Baidu news

Closing this blog

2010-03-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

My target has been hit, and I no longer hold but a small
stake in Baidu. I believe the company's true potential is
to be a $50 billion company (Google's US revenue
multiplied by the China/US population ratio), and hence
around a $300 billion market cap. But my goals are met,
and so this newsfeed ends here.

Mirae Asset raises PT to $645

2010-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Street high.

Rakuten e-mall to open by mid 2010

2010-03-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

Baidu VP Ren Xuyang said on March 12th.

e-book company to be launched

2010-03-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

On the lines of the online video startup. Baidu is talking to
book publishers for content for an e-book business. The
company is also looking for a CEO for the venture, which
would likely be a VC-funded startup.

Partial chinese character search

2010-03-10T20:12:00.001-08:00

Baidu now supports searches on partial Chinese characters,
since statistical analysis shows many searches use only parts
of complicated characters. This requires disassembly of the
character patterns.

Youa GM resigns

2010-03-10T20:03:00.001-08:00

Li Mingyuan, GM of the company's Baidu YouA
B2C and C2C e-commerce site, has resigned, citing
personal reasons and a desire to continue his studies.
Cai Hu, former GM of Baidu Union, replaces Li as
general manager. Cai, in turn, will be replaced as
GM of Baidu Union by Chu Dachen, GM of Baidu's
business analytics department. The transition is
set for April.

Citi raises PT to $630 from $550

2010-03-10T09:48:00.001-08:00

New street high. Rating buy. Based on FY 2011 P/E of
40.

Catherine Leung believes robust e-commerce growth,
aided by Chinese government policies, and better
monetization through Phoenix Nest help Baidu. Total
e-commerce transactions almost doubled this year from
the last, and make up about 2% of all retail transactions.
This is comparable to the US in 2004.

Baidu Union raising ad rates for floating window ads

2010-03-05T18:16:00.001-08:00

The current maximum of RMB 0.05 per click is seemingly too
low. The model is still under testing, and the click rates are
ten times higher than for other display ads.

A new client-end department

2010-03-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

combining the client-end software and software business
departments with the TTPlayer department. Baidu is
looking for somebody to head the department.

Source: Pacific Epoch

UBS downgrades to Neutral, leaves PT of $567 unchanged

2010-03-03T17:47:00.001-08:00

Assumes a 50% chance of Google leaving China. If it doesn't,
per UBS a fair price is $522. If it does then the PT jumps to
$612. The analyst, Wenlin Li, thinks Google will drag the issue
out since it is now a US/China political issue.

Baidu Union ends cooperation with some directory sites

2010-03-02T22:31:00.000-08:00

Baidu will be partnering with just three or four major directory
sites, terminating the rest for poor quality.

Baidu leads the wireless search market: Analysys

2010-02-25T11:45:00.001-08:00

The top eight were Baidu, Google, Easou.com, Yicha.cn,
3GYY, Soso.com, Wukong.com, and Youdao.com. Baidu
had 26.6% to Google's 23.6%. Total daily wireless search
pageviews in the fourth quarter was 1.131 billion. Baidu
had 31.1% market share to Google's 19.8%.

Details of how Baidu's DNS entry was hacked

2010-02-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

Amazingly the low-tech way of lying to a support person
at register.com. Told the support person was from Baidu,
and gave an incorrect verification code. Was still granted
access.

Details here:

http://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/baidu.pdf

Baidu's video subsidiary to be called "Qiyi"

2010-02-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Meaning "great art". The domain qiyi.com will go online in
March. The company's logo has also been designed.

Music copyright society wins suit against Baidu

2010-02-23T08:51:00.000-08:00

On February 23, the Beijing Haidian District People's
Court ruled in favor of the Music Copyright Society
of China in its copyright suit against Baidu's MP3 and
lyrics search service. The court ordered Baidu to cease
offering lyrics, including Baidu Cache snapshots of
webpages containing the lyrics, for the 50 songs named
in the lawsuit, and to pay RMB 50,000 in economic
damages and an additional RMB 10,000 to cover legal fees.
In the same ruling, the court rejected the Music Copyright
Society of China's other suits against Baidu. Baidu said it
would appeal the decision.

Source: Marbridge Daily

Baidu releases Mobile-software search report

2010-02-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

3G functions surpassed music as the most popular
mobile function in 2009, while instant messaging
software accounts for the greatest number of mobile
software searches at 30%, baiduer.com.cn reported.
Tencent's (0700.HK) "QQ" instant messaging tool
accounts for 50% of mobile software searches, while
the second-most searched mobile software,
China Mobile's mobile instant messaging tool "Fetion,"
made up nearly 10% of searches.

Mobile displays, videos and games are the three most
common entertainment-related mobile searches, with
displays and video accounting for about 30% and 20%
of all such searches, according to the report.

