Baidu

For the Ilkhanate ruler, see Baydu.
Baidu , Inc.
百度
Type Public company
Traded as NASDAQ: BIDU
NASDAQ-100 Component
Founded 2000
Founder(s) Robin Li
Eric Xu
Headquarters Beijing, China
Area served China
Japan
Thailand
Egypt
India
Key people Robin Li (Chairman and CEO)
Industry Internet search
Services Internet search services
Revenue US$ 2.2  billion (2010)[1]
Operating income million (2010)[1]
Profit million (2010)[1]
Total assets billion (2010)[1]
Total equity billion (2010)[1]
Employees 10,887 (December 2010)[1]
Subsidiaries Baidu, Inc. (Japan)
Website www.baidu.com
Alexa rank 5 (January 2012)[2]
Type of site Web search engine
Advertising Pay per click
Registration Optional
Available in Chinese
Japanese
Launched October 11, 1999 (1999-10-11)
Current status Active
Baidu
Baidu headquarters, Haidian District, Beijing
Chinese 百度

Baidu, Inc. (Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù, pronounced like BY-doo in English, NASDAQ: BIDU), simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China.[3]

Baidu offers many services, including a Chinese language search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum.[4] Baidu was established in 2000 by co-founders, Robin Li and Eric Xu. Both of the co-founders are PRC nationals who studied and worked overseas before returning to China. In September 2011, Baidu ranked 6th overall in the Alexa Internet rankings.[5] During Q4 of 2010, it is estimated that there were 4.02 billion search queries in China of which Baidu had a market share of 56.6%. China's internet-search revenue share in second quarter 2011 by Baidu is 76%[6] In December 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index.[7]

Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files.[8] Baidu offers multimedia content including MP3 music and movies, and is the first in China to offer Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and personal digital assistant (PDA) based mobile search.

Contents

Name

“ 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 compares 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. ”

—Robin Li[9]

The name "Baidu" is a quote from the last line of Xin Qiji's classical poem "Green Jade Table in The Lantern Festival" saying: "Having searched for her hundreds and thousands of times in the crowd, suddenly turning back by chance, I find her there in the dimmest candlelight."

The context of the poem is that in ancient China, girls had to stay indoors and the Lantern Festival was one of the few times they could come out. In the sea and chaos of lantern lights, they would sneak away to meet their love and exchange promises to meet again next year.

A summary of the entire poem: Flowers bursting into bloom in the sky, stars falling like rain (fireworks/meteor shower), Whole streets filled with perfume, jeweled horses pulling ornate carriages, fish and dragon lanterns dancing throughout the entire night. A body decorated with golden thread and butterfly trinket, laughter that has a subtle fragrance. Having searched for this person until exhaustion, when suddenly turning back by chance, I find her standing lonely in the far end of the street in the waning light.

Development

In 1994, Robin Li joined IDD Information Services, in New Jersey vision of Dow Jones and Company, where he helped develop a software program for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.[10] He also did work on better algorithms for search engines and remained at IDD Information Services from May 1994 to June 1997.

In 1996, while at IDD, Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm for search engines results page ranking[11][12][13] and received a US patent for the technology.[14] He later used this technology for the Baidu search engine.

Services

Baidu offers several services[15] to locate information, products and services using Chinese-language search terms, such as, search by Chinese phonetics, advanced search, snapshots, spell checker, stock quotes, news, knows, postbar, images, video and space information, and weather, train and flight schedules and other local information. The user-agent string of Baidu search engine is baiduspider.[16][17] Also, a Baidu application for Apple's iOS is available.[18]

P4P

Baidu focuses on generating revenues primarily from online marketing services. Baidu's pay for placement (P4P) platform enables its customers to reach users who search for information related to their products or services. Customers use automated online tools to create text-based descriptions of their web pages and bid on keywords that trigger the display of their webpage information and link. Baidu's P4P platform features an automated online sign-up process that customers use to activate their accounts at any time. The P4P platform is an online marketplace that introduces Internet search users to customers who bid for priority placement in the search results. Baidu also uses third-party distributors to sell some of its online marketing services to end customers and offers discounts to these distributors in consideration of their services.

