic, the report said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lee J. Miller in Bangkok at lmiller@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 18, 2008 22:07 EDT