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Baidu Gets Into Blogging 
By: Doug Caverly 2006-06-28 Baidu.com, China's leading Internet search engine, has announced that it will open its own blog service on July 13. Called Baidu Space, it is intended to compete with the blog offerings of Microsoft and Google. As reported by Reuters, Cynthia He, a spokeswoman for Baidu, spoke (a tiny bit) about it. I cant describe the product or give a date (for the launch), except that it will be very soon and we are very excited. But wed like to keep a little mystery for now. The concept of blogging in China seems like something of an oxymoron, given the number of freedom-of-speech issues that have been raised (and/or quashed) in that country lately. But the Chinese blog market is actually already rather crowded, with various offerings named Sina, Sohu, BlogCN, Bokee.com, and ChinaBlog.net. And Chinese Internet products usually do quite well, despite the restrictions placed upon them. The huge number of Internet users in China (an estimated 100 million) determines what is popular. Baidu has been the dominant search engine in China for some time, even though it faces competition from the dominant-nearly-everywhere-else Google. Together, the two engines control about 90 percent of the Chinese search market. Baidu has experienced phenomenal financial growth in the last few quarters, and one might think that expanding its lineup could lead to an even more profitable future. Thats not necessarily the case, though. A Xinhua report mentioned by Reuters found that despite heavy investment in the blogging sector . . . none of the countrys service providers are now profitable. It will be interesting to see how Baidu Space affects the company financially. It will also be interesting to see what exactly its users discuss. Add to | DiggThis | Yahoo! My Web Technorati: Baidu Space About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for SearchNewz, WebProNews, InternetFinancialNews, and SecurityProNews. |
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