Rumor: Baidu To Spin Off LBS Division As It Focuses on Local and Maps

With so many web searches being for local things [1], China’s Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) is rumored to be focusing more on location-based services (LBS) for local searches. To do this, the search engine giant will spin off its LBS operations as a separate business division. Then, this Baidu LBS department will have a laser focus on online maps, live traffic information, and local listings under its existing Baidu Shenbian (“Local”) service.

This LBS move has been revealed by an unnamed Baidu source to Chinese media such as Sina Tech, but it has not yet been confirmed by the company. An official announcement could come as soon as next week, with Baidu thought to be preparing an event for October 17th. It’s believed that Shen Li will be in charge of this new LBS division, and it’ll see local venue searches and nearby listings developed even faster on both the desktop maps service and within both the Baidu Maps and Baidu Shenbian apps.

The cross-platform Baidu Maps app was updated to v4.0 late last month, bringing with it live traffic for several cities, experimental live public bus info for one city, and built-in discount vouchers for some local stores and restaurants.

The push into maps and local comes at a good time, as Apple’s new maps app does so badly, and users of iOS 6 on iPhones lack a native Google Maps app. Aside from those rivals, Baidu has very strong competition in this LBS area from all directions: from deals sites such as Dianping, from startups doing great listings and coupons apps, and from mapping products from other major Chinese web companies, like Tencent’s Soso Maps.

As for mobile, Baidu’s CEO and founder Robin Li was at Stanford University recently where he said he’s expecting to see three times more mobile revenue in 2012 compared to last year.

[Source: Sina Tech – article in Chinese]