Baidu

Posted on December 15, 2008

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Baidu is the leading Chinese search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia (Baidu Baike), and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum. As of 21 March 2008, Baidu is ranked 19th overall in Alexa’s internet rankings. In December 2007 Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index.

Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files. The domain baidu.com attracted at least 5.5 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com scentury.

Many people have asked about the meaning of our name. ‘Baidu’ was inspired by a poem written more than 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty. The poem compared the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one’s dream while confronted by life’s many obstacles. ‘…hundreds and thousands of times, for her I searched in chaos, suddenly, I turned by chance, to where the lights were waning, and there she stood.’ Baidu, whose literal meaning is hundreds of times, represents persistent search for the ideal.

Services

Baidu started with a popular music search feature called “MP3 Search” and its comprehensive lists of popular Chinese music based on download numbers. Baidu locates file formats such as MP3, WMA and SWF. The multimedia search feature is mainly used in searches for Chinese pop music. While such works are copyrighted under Chinese law, Baidu claims on its legalese page that linking to these files does not break Chinese law.

Chinese government and industry sources stated that Baidu received a license from Beijing, which allows the search engine to become a fully-fledged news website. Thus Baidu will be able to provide its own reports, besides showing certain results as a search engine. The company is already getting its news department ready. Baidu is the first Chinese search engine to receive such a license.

Baidu has started its own search engine in Japan found at www.baidu.jp; it is the first regular service that the company provides outside of China. It includes a search bar for web page and image searches, user help and advanced services.

Baidu’s MP3 Search feature has been criticized by the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s Special 301 report stating that “Baidu as the largest of an estimated seven or more China-based ‘MP3 search engines’ offering deep links to song files for downloads or streaming.”

Baidu’s brand advertising feature can help the advertisers to show a branded message including images to largely increase brand awareness and click-through rate (up to 75%).

Censorship

In compliance with the Internet censorship policies of China, the Chinese language version of Baidu filters material from its search results as prescribed by the government.

Advertising scandal

On 15 and 16 November 2008, the state-owned China Central Television exposed during the popular lunchtime 30-minute news that Baidu used fraudulent high-cost-per-click advertisements as its search results; many smaller websites were blocked by Baidu as a result of not opting-in to Baidu’s advertising programs. Baidu’s share price on NASDAQ shrank by approximately 25% following the revelation

On 17 November 2008, Baidu issued an apology which stated, “We put too much effort in competing technically with Google, and in doing so overlooked our advertising system and its management.”