Baidu offers certain consultative services, such as keyword suggestions, account management and performance reporting. Baidu suggests synonyms and associated phrases to use as keywords or text in search listings. These suggestions can improve clickthrough rates of the customer's listing and increase the likelihood that a user will enter into a transaction with the customer. Baidu also provides online daily reports of the number of clickthroughs, clicked keywords and the total costs incurred, as well as statistical reports organized by geographic region.

ProTheme

Baidu offers ProTheme services to some of its Baidu Union members, which enable these members to display on their properties its customers' promotional links that are relevant to the subject and content of such members' properties. Baidu generates revenues from ProTheme services based on the number of clicks on its customers' links and share the revenues with its Baidu Union members in accordance with pre-agreed terms. Baidu's fixed-ranking services allow customers to display query-sensitive text links at a designated location on its search results pages. Its Targetizement services enable customers to reach their targeted Internet users by displaying their advertisements only when their targeted Internet users browse Baidu's certain Web pages.

Baidu TV

Baidu operates its advertising service, Baidu TV, in partnership with Ads it! Media Corporation, an online advertising agency and technology company. Baidu TV provides advertisers access to the websites of its Baidu Union members, allowing advertisers to choose Websites on which they post their video advertisements with the aid of its advertisement targeting and matching system. It also offers a brand advertising service, Brand-Link. In June 2008, Baidu launched My Marketing Center, a customized platform integrating industry information, market trends and business, and industry news and reports to assist existing customers in their sales and marketing efforts. Other forms of its online advertising services allow customers to display query sensitive and non-query sensitive advertisements on its websites, including graphical advertisements.

Baidu's brand advertising feature can help the advertisers to show a branded message including images to increase brand awareness and clickthrough rates (up to 75%).[30]

Baidu Union

Baidu Union consists of several third-party websites and software applications.[31] Union members incorporate a Baidu search box or toolbar and match its sponsored links with the content on their properties. Their users can conduct search via the Baidu search box or toolbar and can click the sponsored links located on their properties. Baidu has also launched programs through which it displays the online advertising of its customers on Baidu Union websites, and share the fees generated by these advertisements with the owners of these Baidu Union websites. As of May 2011, there were 230 thousand partner websites that displayed Baidu Union ads on their websites.[32]

Competition

Baidu competes with Google Hong Kong, Yahoo! China, Microsoft's Bing and MSN Messenger, Sina, Sohu's Sogou, Wikipedia, NetEase's Youdao, Tencent's Soso.com and PaiPai, Alibaba’s Taobao, TOM Online, Xunlei's Gougou and EachNet.

Baidu is the No. 1 search engine in China, controlling 63 percent of China's market share as of January 2010, according to iResearch.[33] The number of Internet users in China rose to 338 million by the end of June 2009, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center.[34]

In an August 2010 The Wall Street Journal article,[35] Baidu has played down its benefit from Google's moving its China search service to Hong Kong, but Baidu's share of revenue in China's search—advertising market grew six percentage points in the second quarter to 70%, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

It is also evident that Baidu is attempting to enter the internet social network market. As of 2011, it is discussing the possibility of working with Facebook, which would lead to a Chinese version of the international social network, managed by Baidu.[36] This plan, if executed, would face off Baidu with competition from the two popular Chinese social networks Renren[37] and Kaixin001[38] as well as induce rivalry with instant-messaging giant, QQ.[39]

Censorship

According to the China Digital Times, Baidu has a long history of being the most proactive and restrictive online censor in the search arena. Documents leaked in April 2009 from an employee in Baidu's internal monitoring and censorship department show a long list of blocked websites and censored topics on Baidu search.[40] In May 2011, pro-democracy activists sued Baidu for violating the U.S. constitution by the censorship it conducts, in accord with the demand of the Chinese government.[41]

