Baidu Reaches The Japanese Market
Posted: January 31st, 2008
China’s largest search engine, Baidu, has finally reached the Japanese market after about a year of beta testing. At the moment, Baidu commands the highest share of the Chinese search market and has approximately double the search volume of Google (but only within its communist borders).
The launch of Baidu’s Japanese search portal signifies its first attempt in expanding to markets beyond those of China. Growing Baidu’s reach into Japan makes sense from a language and locational standpoint, and I predict that they will enter the South Korean market soon upon the conditional success of its Japanese portal.
Censorship and Net Neutrality
I say “conditional success” because it’s still not certain whether or not Baidu.jp will be embraced by the Japanese. China is infamous for its overly strict laws designed to keep the communist party in power (almost 60 years and counting), without regard to human rights let alone net neutrality. Do Japanese Internet users really want to use a highly censored Baidu search engine?
The Yuan Outweighs the Organic
Another aspect of Baidu is that it’s much less focussed on organic (natural) search results. The pay-per-click advertising model dominates much of the search results and delivering actual content and information becomes secondary. Surely this can exist in China since everything is government-controlled, but do the Japanese want relevant organic search results or a bunch of ads?
What about North Korea?
They have a population of 23 million and great ties with the Chinese government, but how many of them are allowed Internet access? Probably only a few dozen self-appointed officials.
The Verdict
The jury’s still out on this one. While there is less of a language barrier between China and Japan, differing structures of government and social values are still in play. How these factors will affect Baidu.jp’s success is yet to be seen.
Are you sure that Baidu will use it sensore d Chinese search results to feed the Japanese?
I would think that they would remove those restrictions.
Good question.
Baidu.jp’s search results will probably be more open than Baidu.cn, but I’m willing to bet that they’re still censoring sites that are openly challenging the Chinese government.