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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 … )
We’re getting a better picture of the latest online advertising trends with the recent release of earnings from 3 leading web portals, revealing a looming slowdown for names like Sina (Nasdaq: SINA), Sohu (Nasdaq: SOHU) and Phoenix New Media (NYSE: FENG). Sina and Sohu could offset the slowdown through growth in their newer businesses, which includes Sina’s Weibo microblogging service and Sohu’s search and video services. But everyone could also face more challenges from newcomers like Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU), which is under intense pressure to start monetizing its highly-hyped and fast growing So.com search service. Read Full Post…
Reports of major new funding for online travel site Tongcheng are casting a spotlight on a sudden rise in competition for the sector, which for years was dominated by industry leaders Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP) and eLong (Nasdaq: LONG). The trend looks a bit worrisome to me, hinting at a new looming round of price wars and potentially some consolidation. Ctrip could well become a leader of such consolidation if it occurs, since the company now has a huge cash pile of nearly $2 billion following its raising of $800 million through a highly popular convertible bond offer last fall. Read Full Post…
UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, Tencent has announced it will purchase 20 percent of Dianping for an undisclosed amount. (company announcement)
Talk involving major new investments in online clothier Vancl and restaurant ratings site Dianping was buzzing through the blogosphere this past week, reflecting the many new partnerships that are quickly forming amid intense competition plaguing the overheated Internet space.
Vancl has been racing to find profits before it runs out of cash, and recently received a lifeline in the form of $100 million in new funding from a group led by Lei Jun, the marketing-savvy co-founder of trendy smartphone maker Xiaomi. Lei Jun and Vancl CEO Chen Nian engaged in a round of online banter this week on their microblogs that could hint at some of the new directions and tactics that Vancl will take as it searches for the elusive business model that can move it into the black. Read Full Post…
The latest reports of unrest among some unhappy investors who bought a product that failed to deliver on promised returns through top lender ICBC (HKEx: 1398; HKEx: 601398) bodes poorly for a recent boom in similar products, hinting at a looming crackdown that could send a chill over the entire industry. I previously predicted we could see such consumer backlash, as many of the products flooding into the market promised unrealistically high returns to lure in investors. Such products may also include disclaimers saying that returns could also be lower, or that investors may even lose money. But unsophisticated Chinese investors often ignore such small-print, which will inevitably lead to howls of complaint when they don’t receive the headline returns. Read Full Post…
The group of big Chinese web firms driving a recent wave of M&A has a new member, with word that fast-rising e-commerce site Vipshop (NYSE: VIPS) has made its first major acquisition. The move marks the latest step in consolidation in China’s overheated e-commerce sector, which is crowded with around a half dozen major players and many smaller ones that are mostly losing money. Vipshop is one of the few players that is quite profitable, even though it doesn’t have a huge cash pile as it spends heavily to quickly build up its business. That leads to my next prediction that we could see the company raise some money soon through a share or bond sale, as it seeks to build up a war chest to help fund future acquisitions. Read Full Post…
The final death knell for one of China’s oldest software developers is casting a spotlight on just how difficult it is for companies to break into the global market for computer operating systems (OS). The end for Red Flag Software also bodes poorly for a number of more recent Chinese initiatives to create a mobile OS to rival Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) wildly popular Android and Apple’s (Nasdaq: APPL) own iOS. No specific reasons were given in the reports for Red Flag Software’s final demise, though I suspect defections by the company’s core state-run customers and a broader decline in the traditional desktop PC market were both factors. Read Full Post…
Two of China’s biggest Internet names are making interesting new moves into the tough US market, with word that Alibaba has launched an American e-commerce website and Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) founder Robin Li is helming a major new Hollywood animation studio. Both moves look cautious but relatively well conceived, even though each carries a degree of risk due to intense competition in the US e-commerce and animation sectors. Still, I have to admire both companies for at least trying, even if their chances of success could be around 50-50. Read Full Post…
Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) was one of the best performers of China’s rebounding solar sector last year, and now it’s testing investor appetite for its comeback story with a plan to raise about $200 million by issuing stock and bonds. Investors gave the plan a lukewarm response, sparking a sell off that saw Canadian Solar’s shares drop 7.5 percent after the announcement. Of course it’s also worth noting that Canadian Solar stock rose more than 10-fold last year, as it became the first major player to return to profitability after a prolonged sector downturn. Read Full Post…
Things have certainly changed over the last 3 years in Lunar New Year messaging, as reflected by the flood of tech executives using their microblogs to weigh in on Tencent’s (HKEx: 700) launch of a red envelope gift function for its popular WeChat platform over the holiday period. Most of the comments were admiring and even in a slight state of awe at the big success of WeChat’s hongbao product, which lets users send gift money to their friends and relatives over the popular instant messaging platform. But at least one post from Alibaba smelled of sour grapes, and a Sina (Nasdaq: SINA) executive also took a backhanded swipe at the rival to his company’s own Weibo microblogging service. Read Full Post…
Autohome founder Li Xiang remembers childhood accident
In this final edition of my weekly microblog column from the Year of the Snake, I thought I’d step back from all the promotional hype I usually write about and look at the more ordinary and often revealing moments from some of China’s top tech executives. This week we look at some of the quieter and more everyday thoughts from top officials at newly listed Autohome (NYSE: ATHM), educational services firm New Oriental (NYSE: EDU) and professional networking site LinkedIn (Nasdaq: LNKD). Such personal moments not only offer insight to some of these top executives and how they think, but also seem like an appropriate way to end the lunar year as everyone heads home for family reunions. Read Full Post…
I have a lot of respect for TV giant TCL (HKEx: 1070; Shenzhen: 000100), which has managed to remain relevant in China’s high-tech gadget space by moving aggressively into products like smartphones and high-end flat-screen TVs. But I’m a bit skeptical of the company’s latest move into the ultra competitive gaming space, following word that TCL plans to make gaming consoles and also specialized gaming TVs. News of this latest move by one of China’s oldest tech names comes just months after TCL announced a tie-up with leading search engine Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) to make smart TVs. I was more positive on that venture, though I really do think this new one looks more problematic since it will take TCL into a new area that is very competitive and where it has little or no experience.
