Baidu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), often dubbed China's Google, won approval of the China's State Council Information Office (SCIO) to become a news portal. That means Baidu would evolve from currently providing news search results to providing its own written, reported content.
In China's environment of state regulated news, this is a clear advantage. Right now, content is still developing and everybody agrees that with increasing content there will be more room for higher revenue from ad placements.
According to Reuters, Baidu is already preparing a news department and changed the logo and name of its "Information" channel to "News" channel early last week. With the Beijing Olympics coming in 2008, no doubt Baidu will see its news channel picking up and with it its revenue of course.
While its true that China is relaxing its controls on its media and journalists in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, it is still doubtful the government would grant foreign companies such licenses. This is definitely going to affect Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Yahoo! Inc.'s (NASDAQ:YHOO) attempts to increase market share in China and give Baidu a clear advantage.
For now, it's hard to see Baidu being stopped. Baidu is the leading Internet search provider in China with revenues and profits surging at incredible growth rates. As China's economy itself is growing at a faster rate than that of the U.S., Baidu only stands to gain, especially when news and search are the two most popular Internet hobbies in the second largest Internet country in the world.
And Google? Google's got its work cut out for it in China.
Last updated: May 23, 2013: 09:49 AM
Hot Stocks
DailyFinance Headlines
- Just Over Half of Employers Using Social Media Tools for Internal Communication, Towers Watson Surve
- FedEx Boosts Efforts to Connect the World in Responsible and Resourceful Ways
- OFG Bancorp Declares Regular Quarterly Preferred Stock Cash Dividends
- Disney Legends Richard M. Sherman and Alan Menken Join Forces for a Once-in-a-Lifetime Concert
- IPG Photonics to Present at Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2013 Global Technology Conference
Benzinga Headlines
- 20 Million Windows 8 Tablets May be Produced in 2013
- Analyst: No iWatch until 2014
- Small-Cap Trading Alert: Margin Expansion Driving Turnaround at Zale
- ETFs to Watch May 23, 2013 (IEF, SLV, TAN)
- Brent Slips Toward $100 on Strong Dollar and Weak Chinese PMI
TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines
- Allscripts downgraded to Outperform from Strong Buy at Raymond James
- Ply Gem IPO opens for trade at $22.35, priced at $21.00
- Active equity option families trading on open
- ChannelAdvisor IPO indicated to open $17.00-$17.50 on 300K shares
- Cisco to host a webcast
BioHealth Investor Headlines
- Shouldn’t VIVUS Raise Capital Now? (VVUS)
- Can Human Genome Really Double Its Stock Price? (HGSI)
- Alimera Implosion Analysis, What Is Next (ALIM, PSDV)
- Implosion Analysis For Targacept… What Lies Ahead? (TRGT, AZN)
- Rare Analyst Calls With Huge Upside in Vical and VIVUS (VICL, VVUS, BMY)
WalletPop Headlines
- Baxter to Present at the Goldman Sachs 34th Annual Global Healthcare Conference
- Private Equity Firm Takes Teen Clothing Retailer rue21 Private
- Approach Resources Inc. Reports Temporary Curtailment of Production Due to Third-Party Facility Powe
- ACT Appoints Edward Myles as Chief Financial Officer
- GE and Manufacturing Institute Expand Skills Training Program for U.S. Veterans
My Portfolios
Track your stocks here!
Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.
BloggingStocks Partners
More from AOL Money & Finance
- Business News
- Stock Quotes
- Stock Charts
- DJIA
- Debt Management
- Loans
- Auto Loan
- Mortgages
- Taxes
- Small Business
- Earnings
- Tech News
- Stock Ticker
- Stock Brokers
- Resume Builder
- Madoff
- Historical Stock Prices
- GOOG
The 20 Most Valuable Brands In The World
Save on Spring Cleaning With a New Vacuum -- Savings Experiment


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-26-2007 @ 5:28PM
AllCaps said...
Google USA probably would never want to get into news reporting as that is the industry it is killing right now. But in China it is totally different story. This just underscores how difficult it is for an international company to operate in China. EBay failed, Yahoo failed. All eyes are on Google to see whether they can get it right. On the other hand, BIDU's decision to enter Japanese market is a risky move by Baidu. That's exactly why I believe using a wiki style site like http://chinastockswiki.com/wiki/Baidu.com will be a useful tool for investors.