[Source: Pacific Epoch]

New online marketing customer tool

2010-02-11T17:52:00.001-08:00

Baidu is internally testing software for online marketing
customers, as of now called Baidu Bridge. It includes
instant messaging, visitor tracking, marketing assessment
and customer service management, and will be integrated
with Baidu's statistics service, "Baidu Tongji."

[Source: Pacific Epoch, qq.com]

Video spinoff to offer search by dialogue

2010-02-11T17:46:00.000-08:00

The company, majority controlled by Baidu, but with
money from Providence Equity and the CEO, Gong Yu,
will offer movie search based on dialogue quotes. They
already have offices in Chongqing and Chengdu.

[Source: Marbridge Consulting]

Analyst recommendations: Details

2010-02-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

Susquehanna

Ming Zhao sees beat-and-raise (beat estimate and
raise guidance) as bullish. Record cash flow generation
in last quarter. Transition to Phoenix Nest better than
expected, especially for large customers. Also,
e-commerce is a significant driver. A secular growth
story in the Chinese Internet space.

Bank of America/Merill Lynch (BofA/ML)

Eddie Leung: Positives - PN (Phoenix Nest), Google
incident, managing costs to benefit from op leverage.

EPS estimates (RMB)
2010 67.87
2011 102.12
2012 147.69

Projected P/E
2010 43.75
2011 29.09
2012 20.11

Pacific Crest

Steve Weinstein said Baidu is well-positioned to
benefit from growth in Internet searches and China's
economic development. He raised his 2010 earnings
and revenue estimates.

Weinstein added that Baidu should continue to do well,
especially if Google leaves the Chinese market. At the
same time he downplayed the impact of Google
on Baidu's guidance for Q1 2010.

Deutsche Bank

"The earnings surprise was largely due to 1) lower than
expected SG&A and 2) other income of RMB28m, which
we believe is related to govt subsidies...Active advertisers
in 4Q09 totaled 223k, up 13% YoY and 3% QoQ. We believe
the sequential growth proves that Baidu new customer
acquisition was smooth in Oct and Nov...we think margins in
1Q10 could improve YoY, given the substantial marketing
campaign launched in 1Q09 to recover brand image."

Credit Lyonnaise SA (CLSA)

Elinor Leung (Hong Kong): "If I was a Google customer,
I would want to start looking for alternatives to plan for
my 2010 advertising budget. I may want to hedge my
bets in case Google really wants to leave the country."

Piper Jaffray

Vivian Leigh: "Last night, Baidu delivered above-expectation
December quarter results and March quarter guidance. The
company guided the midpoint of March revenue to $178M,
above the Street at $170M. Baidu management mentioned
this guidance does not factor in the potential revenue from
Google shutting down google.cn, but suggested they expect to
benefit if Google.cn shuts down."

Morgan Stanley

Richard Ji: "What we liked: 1) Paying customers and
ARPU (average spending per customer) rose
13% and 24% YoY each. Notably, Baidu's total paying
customers account for less than 1% of total SMEs in
China. 2) Sales from Baidu Union outpaced its organic
paid listing sales (+50-60% YoY, vs 20-30%, on our
estimates). 3) Baidu has attracted more large corporate
customers for paid listings, who often spend significantly
more than SMEs. 4) Baidu offered strong
1Q2010 guidance, with sales likely up 48-52% YoY...

What concerned us: 1) Japanese venture trimmed Baidu's
earnings by 10%. 2) ARPU dipped 3.4% QoQ, affected by
the customer transition to Phoenix Nest.

Estimates (EPS, diluted)
2010: $8.97 (up 9%)
2011: $12.53 (up 11%)
2012: $15.32

Revenue
2010 : $893 mln (up 7%)
2011: 1.287 bln (up 8%)

Bear case PT: $330.1
Bull case PT: $589.2
Base case PT: $459.1

Goldman Sachs (GS)

James Mitchell: "Solid guidance for a seasonally weak
quarter suggests advertisers are responding positively
to the new bidding system, and consensus for 2010 and
2011 appears materially too low. Expenses exceeded
estimate but do not unduly concern, given several
non-recurring items in 4Q2009 (office relocation,
10th anniversary celebration, Baidu Professional
transition)."

2010 EPS: raised to $10.71 from $10.59
2011 EPS: raised to $16.72 from $16.16

Kaufman Bros

Aaron Kessler: "BIDU reported 3% upside to
4Q revenue operating income...Gross revenue of
$185M (40% Y/Y) vs. Street at $180M, due to
better-than-anticipated adoption of Phoenix Nest...
1Q10 revenue guidance of $176M-$181M (down
2%-5% Q/Q) vs. Street at $169M, due to better
4Q and PN transition...Increase 2010 Revenues
and PF EPS by 4%." That is $920 million gross
revenue (earlier estimate of $888 million) and
pro forma EPS of $9.55 (earlier $9.15) for 2010.
For 2011, he raised his projections to $1.275 billion
and $13.47 from $1.162 billion and $13.02,
respectively.

