Last week, Baidu, China’s largest search engine launched Baidu Beat, an English blog focusing on Chinese Internet culture.
The blog is written in English to help the world understand China better. Baidu declined that this move is based on commercial motive. However, one can understand that if the blog becomes successful, it will help Baidu gain global brand awareness.
“It’s really out of a desire to give people who are interested in China but who don’t necessarily read Chinese or don’t read fluently in Chinese an opportunity to understand what Chinese Internet users are doing,” Baidue spokesman Kaiser Kuo told AFP.
“You can see what the intentions of Chinese people are by what trends are on Baidu.”
China houses over 420 million Internet users and is the largest Internet market in the world. Before 2010 ended, we highlighted that China is one of the trends to watch in 2011. In the U.S, there are multiple blogs that cover news and stories on technology and Internet in English. However, in China, most blogs are written in Chinese and are not easily understood by people across the world. It’s a good start but it will take more than Baidu Beat to help the world understand China better.
Baidu currently owns about 73 percent market share in China while Google, its closest rival, owns only about 26 percent. However, Google remains to be a threat because of its global appeal. A main chunk of Google China’s revenue comes from ads, which help connect Chinese merchandisers to the world. Baidu certainly wants to have a slice of that market. But first, it has to be used by people across the world.
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