10 Facts About Baidu
Here are the 10 facts about Baidu, the number one search engine in China:
- Baidu was established in 1999 by Robin Li who previously worked for Infoseek, an Internet search engine in the early years, as an engineer.
- Baidu’s name is taken from a Song Dynasty poem written a couple of centuries ago that was used to compare the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one’s dream while confronted by life’s many obstacles.
- Baidu started out offering search services to other Chinese portals before developing its own stand alone search engine.
- When Baidu.com, Baidu’s own search engine site, launched in September 2001, many people believed its homepage was a copycat of Google in Chinese, due to its simplicity as well.
- Before Google launched Adwords, Baidu has already launched its PPC advertising model.
- Baidu as a company only started to make financial profits in 2004, mainly based on its PPC advertising model.
- Baidu went public on 5 Aug 2005 at $27 a share on Nasdaq and closed at $122, which was a 354% jump.
- Baidu faces legal challenges including lawsuits claiming it violates copyright laws on music files, due to its very popular MP3 search.
- Today, Baidu has a market value of about $3 billion dollar.
- At the time of posting, Baidu ranks number 4 in terms of traffic according to Alexa rankings, and is the most visited website in China.
Posted on October 4, 2006
Filed Under Baidu, China Internet |
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[...] Since the launch of Baidu.com in 2001, there have always been accusations that Baidu’s homepage is a copy of Google’s idea. Read more on the 10 facts about Baidu. [...]