Baidu

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Baidu is an Internet search provider specialized in Chinese language. It is regarded as the Chinese Google.

=History=

=Mission=
 * Inspired by an 800-year-old poem, Baidu means "hundreds of times". It represents the persistent search for the ideal.
 * In year 2000, Robin Li and Eric Xu established Baidu. Both of the co-founders are Chinese nationals who have studied and worked overseas before returning to China.
 * It is listed in NASDAQ (view quotes [|here]) under the symbol BIDU. It went public on [|NASDAQ] Aug. 4 at $27, climbed to $154, and traded at $53 on February 24, 2006.

=Products=
 * For individual internet users:
 * To find Chinese language online information efficiently, including web pages, news, images and multimedia files. It is a great tool to search for MP3 music files.
 * To search Chinese language online information innovatively and conveniently, for example, users can alternate between Chinese characters (Pinyin Romanization) and standard English letters in order to avoid switching between different input systems.
 * For businesses:
 * Online Marketing Services
 * Pay for Performance (P4P)
 * Tailored solutions
 * Enterprise Search Software

=Baidu’s Contribution to the Global Divide=
 * **Post Bar** - A Baidu invention and a popular hangout in the Baidu community. Post Bar is a place for users to exchange information on query-activated message boards.
 * **Movie Search** - A subscription based service that supports downloads of movies made available by a number of contracted content providers.
 * **Baidu Knows** - Users may ask and answer questions on a reward system.
 * **Desktop Search** - The first desktop search tool that supports both English and Chinese, developed in four months.
 * **Search Index** - A registration based service that monitors changes in the most frequently searched keywords. Search Index is a useful tool for media professionals.
 * Baidu Search Engine uses the program called [|Robot] (also called spider)

As technology progresses, people in developing countries have access to the information they were never able to know before. Like people in other countries, Chinese use Google. But there are two barriers. First, most Chinese know little English. Second, it is slow to access overseas websites due to limited outbound bandwidth from China. Now they can use their own language in a native Chinese site, Baidu, which eliminates the two barriers. Chinese can get information from Baidu as easy as Americans can from Google. As a result, the global divide tends to be closed. This is a view of Cyber-optimism.

=Legal Concerns=

Different countries have different laws on the web. A certain online action may be legal in one country, but illegal in another. For example, for the same MP3 files, it is illegal to download for free in America (see also: copyright infringement), but it is legal to do so in China (from [|Baidu | MP3]). Online users need to adhere to the laws of their own country and be ethical in any type of online activities.

=External Links=

[|Baidu] [|Google] [|NASDAQ]

=**Works Cited**=

Ashling, Jim. “Internet Companies Invest in China.” __Information Today [Medford]__ Vol. 22. Issue (2005): pp.22-23. __ Baidu | Business Overview__. February 22, 2006. Baidu. February 25, 2006 .

__Image of Baidu.__ Baidu. Februaru 25, 2005 .