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Baidu
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Baidu | |
 |
|
| Type | Public (NASDAQ: BIDU) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2000 |
| Headquarters | Beijing, China |
| Key people | Robin Li, Chairman, CEO Shawn Wang, CFO David Zhu, COO |
| Industry | Internet information providers |
| Products | search engine |
| Revenue | $13.401 million USD (2004) |
| Operating income | $1.330 million USD (2004) |
| Net income | $1.450 million USD (2004) |
| Employees | 328 |
| Website | www.baidu.com |
Baidu (Chinese: 百度; pinyin: bǎi dù) (NASDAQ: BIDU) is a popular Chinese search engine which can search text and images. As of January 2007, since at least as early as May 2006, it is fourth in Alexa's internet rankings.[1] with a market share of 52 percent.[2]
Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images and 10 million multimedia files.[3]
Contents |
The name of Baidu was inspired by a Song Dynasty poem constructed in the ci form, written by Xin Qiji in the 12th century. [1]
Baidu's most popular feature is its support for multimedia search, called "MP3 Search" and its Baidu 500 is a comprehensive listing of popular Chinese music. The rankings are based on download numbers. It can locate 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 is technically not breaking any laws according to their interpretations of Chinese law as stated on their Legalese page. Chinese government and industry sources stated that Baidu.com received a license from Beijing, which allows the search engine to become a fully-fledged news website. Thus Baidu.com 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.com is the first Chinese search engine to receive such type of license.[4]
Baidu has started its own search engine in Japan. Thus it is the first regular service that the company provides outside of China. The new search service that Baidu opened in Japanese is called www.baidu.jp. It includes a search bar for Web page and image searches. The website also includes user help and advanced services. [5]
See: Intellectual property in the People's Republic of China
Yahoo! China recently offered a similar service.
Baidu uses the same "pay-per-click" model for ad revenues as Google.
Other than images and text search, Baidu provides several other services:
- Baidu Zhidao: A Q&A service
- Baidu Post: A discussion group service based on keywords - upon entering a keyword, the user is taken to an existing discussion thread, or given the option of creating a new thread (similar to Google Base)
- Baidu Baike: A wikilike encyclopedia
- Baidu Space: A free Social Networking platform
- Baidu Map: Similar to Google Maps but detailed maps are available only for big cities
Baidu.com had its initial public offering (IPO) the morning of Friday, 5 August 2005.[6] Baidu.com opened at $27/share. At the close of Nasdaq trading on that Friday, Baidu.com shares closed at $122.54, up $95.54 from its opening price (a gain of 353%). However, over the next few trading days, Baidu stock pulled back rapidly, closing at $91.75 on August 10. Baidu.com has been called the "Google of China". Google was a shareholder in Baidu.com and owned 2.6% of the company until June 2006.[7]
On September 14, 2005, the stock plunged 24% on the Nasdaq after two analysts said it was "overpriced."[8]
- ^ Alexa Web Search - Top 500. Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
- ^ http://www.onlinewebconsultants.com/44.html
- ^ MSN Money - BIDU. MSN Money. Retrieved on 2006-05-11.
- ^ Google's Lookalike is Expanding in China. Gadget4boys.com (23 January 2007).
- ^ China's Google in Japan. Infoniac.com (March 23, 2007).
- ^ "The Rise of Baidu (That’s Chinese for Google)", New York Times, 17 September 2006.
- ^ "Google offloads Baidu investment", BBC, 23 June 2006.
- ^ Bloomberg.com - Asia. Retrieved on 2006-05-11.