SMX Liveblog: Baidu Revealed: An Inside Look At ‘China’s Google’

This is a real-time report from SMX Advanced 2015. 

Baidu Vice President Liang Zeng has flown 3,000 miles from Beijing to spend 25 minutes with SMX Advanced digital marketers. Thank you, Zeng!

Baidu is often referred to as the “Chinese Google.” Would you be surprised to learn that in China, Baidu is even more dominant in the search space than Google is in the U.S.? As we’re told in this session at SMX Advanced, Baidu has 96.3 percent market share among mobile users in China.

If you or your client is looking to crack the Chinese search market, it’s imperative that you learn more about the Chinese search behemoth. So, without further ado, get to know Baidu from Zeng.

Baidu Fast Facts

• Baidu was founded in 2000.
• Baidu was listed on NASDAQ in 2005.
• Baidu was the first Chinese company to be listed on the NASDAQ 100 in 2007.
• Baidu has an $80 billion market cap.
• Baidu has 45,000 employees.
• Baidu is the No. 1 Chinese search engine with 74 percent market share.
• Baidu has 96.3 percent market share among mobile users in China.

The Chinese Search Market & What’s Next for Baidu

Zeng also shares some insight on the Chinese search market. He notes that there are 600 million smartphone users in China. One in three Chinese citizens bought a new smartphone last year.

He also tells us that only a very small percentage of people in China use browsers on mobile to search – they prefer to search within apps.

As Baidu moves forward, Zeng says that the search engine wants to serve as a bridge between people and service rather than people and search engines. In the next generation of search, Baidu wants to be a mind reader by “enhancing the user experience by showing highly relevant search results on an easy-to-read page.”

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.