Domain name hacked

On January 12, 2010, Baidu.com's DNS records in the United States were altered such that browsers to baidu.com were redirected to a website purporting to be the Iranian Cyber Army, thought to be behind the attack on Twitter during the 2009 Iranian election protests, making the actual site unusable for four hours.[42] Internet users were met with a page saying "This site has been attacked by Iranian Cyber Army".[43] Chinese hackers later responded by attacking Iranian websites and leaving messages.[44] Baidu later launched legal action against Register.com for gross negligence after it was revealed that Register.com's technical support staff changed the email address for Baidu.com on the request of an unnamed individual, despite their failing security verification procedures. Once the address had been changed, the individual was able to use the forgotten password feature to have Baidu's domain passwords sent directly to them, allowing them to pull off the domain hijacking.[45][46]

Pay per click

Baidu has adopted an allegedly illegal commercial advertising model called keyword-bidding (without censorship, and focusing on profit). Officially called pay per click (PPC), it requires companies to pay for select keywords that will link to the company's website through the Baidu Search engine. In August 2011, China Central Television revealed that commercial model of Baidu which is against the official internet policy in China and allegedly jeopardizes China's internet development.[47][48]

See also


References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "2010 Form 20-F, Baidu, Inc.". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1329099/000095012311030187/h04360de20vf.htm. 
  2. ^ "Baidu.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/Baidu.com. Retrieved 2012-01-02. 
  3. ^ "IR Contacts." Baidu. Retrieved on December 27, 2010. "Address: Baidu Campus, No. 10, Shangdi 10th Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100085 People's Republic of China."
  4. ^ "Baidu's 57 Products/Services: Introduction and History". China Analyst (CNAnalyst.com). http://www.cnanalyst.com/baidu.html. 
  5. ^ "Alexa Top 500 Global Sites". http://www.alexa.com/topsites/global. Retrieved November 12, 2011. 
  6. ^ "The China Perspective, "China Economic Watch"". http://www.thechinaperspective.com/articles/chinaeconomicwatchregionalgdpinflationsearchmarketratehike8181/.  }
  7. ^ Chmielewski, Dawn C. (December 10, 2007). "Search site moves at the speed of China". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/dec/10/business/fi-baidu10. 
  8. ^ "MSN Money – BIDU". MSN Money. http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/profile.asp?Symbol=BIDU. Retrieved 2006-05-11. 
  9. ^ "The Baidu Story". Baidu. http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-homeprofile. 
  10. ^ Taipei Times: "Robin Li's vision powers Baidu's Internet search dominance" (Sep 17, 2006)
  11. ^ Greenberg, Andy, "The Man Who's Beating Google", Lorbes magazine, October 5, 2009
  12. ^ Yanhong Li, "Toward a Qualitative Search Engine," IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 24–29, July/Aug. 1998, doi:10.1109/4236.707687
  13. ^ "About: RankDex", rankdex.com
  14. ^ USPTO, "Hypertext Document Retrieval System and Method", US Patent number: 5920859, Inventor: Yanhong Li, Filing date: Feb 5, 1997, Issue date: Jul 6, 1999
  15. ^ Baidu products
  16. ^ "关于baiduspider". baidu.com. March 18, 2009. http://www.baidu.com/search/spider.htm. 
  17. ^ "Baiduspider User-Agent String". HttpUserAgent.org. March 17, 2009. http://www.httpuseragent.org/list/Baiduspider-n40.htm. 
  18. ^ Baidu MobileBy Beijing Baidu Netcom Science & Technology Co.,Ltd
