Baidu CEO 'confident' of defeating Google, but China disagrees

[F-22Raptor]

Baidu CEO Robin Li is confident the company will win in a fight with Google in China, but Chinese internet users don't seem to agree.

The man behind Baidu, China's version of Google, declared his company is very confident of engaging in another battle with the US-based search giant and winning again if it decides to make a return to the mainland, local media reported, citing Li's WeChat post to friends late Monday.

Li was expressing his opinion pertaining to a now-deleted op-ed on state-run media People's Daily saying Google's return to China is welcomed on the condition that it abides by Chinese regulations. China is notorious for its censorship laws and restricting free expression online.

Few Chinese internet users share his optimism though. On China's Twitter equivalent Weibo, Baidu is criticised for being immoral and internet users are saying if Google returns, they will use that instead of Baidu.

At time of writing, a poll on the platform showed nearly 90 percent of voters will use Google instead of Baidu if the former makes a return to the country.

There's been a lot of speculation that Google is planning a return to China since it was first reported last week that a project codenamed Dragonfly has been underway since last Spring, including an Android app that's already been shown to the Chinese government.

While state-owned China Securities Daily denied the rumours, US senators are concerned, having sent a letter Friday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking him to explain if the company is indeed returning to China with a new search engine designed to censor terms and websites referencing human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protest.

https://www.cnet.com/news/baidu-ceo-confident-of-defeating-google-china-disagrees/

 

[Figaro]

Baidu CEO Robin Li is confident the company will win in a fight with Google in China, but Chinese internet users don't seem to agree.

The man behind Baidu, China's version of Google, declared his company is very confident of engaging in another battle with the US-based search giant and winning again if it decides to make a return to the mainland, local media reported, citing Li's WeChat post to friends late Monday.

Li was expressing his opinion pertaining to a now-deleted op-ed on state-run media People's Daily saying Google's return to China is welcomed on the condition that it abides by Chinese regulations. China is notorious for its censorship laws and restricting free expression online.

Few Chinese internet users share his optimism though. On China's Twitter equivalent Weibo, Baidu is criticised for being immoral and internet users are saying if Google returns, they will use that instead of Baidu.

At time of writing, a poll on the platform showed nearly 90 percent of voters will use Google instead of Baidu if the former makes a return to the country.

There's been a lot of speculation that Google is planning a return to China since it was first reported last week that a project codenamed Dragonfly has been underway since last Spring, including an Android app that's already been shown to the Chinese government.

While state-owned China Securities Daily denied the rumours, US senators are concerned, having sent a letter Friday to Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking him to explain if the company is indeed returning to China with a new search engine designed to censor terms and websites referencing human rights, democracy, religion and peaceful protest.

https://www.cnet.com/news/baidu-ceo-confident-of-defeating-google-china-disagrees/

So basically a poll of 300 Chinese Weibo users means that China disagrees with Baidu??? The writer really forgot to take his or her introduction to statistics class ...

 

[Jlaw]

So basically a poll of 300 Chinese Weibo users means that China disagrees with Baidu??? The writer really forgot to take his or her introduction to statistics class ...

Those 300 netizens aren't wrong. Once Google comes back to China due to kickbacks given to local officials Baidu search engine could be in trouble.

 

[Beast]

Google will not come back to China. Now massive backlash against Google for intending to bow to Chinese government.

 

[qwerrty]

Google will not come back to China. Now massive backlash against Google for intending to bow to Chinese government.

there's no room for them anyways


----
Google shouldn't bother with search in China, experts say — here's why

Room for Google?

In the monopolistic Chinese search market, Google would likely have a terribly hard time gaining users unless its product was dramatically better than the competition.

In 2009, before Google retreated from China, local search giant Baidu was trouncing it with 76 percent market share, according to the firm iResearch. Microsoft-owned Bing has had a censored search product in China for years, but it too has failed to gain traction. Baidu still has 73.8 percent market share in China, according to Statista.

"Google got its butt kicked by Baidu once," says Shawn Rein, managing director at the China Market Research Group. "When we interviewed consumers at the time, 90 percent of them said that they used Baidu for Chinese language search, and only used Google for English search, because the results in Chinese just paled in comparison to Baidu's. In the last decade, Baidu has just gotten better, while Google still doesn't have the trust of knowing the Chinese language."

Since news of a potential search relaunch broke, Rein says that the reaction of Chinese internet users has been tepid, due to doubt that a censored Google would be significantly different, much the less better, than a censored Baidu.

Like Baidu, a censored Google search app would completely block results for sensitive queries, including "human rights" and "peaceful protest," according to The Intercept, while suppressing results to other queries off of the first page.

If Google did launch its app, he expects that Baidu, in the face of renewed competition, would use nationalism to keep users from straying, similar to its tactics in the early 2000s.

Market share struggles aside, launching a search app in China today would be less attractive from a financial viewpoint than it used to be.

Already, Google hasn't had major success wooing advertisers for its display ads business in China — it's a distant fourth behind Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu, says James Lee, managing director of research at Mizuho Securities.

Not only would Google need to significantly increase its investment in its sales team, but it would be doing so for a business that's becoming less important.

"The China search market has grown slowly over the past few years as users are moving to social media apps like Wechat," Lee says.

"China is a very different landscape than it used to be: Is there really a spot for Google any more?" he asks. "I'm not convinced."

full..

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/google-censored-search-app-in-china-costs-and-benefits.html

 

[F-22Raptor]

So basically a poll of 300 Chinese Weibo users means that China disagrees with Baidu??? The writer really forgot to take his or her introduction to statistics class ...

