Baidu
Baidu, Inc. (/ˈbaɪduː/ BY-doo; Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù; lit. 'hundred degrees') is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services, products, and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District.[3] It is one of the largest AI and Internet companies in the world. The holding company of the group is incorporated in the Cayman Islands.[2] Baidu was incorporated in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. Baidu has origins in RankDex, an earlier search engine developed by Robin Li in 1996, before he founded Baidu in 2000.[4]
For the medieval person, see Family of Demetrius II of Georgia.
Baidu offers various services, including a Chinese search engine, as well as a mapping service called Baidu Maps. Baidu offers about 57 search and community services, such as Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia), Baidu Wangpan (a cloud storage service), and Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum).[5]
Baidu Global Business Unit (GBU) is responsible for Baidu's international products and services for markets outside of China. Baidu GBU's product portfolio includes keyboard apps Simeji and Facemoji Keyboard, content recommendation platform popIn, augmented reality network OmniAR, Japanese smart projector popIn Aladdin, and ad platform MediaGo, which is focused on Chinese advertisers looking to reach overseas users. In 2017, Baidu GBU entered into a partnership with Snap Inc. to act as the company's official ad reseller for Snapchat in Greater China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.[6] The partnership was extended in 2019.[7]
In 2018, Baidu divested the "Global DU business" portion of its overseas business, which developed a series of utility apps including ES File Explorer, DU Caller, Mobojoy, Photo Wonder and DU Recorder, etc.[8] This business now operates independently of Baidu under the name DO Global.[9]
In December 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index.[10] As of May 2018, Baidu's market cap rose to US$99 billion.[11][12][13] In October 2018, Baidu became the first Chinese firm to join the United States-based computer ethics consortium Partnership on AI.[14]
Name[edit]
The name Baidu (百度) literally means "a hundred times", or alternatively, "countless times". It is a quote from the last line of Xin Qiji's (辛弃疾) classical poem "Green Jade Table in The Lantern Festival" (青玉案·元夕) saying: "Having searched hundreds of times in the crowd, suddenly turning back, she is there in the dimmest candlelight." (众里寻他千百度, 蓦然回首, 那人却在灯火阑珊处。)[58][59]
Baidu offers several services[60] to locate information, products and services using Chinese-language search terms, such as, search by Chinese phonetics, advanced search, snapshots, spell checker, stock quotes, news, knows, postbar, images, video and space information, and weather, train and flight schedules and other local information. The user-agent string of Baidu search engine is Baiduspider.[61][62]
Baidu Union[edit]
Baidu Union consists of several third-party websites and software applications.[92] Union members incorporate a Baidu search box or toolbar and match its sponsored links with the content on their properties. Their users can conduct search via the Baidu search box or toolbar and can click the sponsored links located on their properties. Baidu has also launched programs through which it displays the online advertising of its customers on Baidu Union websites, and share the fees generated by these advertisements with the owners of these Baidu Union websites. As of May 2011, there were 230,000 partner websites that displayed Baidu Union ads on their websites.[93]
Competition[edit]
Baidu[94] competes with Sogou, Google Search, 360 Search (www.so.com), Yahoo! China, Microsoft's Bing and MSN Messenger, Sina, NetEase's Youdao and PaiPai, Alibaba's Taobao, TOM Online, DuckDuckGo, and EachNet.
Baidu is the most used search engine in China, controlling 76.05 percent of China's market share. The number of Internet users in China had reached 705 million by the end of 2015, according to a report by the internetlivestats.com.[95]
In an August 2010 Wall Street Journal article,[96] Baidu played down its benefit from Google's having moved its China search service to Hong Kong, but Baidu's share of revenue in China's search-advertising market grew six percentage points in the second quarter to 70%, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.
It is also evident that Baidu is attempting to enter the Internet social network market. As of 2011, it is discussing the possibility of working with Facebook, which would lead to a Chinese version of the international social network, managed by Baidu.[97] This plan, if executed, would face off Baidu with competition from the three popular Chinese social networks Qzone, Renren[98] and Kaixin001[99] as well as induce rivalry with instant-messaging giant, Tencent QQ.[100]
On 22 February 2012, Hudong submitted a complaint to the State Administration for Industry and Commerce asking for a review of the behavior of Baidu, accusing it of being monopolistic.[101]
By August 2014, Baidu's search market share in China has dropped to 56.3%, where Qihoo 360, its closest competitor who has rebranded its search engine as so.com, has increased its market share to 29.0%, according to report from CNZZ.com.[102]
In February 2015, Baidu was alleged to use anticompetitive tactics in Brazil against the Brazilian online security firm PSafe and Qihoo 360 (the largest investor of PSafe).[103][104]
In an ongoing competition in AI natural language processing called General Language Understanding Evaluation, otherwise known as GLUE, Baidu took a lead over Microsoft and Google in December 2019.[105]
Research and patents[edit]
Baidu has started to invest in deep learning research and is integrating new deep learning technology into some of its apps and products, including Phoenix Nest. Phoenix Nest is Baidu's ad-bidding platform.[106]
In April 2012 Baidu JDC long live applied for a patent for its "DNA copyright recognition" technology. This technology automatically scans files that are uploaded by Internet users, and recognizes and filters out content that may violate copyright law. This allows Baidu to offer an infringement-free platform.[107][108]
Baidu has applied for a utility patent in the UK, for its proprietary site-wise search technology which is currently available in China.
Baidu has more than 7,000 published AI patent applications in China, the highest in the country. The AI open platform Baidu Brain has made available more than 250 core AI capabilities to over 1.9 million developers, while PaddlePaddle, the largest open-source deep learning platform in China, services 84,000 enterprises. Industries throughout China are using the PaddlePaddle platform to create specialized applications for their sectors, from the automotive industry's acceleration of autonomous vehicles to the health-care industry's applications for fighting COVID-19.
In April 2022, Baidu announced they gained permits from China to provide the first driverless taxis. The company aim to provide driverless ride-hailing services to the public and have 10 autonomous cars set to begin offering rides to passengers within a 23-square-mile area in suburban begin beginning 28 April 2022.[109]
In July 2022, Baidu unveiled the Apollo RT6, a driverless vehicle that is planned to join Baidu's driverless fleet in 2023.[110]
Censorship[edit]
According to the China Digital Times, Baidu has a long history of being the most active and restrictive online censor in the search arena. Documents leaked in April 2009 from an employee in Baidu's internal monitoring and censorship department show a long list of blocked websites and censored topics on Baidu search.[111]
In May 2011, activists sued Baidu in the United States for violating the U.S. Constitution by the censorship it conducts in accord with the demand of the Chinese government.[112] A U.S. judge has ruled[113] that the Chinese search engine Baidu has the right to block pro-democracy works from its query results under freedom of speech rights, dismissing a lawsuit that sought to punish the company for Internet censorship.[114][115]
In 2017, Baidu began coordinating with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security as well as 372 Internet police departments to detect information related to "anti-government rumors" and then flooding "Baidu-linked web sites, news sites and devices with alerts dispelling the so-called misinformation."[116] This was done using natural language processing, big data and artificial intelligence.[116]
As part of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese regulators instructed Baidu, along with other Internet companies, to "conduct special supervision" on news and information related to the disease.[117]
In November 2022, Sustainalytics downgraded Baidu to "non-compliant" with the United Nations Global Compact principles due to complicity with censorship.[118]
