Baidu’s Latest Botch: Microblogging 百度“微博”的倒掉

By newsdoug on May 15, 2011

They should change Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) name to Botchdu, as this company seems to mess up just about anything outside its core search business. In the latest botchdu for Baidu, the company announced a “reorganization” for its microblogging service, Baidu Talk, launched just last year, that seems to indicate this latest failed product will eventually be quietly retired to oblivion. (English article) The failure would follow the disappointing results for Baidu’s e-commerce initiative, the company formerly known as You’a, and a number of other failures in non-search areas before that. In fact, the only things that Baidu seems good at outside search all involve facilitating illegal trade in copyrighted products. Of course Baidu has just launched a new service for legally obtained music, no doubt destined to become another botch, even as it refuses to close its older popular music site that’s a favorite among music pirates. This latest case with Baidu Talk just reiterates what I’ve always said, namely that this company lacks imagination and the ability to execute. But that hasn’t stopped the speculators, who have bid its stock up to ridiculous valuations that will have to come down someday when people realize that search emperor Robin Li is wearing no clothes.

Bottom line: Baidu’s reorganization of its microblogging service marks the latest in a growing list of failures for this unimaginative company outside its core search area.

百度<BIDU.O>应该改名为“百糟蹋”（Botchdu），因为这家公司似乎会把一切不属於其核心搜索引擎业务的事情搞得一团糟。最近，百度宣布了其“微博”服务——“百度说吧”的“重组”计划。看样子，这个去年刚推出的产品最终也难逃阵亡的厄运。此前，百度的电子商务平台“有啊”经营惨淡，除了核心的搜索引擎业务，其在核心业务以外的很多生意都表现平平。甚至似乎可以说，百度在搜索领域外擅长的那些业务都是与侵犯版权的非法生意有关。不错，百度刚刚推出一项合法的音乐新服务，但毫无疑问，这项服务的下场也不会好到哪里去。与此同时，百度仍拒绝关闭它那个在盗版爱好者中人气超旺的音乐旧网站。“百度说吧”的最新动态印证了我一直以来的说法：这家公司缺乏想象力和执行力。但这并未阻止投机客将百度的估值推高到不可思议的程度。实际上，当人们发现百度搜索帝国的李皇帝在其核心业务之外只不过是没穿衣服的国王时，百度股价总有回归理性的一天。

一句话：百度这家在核心搜索服务之外毫无想象力的公司重组微博服务，意味着它又一次新业务开拓的失败。

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