Chinese Based Baidu Under Fire
June 4, 2014
Baidu has dominated the Chinese search space since its inception, but it appears there may be trouble in the water. Baidu is facing competition and is not handling it well. In “Shenma Search Engine Looks to Take on Baidu,” the article describes how a new mobile search engine is already taking a share of the Baidu market:
“The mobile search engine jointly launched by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and UCWeb Inc will host 200 million users by the end of this year and will be a major challenge to Baidu Inc’s dominance in the online search market . . . Shenma currently has around 100 million users. On Monday, Yu accused Baidu of unfair competition. He said Baidu briefly put Shenma on a black list earlier this month and advised Chinese Web users not to download it.”
And the charges or allegations of unfair business practices continue. In “UCWeb Head Slams Baidu for Alleged Business Interference,” Shenma execs claim that Baidu went as far as to tamper with its product:
“Yu Yongfu, chief of Beijing-based UCWeb Inc, a major mobile browser provider backed by Alibaba Group Holding, directed his fire at the country’s dominant search engine Baidu on Monday, accusing Baidu of having maliciously tampered with its browser and search engine following UCWeb’s recent launch of a mobile search engine.”
In a country not exactly known for its embrace of fair and free market competition, the fight over China’s Web space is heating up. Keep an eye on the battle, as China’s ability to maintain free market Web search could be a harbinger for other areas of China’s market.
Emily Rae Aldridge, June 04, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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Chinese Based Baidu Under Fire : Stephen E. Arnold @ Beyond Search