Baidu, Inc. Research Report

About Company

Baidu, Inc. (In Chinese signifying “hundred times”) is a China-based international tech firm offering specialized Internet-linked and AI (artificial intelligence) products and services. The firm has its head office in the Haidian District of Beijing.

Baidu is one of the world’s biggest Internet and Artificial Intelligence firms.

The holding company of Baidu, Inc. is registered in the Cayman Islands. In January 2000, Eric Xu and Robin Li officially formed Baidu.

Regarding the Internet rankings released by Alexa, the Baidu search engine is presently the 6^th biggest website.

Baidu has roots in RankDex, a previous search engine Robin Li designed in 1996 before the firm was set up in 2000.

Baidu provides different services, comprising a China-oriented search engine and a mapping service known as Baidu Maps.

The company offers around fifty-seven group and search services, like Baidu Wangpan, a cloud storage facility, Baidu Baike, an online information bank, and Baidu Tieba, a keyword-oriented conversation round-table.

The GBU (Global Business Unit) of Baidu has the primary responsibility for the worldwide products and services for marketplaces beyond China.

The merchandise collection of Baidu’s Global Business Unit incorporates keyboard applications Facemoji Keyboard and Simeji, popIn, a content referral platform, OmniAR, an augmented reality network, popIn Aladdin, a Japan-based smart projector, and MediaGo, an advertisement platform that concentrates on China-based admen anticipating to accomplish international subscribers.

Baidu Global Business Unit became involved in collaboration with Snap Inc. in 2017 to function as the authorized advertisement reseller of the firm for Snapchat in South Korea, Greater China, Singapore, and Japan. In 2019, the collaboration was stretched.

In 2018, Baidu disposed of the Global DU enterprise segment of its international trade, which produced a sequence of practical applications such as DU Caller, ES File Explorer, Photo Wonder, Mobojoy, and DU Recorder, and so on.

This segment currently runs autonomously of Baidu, and the name is DO Global.

Baidu houses the 2^nd biggest search engine in the world. It enjoys a 76.05% market share in the search engine marketplace of China.

In December 2007, Baidu became the 1st China-based organization to be incorporated into the NASDAQ-100 index.

In May 2018, the market capitalization of Baidu surged to the US $99 billion.

In October 2018, Baidu became the oldest company in China to become a part of the US-oriented computer principles syndicate Collaboration on Artificial Intelligence.

When was Baidu Founded?

Baidu was founded on 1^st January 2000, 22 years back.

Who is the Originator of Baidu?

The originators of Baidu are Eric Xu and Robin Li.

Which Territory does Baidu Serve?

The firm has a global client base.

Where is the Head Office of the Firm Located?

The firm has its head office in Beijing, China.

What are the Products and Services Offered by Baidu?

The products and services offered by Baidu are listed below:

• Baidu Maps
• Search engine
• Baidu Wangpan
• Baidu Baike
• Baidu Tieba

What Type of Company is Baidu?

Baidu is a publicly-traded firm.

To which Industry does Baidu Belong?

Baidu belongs to the following industries:

• Artificial intelligence
• Internet
• Cloud computing

How Many People Work for Baidu?

As of 2021, 45,500 people are working for the company.

Who are the Competitors of Baidu?

Given below is the list of competitors of the Chinese tech behemoth:

• Sogou
• Petal
• 360 Search of so.com
• Google Search
• MSN Messenger and Bing of Microsoft
• Yahoo! China
• PaiPai and Youdao of NetEase
• Sina
• TOM Online
• Taobao of Alibaba
• and EachNet

Services of Baidu Explained Eaborately

Baidu provides different types of services for finding data, services, and goods and utilizing Chinese-language search words/expressions, like search by advanced search, Chinese prosodies, spelling checker, informal photographs, news, stock quotes, postbar, knows, video, pictures, climate and space data, flight and train timetables, and other regional data.

Baiduspider is the subscriber-manager thread of the Baidu search engine.

Baidu Maps – It is a smartphone and desktop mapping solution like Google Maps, but it encompasses just the Greater China area.

Baidu Tieba – It offers subscribers a question-oriented searchable group for swapping opinions and sharing facts and feelings. Tieba is an online group attached securely with the search attribute of Baidu.

Baidu Wangpan – Erstwhile Baidu Cloud, is a cloud storage facility providing two terabytes of complimentary information storage.

Baidu Knows – It provides subscribers with a question-oriented searchable group for distributing data and know-how.

Baidu Video Search – It facilitates subscribers in looking for and accessing via hyperlinks online video clippings hosted on third-party sites.

Baidu Image Search – This allows users to look for countless pictures on the Internet.

Baidu News – It offers links to a choice of regional, countrywide, and overseas news and delivers news narratives in a searchable pattern within moments of their broadcasting on the Internet.

Baidu MP3 Search – It offers algorithm-produced hyperlinks to music and other types of multimedia files provided by Web content suppliers.

Baidu Space – It was the social networking facility of Baidu, enabling registered subscribers to generate customized homepages in a question-oriented searchable group.

Baidu Baike – It is the biggest web encyclopedia in China in terms of page views and subscribers/Internet traffic; 2^nd biggest encyclopedia in terms of article tally (next to Hudong).