Google is the #1 searched website in Hong Kong, while Baidu sits at #8. It's also #1 in Macao with Baidu at #4.

It's not out of the question.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Google will not succeed in China, why?
Google is not willing to abide by Chinese laws, so it is impossible to succeed in China.


China is a communist country. If a company wants to do business in China, it must abide by Chinese laws, otherwise get out.
Can I not comply with US law when i am in the United States? !
China is not the Western colony.

Google is the #1 searched website in Hong Kong, while Baidu sits at #8. It's also #1 in Macao with Baidu at #4.

It's not out of the question.

As not respect Chinese laws,Google market share in China is and will be 0 %!
Thanks for your time!

 

[Beast]

Conclusion, google is only suitable for English language and Baidu is best in Chinese.

The American will never understand the Chinese.

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

Baidu really is a terrible company run by incompetent people.
Google is a Jewish search engine...means it's shady.

I use Bing most of the time, Baidu only for its map services

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Baidu really is a terrible company run by incompetent people.
Google is a Jewish search engine...means it's shady.

I use Bing most of the time, Baidu only for its map services

You should use google map service as well.
Baidu map is bad for you,me I grant my high gratitude to Baidu map,Baidu search,baidu videos...etc.

 

[Feng Leng]

Baidu really is a terrible company run by incompetent people.
Google is a Jewish search engine...means it's shady.

I use Bing most of the time, Baidu only for its map services

Exactly! The right move is to let Google destroy Baidu and then let other savvy enterpreneurs create a new Chinese search engine to take its place.

 

[Figaro]

Google is the #1 searched website in Hong Kong, while Baidu sits at #8. It's also #1 in Macao with Baidu at #4.

It's not out of the question.

Mainland China is not Hong Kong or Macau! Assuming Google is allowed access to Chinese market, which is a HUGE "if" given the current trade war, it will be more than likely to fail miserably. Remember that before Google left, Baidu already had a commanding 76% market share ... here's a very good CNBC article explaining this situation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/google-censored-search-app-in-china-costs-and-benefits.html

Baidu really is a terrible company run by incompetent people.
Google is a Jewish search engine...means it's shady.

I use Bing most of the time, Baidu only for its map services

Dude, out of all those search engines, Bing is probably the worst. Baidu is the best for Chinese searches (except for those stupid excessive advertisements), Google is best for English searches (not sure what you mean by "jewish") ... and Bing is the one most people don't use.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Mainland China is not Hong Kong or Macau! Assuming Google is allowed access to Chinese market, which is a HUGE "if" given the current trade war, it will be more than likely to fail miserably. Remember that before Google left, Baidu already had a commanding 76% market share ... here's a very good CNBC article explaining this situation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/google-censored-search-app-in-china-costs-and-benefits.html


Dude, out of all those search engines, Bing is probably the worst. Baidu is the best for Chinese searches (except for those stupid excessive advertisements), Google is best for English searches (not sure what you mean by "jewish") ... and Bing is the one most people don't use.

Never use bing,everdy day baidu！Google does not respect chinese laws,so do not have the chance to use it anyway!

If Baidu is American‘s and Google is China‘s, I can confirm: The United States will ban Google from entering the United States on the grounds of national security.
Huawei is an example. Although Huawei has the most advanced 5G technology in the world, the United States still relies on so-called security issue. (So far, no one has ever given any evidence to prove that Huawei is engaged in espionage. On the contrary, the Prism event Snowden has indicated that: CIA has invaded Huawei's Shenzhen headquarters, invaded the data of German high level officials, prosecuted its own allies, spies on China's confidential information data, and so on).

 

[IsaacNewton]

Well, I think Baidu can win. Here are my reasons:

1. Nationalism. I can feel China becoming increasingly nationalistic due to the Trump trade war, and will not stand by a US economic imperialism on China.

2. Baidu has the network effect. Everyone uses Baidu so search in Chinese is more optimized in Baidu.

3. Baidu is much more interconnected with other popular Chinese apps like Wechat, Taobao, Weibo. Google won't have that luxury

4. The CCP doesn't want a foreign firm to have data on its citizen as that gives US more leverage in any future conflict. You can expect crippling regulations on Google. Like how they need to have 2 communist officials on their boards and management team. Their data centers on Chinese citizens need to be in China and can be accessed at any moment by the CCP. If CCP demands data on any PRC citizen, Google must hand over or face a complete shutdown. There will be frequent police raid into Google's office to intimate them. China will frequently shutdown their website to annoy Google and force them to comply more strictly with Chinese laws, and any minuscule breach of the law will result in a shutdown and require Google to apologize. Tax won't be as lucrative for Google where they just hide their money on offshore banks.

I can guarantee the CCP will never allow Google to have more than 10% market share, although I think it won't have that much anyways due to the 4 points above.

Mainland China is not Hong Kong or Macau! Assuming Google is allowed access to Chinese market, which is a HUGE "if" given the current trade war, it will be more than likely to fail miserably. Remember that before Google left, Baidu already had a commanding 76% market share ... here's a very good CNBC article explaining this situation.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/04/google-censored-search-app-in-china-costs-and-benefits.html


Dude, out of all those search engines, Bing is probably the worst. Baidu is the best for Chinese searches (except for those stupid excessive advertisements), Google is best for English searches (not sure what you mean by "jewish") ... and Bing is the one most people don't use.

Actually Bing has better image and video search than Google. Google is also full of ads and they rewards certain sites over others if those sites let Google steal user data. Google might actually be worse than FB when it comes to stealing data, it's just their CEO have more people skills than Mark Zuckerberg so they can avoid PR nightmares better.