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Tag Archives: Baidu
Baidu Company News Baidu 百度, Inc. incorporated on January 2000, is classifed as web services company established by Robin Li and Eric Xu.
Overview of the Chinese high Tech Market by former Chief Editor of Reuters (Doug Young).
Baidu offers many services, including a search engine for websites, audio files and images.
Baidu in Figures
– Ranked 4th overall in the Alexa rankings
– In 2015, Baidu had over 1 billion visits / month
– Baidu offers 57 community services (Chinese encyclopedia, questions/Answers , forums … )
Bottom line: A flurry of new corporate crackdowns will have the biggest impact on Baidu due to its role in a scandal over false advertising claims, and indicates this year’s summer crackdown season could be hotter than usual.
China cracks down on web merchants, drug makers
Summertime in China is a season for crackdowns, and we’re getting a taste of a potentially hot summer ahead fueled by a high-profile scandal involving false advertising claims on leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU). Three separate crackdowns are in the headlines as we begin the new week, including 2 that look potentially tied to the Baidu scandal.
That scandal consumed China for much of last week, after a student with cancer claimed he was duped into seeking treatment at a hospital that made false claims about its ability to treat his disease. (previous post) In his long list of complaints before he died of his illness, Wang Zexi also accused Baidu of deception for putting the hospital and its inflated claims high in his search results simply because the hospital paid a rich premium for such high placement. Read Full Post…
More than a month after Shanghai launched its campaign to tame our unruly traffic, I want to use this space to call for a similar campaign that is badly needed to clean up our city’s increasingly chaotic sidewalks. Anyone who lives here will know I’m talking about the legions of delivery bikes and scooters that have exploded onto Shanghai’s sidewalks over the last few years, creating a nightmare for those of us who actually use sidewalks for walking.
This particular tale began 5 or 6 years ago with the rapid rise of e-commerce, which spawned a flood of courier services delivering everything from major items like computers and furniture to tiny parcels like USB thumb drives. But the problem has become much worse over the last year with a newer explosion of take-out dining services, which have unleashed thousands more bikes and scooters onto our sidewalks. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: LeEco’s plan to develop a major Silicon Valley office on land purchased from Yahoo reflects the rapid rise and global ambitions of the former, and the accelerating decline of the latter.
LeEco eyes new Silicon Valley home
A new report involving a Silicon Valley land deal is shining a spotlight on Chinese Internet giant LeEco (Shenzhen: 300104) and US counterpart Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), illustrating the rapid rise of the former and accelerating descent of the latter. The deal itself is rather mundane, involving a 48.6 acre plot of undeveloped land that Yahoo bought a decade ago for $100 million near its Silicon Valley headquarters. LeEco is reportedly eyeing the land for development of a new campus, some 2 years after it set up its original dual US headquarters in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
LeEco, formerly known as LeTV, is one of China’s fastest rising online entertainment companies that is increasingly moving into a wide array of new product areas. Two of those are e-commerce and smart cars, and I suspect the Silicon Valley expansion would house both of those initiatives. LeEco is also moving into film production, though that element of its US efforts is probably based out of its Los Angeles office. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new global tie-up with Uber marks a major advance for Ant Financial’s Alipay, while new Internet car initiatives by Tencent and Alibaba are unlikely to find big audiences despite getting big resources from their backers.
Alibaba, Tencent car initiatives drive ahead
A series of stories involving Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700) reflect the growing importance China’s leading Internet firms are placing on cars, which could be the next major battleground for web-based services. Alibaba is in 2 related headlines, including one that says its affiliated Ant Financial unit has signed a major tie-up that will allow anyone in the world to use its Alipay electronic payments service to pay for Uber hired cars.
The other 2 headlines both involve car manufacturing, including one that says mass production has begun for the first Internet-equipped model co-produced through a tie-up between Alibaba and SAIC (Shanghai: 600104), China’s leading car maker. The other headline says a car-making venture backed by Tencent has been quietly poaching workers from the likes of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and Germany’s Daimler (Frankfurt: DAIGn), as it gears up for its own production. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A hospital scandal surrounding Baidu could shave as much as another 3-5 percent off its stock over the next week, but will fade afterwards and have relatively little longer term impact.