Baidu Translate – It is a web translation facility developed in February 2013. Since April 2020, Baidu Translate has backed two hundred languages, the maximum of any web-based translation facility, to aid in combating COVID-19.

Baidu Web Directory – It allows subscribers to surf and glance through sites that have been prearranged into groups.

Baidu Search Ranking – It offers catalogs of search terminologies derived from everyday search questions on Baidu.com.

The catalogs are structured in groups and enable subscribers to find search terminologies on attention-grabbing subjects.

Baidu Government Information Search – It allows subscribers to look for different conventions, policies, announcements, and other details declared by the administrative bodies under the People’s Republic of China.

Educational Website Search – It enables subscribers to look for the websites of academic institutes. The University Search facilitates looking for data on or surfing across the websites of particular Chinese universities.

Baidu Postal Code Search – It allows users to find out postal codes in several cities in China.

Baidu Legal Search – It will enable subscribers to look for a database including regional and nationwide acts and directives, lawsuits, legal verdicts, and law lexicons.

Baidu Patent Search – It allows subscribers to look for individual Chinese copyrights and offers fundamental copyright details in the search outcomes, such as the name of the patent/copyright, registration date, submission number, originator details, date of publication, and a concise explanation of the copyright/patent.

Baidu-Hexun Finance – It is an Internet site offering financial data, and its collaborator is Hexun.com, a financial data facility supplier in China with securities advisory permits and news coverage.

Baidu Games- It is an online guide that enables subscribers to look for or surf across game-linked content and reports.

Baidu Entertainment – It is an online guide for leisure-linked content and reports.

Baidu Statistics Search – It allows subscribers to find facts and figures released by the People’s Republic of China Administration.

Baidu Tongji – It is the web analytics platform of Baidu.

Baidu Youa – It is a web-based e-commerce/shopping platform via which commercial enterprises can market their merchandise and services at Baidu-listed shops.

Baidu Dictionary – It offers subscribers reference and text conversion facilities between English and Chinese.

Baidu Desktop Search – It is a complimentary, easy-to-download software, allowing subscribers to look for all files stored on their PCs without setting up a Web browser.

Baidu Wireless – It offers different facilities for smartphones, comprising a Chinese-coded FEP (front-end processor) for several well-known operating systems such as Symbian S60v5, Android, as well as Windows Mobile.

Baidu Love – It is a question-oriented searchable group where listed subscribers can author and send messages to their near and dear ones.

Baidu Sobar – It is complimentary, easy-to-download software exhibited on the toolbar of a browser, and enables the availability of the search task on each website page that a subscriber surfs.

Baidu Anti-Virus – It provides anti-virus software goods and PC virus-linked reports.

Baidu Internet TV (also called Baidu Movies) – It enables a subscriber to explore, view, and download complimentary films, cartoons, TV serials, and other shows anchored on its servers.

Baidu Safety Center – Introduced in 2008, offers subscribers complimentary system fixing, virus scanning, and online safety appraisals.

Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific – It is a collaboration with Discovery Communications, revolving around technology, science, natural history, astronomy, fossilology, engineering, history, archaeology, and ethnicity.

Baidu Browser – It is a web browser initially launched in the form of a beta in 2011 July. Users have observed that its user interface resembles Chromium/Google Chrome significantly.

The voice assistant in the Chinese language for search facilities for Chinese-speaking people traveling to Japan got introduced in 2008 with collaborator Willcom Inc., a Japan-based individual cellular-phone system operator.

What are the Controversies Associated with Baidu?

Baidu has been subject to censorship for many reasons and extensive periods. There were record leaks in April 2009 that substantiated a comprehensive list of censored themes and blocked sites. In 2016, a 21-year-old student of Xidian University named Wèi Zéxī died because of an observational cancer treatment that he applied to himself after finding it out via the P4P search of Baidu. Zéxī’s diagnosis was synovial sarcoma which is an uncommon variety of cancer. The therapy was ineffective, and he passed away in April 2016. The online community for hemophilia (bleeder’s disease) was put on sale by Baidu to hospitals that are deemed incompetent. This community was a part of Baidu Tieba. In August 2020, after the Sino-Indian face-offs 2020, the Indian government blocked and banned Baidu and other Chinese websites due to countrywide security concerns.

Baidu Management

Robin Li (Chief Executive Officer and co-founder)

Robin Li Yanhong serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Baidu, and he is also one of the company’s co-founders. Robin is a China-based software engineer and wealthy web capitalist. Till 2022 March, Robin’s net worth was the US $8.5 billion.

Eric Xu (Co-Founder)

Eric Xu Yong is a business mogul, venture capitalist, and humanitarian. Xu is famous for being one of the co-founders of Baidu, the most prominent China-based search engine.

Baidu Stock Performance

The common stocks of Baidu, Inc. are traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol BIDU and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong with the ticker code 9888.

On May 31, 2022, Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) closed trading at US $140.35 at 4:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

Baidu, Inc. Financial Performance

Given below are the financial performance highlights of Baidu, Inc.:

• Operating income – ↓CN¥10.518 billion (2021)
• Revenue – ↑ CN¥ 124.493 billion (2021)
• Total assets – ↑ CN¥380.034 billion (2021)
• Net income – ↓Decrease CN¥10.226 billion (2021)
• Total equity – ↑ CN¥156.082 billion (2021)

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