  19. ^ Baidu Japan Inc.
  20. ^ "China's Google in Japan". Infoniac.com. March 23, 2007. http://www.infoniac.com/hi-tech/china-google-in-japan.html. 
  21. ^ "Google's Lookalike is Expanding in China". Gadget4boys.com. January 23, 2007. http://www.gadget4boys.com/index.php?page=articles&catid=3&id=20. 
  22. ^ Baidu
  23. ^ [1] Baidu will compile the rural digital Encyclopedia
  24. ^ Baidu-Hexun Finance
  25. ^ Youa.com
  26. ^ Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific
  27. ^ China's Baidu Joins Browser Battle, Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2011
  28. ^ Baidu’s New Browser Looks Strikingly Familiar, China Real Time Report – WSJ, July 19, 2011
  29. ^ "Baidu Looks To Leapfrog Google With Cloud-Based Mobile OS (Update)". TechCrunch. September 2, 2011. http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/baidu-looks-to-leapfrog-google-with-cloud-based-mobile-os/. Retrieved September 7, 2011. 
  30. ^ "China Search Marketing With Baidu Whitepaper" (PDF). Rocky Fu's digital marketing blog. April 14, 2008. http://www.rockyfp.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/brief-guide-to-baidu-whitepaper.pdf. 
  31. ^ union.baidu.com
  32. ^ Lin, Susan. "Baidu's Content Network - Baidu Union". East-West-Connect.com. East-West-Connect.com. http://www.east-west-connect.com/baidu/baidus-content-network-baidu-union. 
  33. ^ Barboza, David (January 13, 2010). "Baidu's Gain from Departure Could Be China’s Loss". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/technology/companies/14baidu.html. 
  34. ^ "Discovery, Baidu launch website". AFP. July 28, 2009. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j1ljoTEss5nUHSfKAFxGuQxxXLVA. 
  35. ^ Fletcher, Owen (August 3, 2010). "Baidu's CEO Pursues Long-Term Growth". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703999304575399162122796630.html?KEYWORDS=baidu. 
  36. ^ 传百度与Facebook签合作协议 – Baidu signed a cooperation agreement with Facebook, ThinkingChinese, April 14, 2011
  37. ^ [renren.com Renren
  38. ^ [kaixin001.com Kaixin001]
  39. ^ Baidu and QQ aren't willing to remain outside the Chinese Social Network market, ThinkingChinese, April 2011
  40. ^ Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (1), Xiao Qiang, China Digital Times, April 30, 2009
    Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (2)
    Baidu’s Internal Monitoring and Censorship Document Leaked (3)
  41. ^ China, Baidu Sued In U.S. For Internet Censorship, Jonathan Stempel, Reuters, May 19, 2011
  42. ^ "Baidu hacked by 'Iranian cyber army'". BBC News. 2010-01-12. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8453718.stm. Retrieved 2010-01-12. 
  43. ^ "China's top search engine Baidu hacked". People's Daily. January 12, 2010. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/6866089.html. 
  44. ^ Branigan, Tania (January 12, 2010). "'Iranian' hackers paralyse Chinese search engine Baidu". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/12/iranian-hackers-chinese-search-engine. 
  45. ^ Baidu Sues Register.com, Alleges Negligence in Hacking Attack
  46. ^ "Baidu: Registrar 'incredibly' changed our e-mail for hacker," Computer World, February 24, 2010. Accessed December 13, 2010.
  47. ^ http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-08-16/markets/30008237_1_baidu-investors-ceo-robin-li-advertising-system
  48. ^ http://digicha.com/index.php/2011/08/cctv-attacks-baidu-again/

Further reading

External links

Baidu
Baidu Search Engine (News/MP3/Image/Video) • Baidu Tieba • Baidu Zhidao • Baidu Maps • Baidu Space • Baidu Baike • Baidu Hi • Baidu Guoxue • Baidu Toolbar • Baidu Patents • Baidu Youa • Baifubao • Baidu 500 • Hao123 • Baidu Wenku • Baidu Yi