Hospital scandal continues to rock Baidu
A scandal involving exaggerated claims by one of its advertisers continues to consume Internet search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which has fired a top executive in response to a story that has wiped out $6 billion from its market value. At the same time, Qihoo’s (NYSE: QIHU) rival search engine has announced it will no longer do business with hospitals like the one at the center of the scandal, nor with other sellers of medical products and services.
The government has taken the unusual step of assembling inter-agency task forces to investigate the case involving a young cancer patient who claimed he was misled by both Baidu and the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Force. (Chinese article) As the scandal picked up momentum late last week, media are reporting that Baidu fired vice president Wang Zhan for harming the company.(Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new scandal surrounding deceptive results on Baidu’s search service could force the company to be more transparent, but is unlikely to have a long-term impact on the company’s stock.
Baidu at center of new scandal
I have to admit I’ve been quite surprised by a new storm involving the manipulative ways of search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), which began building over the May Day holiday and became so big it splashed into global headlines after the company’s stock tanked on Monday. My surprise is mostly that this scandal became so big, since Baidu’s manipulative pay-to-play tactics for search results are quite well known, and should be obvious to anyone who uses the search engine regularly.
The scandal that’s riveting China saw a 21-year-old student search on Baidu for a hospital to treat his rare form of cancer, and select what he thought was the best option partly based on a high search ranking. The young man later died, but not before blasting the hospital and Baidu for their misleading ways, resulting in a firestorm of criticism on the web. The growing noise caused Baidu’s stock to tank on Wall Street, shedding nearly 8 percent in Monday trade. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on April 29. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Carl Icahn Says Sold Entire Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Stake on China Woes: CNBC (English article)
Bottom line: LinkedIn’s rapid growth in China has been aided by its low-key approach to the sensitive market, and a high degree of autonomy for its local unit from its distant US-based parent.
LinkedIn reaches 20 mln China users
US business networking giant LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) is quietly emerging as one of the few foreign success stories in China’s social networking (SNS) landscape, using a low-key approach that has helped it steer clear of controversy. I haven’t written much about the company since its slightly controversial entry to China 2 years ago, when it issued a statement acknowledging it would be subject to the country’s strict self-censorship rules.
LinkedIn’s ability to avoid controversy is probably due in large part to its low-key approach, and its choice of an industry veteran with experience in both the US and China to head its local operations. True to his low-key style, company chief Derek Shen is making some minor headlines today with comments at a Shanghai event, including his disclosure that LinkedIn has signed up more than 20 million local users during its first 2 years in China. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and news reports about China companies were carried on April 26. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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BOC Aviation Said to Gauge Demand for Up to $1.5 Bln IPO (English article)
Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), KFC Open Store with Stationary AI Food-Ordering Robot ‘Duer’ (English article)
Bottom line: 58.com’s stock could be set for some upside in the second half of the year, as it returns to profitability after a well-executed acquisition spree that has sharply boosted its revenue growth.
58.com feasts on ads, acquisitions
Classified ads may not sound like the sexiest area of the Internet, but they’ve provided some strong growth for the acquisitive 58.com (NYSE: WUBA), which is fast emerging as a leader in the space and is often called the Craigslist of China. The company’s aggressive acquisition campaign has led to explosive revenue growth, but has also pushed the company into the loss column as it digests its many recent purchases.
That could present a good buying opportunity for investors with a longer term perspective, as 58.com looks set to return to the profit column and continue its strong revenue growth. If all goes according to plan, 58.com could end next year as China’s undisputed leader in the online advertising services realm. The company is already squarely ahead of the older 51job.com (Nasdaq: JOBS) and is on track to surpass current leader Zhaopin (Nasdaq: ZPIN), which both focus on online job recruiting. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Baidu’s spin-off of its professional video service continues its plan to separate newer loss-making units from its core search business, and could fuel strong profit acceleration for the New York-listed company by year end.
Baidu break-up continues with video unit spin-off
The slow motion break-up of online search leader Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) marches on, with word that the company is spinning off its professional video service into a separate company. The move will see the service, Baidu Video, receive 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in new investment as it takes on 2 more partners.
This particular move comes just a week after Baidu detailed a major corporate reorganization that was also aimed at separating out its older and highly profitable search services from its newer businesses, most of those losing big money. (previous post) As a relatively neutral observer, I have to say this particular strategy looks smart as it will help investors see more clearly how Baidu’s different businesses are doing and invest in ones where they see the best potential. Read Full Post…
