Baidu > Google (in China!)
Google may hold top rankings for search engines in America and other parts of the world, but there's one country that's not inclined to use Google's popular search power. China, the world's largest country in population, instead uses Baidu, a company founded in 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu, allows people to search websites, audio files and images -- very similar to Google!
Google performs poorly in China
Since its debut in 2000, Baidu.com Inc. has witnessed much success; however, you might be wondering exactly what I was, while reading about this Chinese search engine: Why has Google failed in China? It all goes back to about sixteen years ago when China first introduced internet connection. As a Communist country, the step away from governmental censorship was a move that Western companies watched like hawks. Of course, Google stepped in right away and with great confidence, as they were already seeing great success in the States; however, Google did not consider the significant difference in China's market when compared to the U.S. China's internet market, because of its infancy, is constantly changing and unfortunately, Google's presence lost momentum and that's when Baidu stepped in.
Baidu now accounts for 99% of China's internet population, which is a shocking statistic that blows Google out of the Yangtze River! Baidu has now taken over for China's internet culture, especially since Google left China after conflicts with censorship and of course, it's inability to keep hold of the Chinese market.
Baidu's Future
Baidu's journey so far, has been very successful and the people of China are responsive to Baidu's many features. The search engine seems to reach the Chinese market in a way the Google could not. Perhaps it's the sentimental meaning behind the word "Baidu" which according to CEO, Robin LI, was derived from a poem written 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty meaning "persistent search for the ideal," which holds some ancestry for China and perfectly defines the purpose of a search engine.
The people of China are enjoying their search engine and Baidu aims to grow with its consistently changing market. Perhaps there is a future for both Baidu and Google to work together, but until then, both parties continue to innovate independently as they stand out as top search engines, representing two very different parts of the world.
Some Baidu Facts
• Alexa Ratings: Baidu 6; Google 1
• Baidu is the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100.
• Baidu indexes: 740 million web pages; 80 million images; 10 million multimedia files.
• Baidu SEO: Baidu uses a search engine crawler called the "Baidu Spider."
• Baidu Baike is a popular encyclopedia feature on the search engine.