Baidu sets up shop in Australia
China's Google-slayer wants your searches
Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup/Recovery
China’s Google killer Baidu has set up shop in Australia as it moves on an aggressive international expansion drive.
Baidu, a JV with China Search International, is China's biggest search engine with over 429 million users and is actively ramping up its global ambitions.
The Sydney based office is being run by former Telstra executive Paul Christy who has been appointed GM and former NineMSN executive Dean Capobianco is on board in an advisory role working with the international executive team.
Last year, Baidu International opened regional headquarters in Singapore and currently has offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan, London and San Francisco. All international offices, including Sydney, will report to Singapore and further destinations are set to be announced in the next quarter.
Baidu is also investing in a research center in South East Asia and is expected to be rolling out new products and services to launch into the new international markets.
The Chinese search giant has had mixed fortunes in trying to expand its business outside if the core search and advertising model. Last year it shut down ecommerce platform Youa and its attempt to launch a Twitter killer Shuoba, also failed and was wound down in August.
Singapore HQ is headed up by Richard Huggins , international executive director and Fionn Hyndman, the former MD of DGM Australia .
While Baidu is under no threat of losing it domestic dominance in the Chinese search market, rivals Alibaba Group and Sohu.com Inc's Sogou are competing aggressively for online advertising dollars.
In Q1, Baidu had 30.9 percent of the online advertising market while Alibaba had 17.9 percent. In just the search market, Baidu had 78.5 percent of the market while Google had 16.6 percent. ®
COMMENTS
The first searches
I do on baidu.com.au (when it comes online) will be "Tiananmen Square Massacre", "Falun Gong", and "Free Tibet". If the first page of results link to Tank Man or pages about freeing Tibet I'll definitely consider switching from Google. If the search gets blocked or redirected to Communist Party propaganda, then I won't be. That's my acid test for them.
The question is, will Baidu extend Chinese censorship and propaganda beyond their borders or not?
My guess is that Baidu, which presumably wants this operation
to be a success, will comply with Australian laws and mores. Whether these promote openess and freedom or corporate and government control is up to the residents of that country....
Henri
Austfailia the best place for it!
Our Glorious Leaders are completely in favor of the kind of censorship China uses - just look at Senator Luddite Conroy, with his expertise in the field of internet communications.
Our government would LOVE to have the kind of surveillance control China has - lets face it so would the UK & US governments, not to mention a few media outlets *cough* MURDOCH *cough*.
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
