I'm sure if you did a quick survey of your peers, most of them would not know what Baidu is. Well, Baidu is a Chinese search engine, plain and simple. Baidu was started in January of 2000, and has now grown to hold over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and millions of multimedia files. Sounds a lot like Google, right? Well it is exept for one difference. Its published content is controlled by the Chinese government.
Baidus impact and significance in China can be seen in many aspects. Just like Google, it has images, videos and maps, among other things. But, one major thing that has helped Baidu, as opposed to Google, gain control of the internet search engine in China is its strong relationship with the Chinese Government. In a recent New York Times article, Hong Bo, a consultant with 5g, a Beijing consultancy said, "If the government wants something removed, it will do it immediately." He added, "On the other hand, everything with Google has to go through its headquarters."
Today Baidu has about 300 million visitors, and it controls about 63 percent of Internet search revenue in China, according to iResearch, a Chinese consulting form. Only time will tell if Google will indeed exit China, but it seems like that time may be sooner, rather than later.