Standard and Poor (S&P)

BIDU posts Q4 earnings per ADS of $1.80 vs.
$1.22, $0.13 better than our forecast. Revenues rose
40%, above our 34% estimate, reflecting successes
related to a key technology transition. With this largely
completed, related expenses should normalize. BIDU is
also pursuing a variety of promising growth opportunities,
in our view. We are raising our '10 per-ADS profit estimate
to $9.19 from $7.84, and setting an '11 forecast of $12.05.
Based on revised peer analysis, and accounting for a favorable
competitive backdrop, we are raising our 12-month target
price to $560 from $500.

Analyst recommendations: rating summary

2010-02-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Susquehanna: Reiterates buy
JP Morgan: Maintains Overweight
BofA/ML: Maintains Buy
Pacific Crest: Maintains Buy
Deutsche Bank: Maintains Buy
RBC: Maintains Outperform
Citigroup: Maintains Buy
Piper Jaffray: Maintains Neutral
UBS: Maintains Buy
Morgan Stanley: Maintains Equal-Weight
Goldman Sachs: Maintains Buy
Kaufman Bros: Maintains Hold
S&P: Upgrades from Hold to Buy
HSBC: Upgrades to Neutral from Underweight
Credit Suisse: Maintains Neutral

PS: That is the strongest set of recommendations since the stock
started trading.

Analyst recommendations: price target summary

2010-02-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

Susquehanna: $540
JP Morgan: $540
BofA/ML: $545
Pacific Crest: $600
Deutsche Bank: $604
RBC: $594
Citigroup: $550
Piper Jaffray: $454
UBS: $523
Morgan Stanley: $459.10
Goldman Sachs: $575
Kaufman Bros: $540
HSBC: $442
S&P: $560
Credit Suisse: $423

Floating ad space on Baidu Union websites

2010-02-08T23:30:00.000-08:00

The new format allows Baidu Union members to place floating
window ads, allowing advertisers to control placement including
sidebars or click-to-open windows, left or right panes, and user
options to close the window.

Beta 2.0 version of Pocket Baidu launched

2010-02-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

The interface has been redesigned on the visual front. There is
a new bookmarks feature and multi-browsing support, with
upto 6 simultaneously open windows. Support for new versions
of some mobile phones from Samsung and Nokia added as well.

RBC reiterates "Market Outperform", raises price target to $554

2010-02-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Stephen Ju assumes the chance Google leaves China is 75%.
He believes the Chinese government has little reason to allow
uncensored search, and so Google will have to leave. Also
believes Taobao might launch a general search platform, which,
considering their ecommerce traffic, could mop up ad money.

Postbar has 20 million users

2010-02-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

by now. Daily page views of 250 million. Registered
users 18 million for iPostbar, the personal information center.
Regular postbar is more of an online forum. IPostbar will now
feature timely topics such as the movie Avatar and the Chinese
New Year CCTV Spring Festival Gala, as per postbar GM
Shu Xun.

Last month, Postbar had 12 million users, which means a
month-to-month growth of 8 million (6.7%).

Goldman Sachs reiterates buy

2010-02-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

Raises price target from $500 to $550. Believes google.cn is 70%
likely to go. EPS estimate for 2010 is $10.59 and for 2011,
16.16. That is a 3% and 5% raise, respectively. Believes even if
Google stays, the Chinese government will act to limit its
potential market share gains. Says Google has already seen a 30%
drop in China revenue.

Credit Suisse raises from "Underperform" to "Neutral"

2010-02-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

Wallace Cheung expects Google to keep its salesforce
and R&D in China. But he still thinks Google China would
lose about a third of its business to Baidu as an after-effect.
New price target of $400. Believes Baidu's current market
share drop, from the Phoenix Nest transition, will bottom
out at 47%.

International headquarters planned in Shenzhen

2010-02-01T16:09:00.001-08:00

In booming Guangdong province (Canton, next to Hong Kong).
The company will provide details when the financial
arrangements are worked out with the city.

Susquehanna raises PT to $520

2010-02-01T08:35:00.001-08:00

The firm has long maintained a buy on Baidu. The analyst,
Ming Zhao, with the best track record on Baidu's stock,
believes the probability of Google leaving China is
increasing, not decreasing.

"Based on our most recent checks," Zhao writes, "we think
the transition to the Phoenix Nest system has been better
than expected." Zhao ups his 2010 EPS forecast to
$9.19, from $8.72.

[Source: MarketWatch, Barrons online]

Recruiting for online video subsidiary

2010-01-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

Baidu will recruit an estimated 350 employees for its
online video business by year end, said an insider with
the company's video subsidiary. The subsidiary currently
employs 50 staff, but the number will be increased as it
recruits more employees specialized in such fields as
technology, editing, marketing, copyright, and accounting,
added the insider. Baidu's video subsidiary is still under
preparation, occupied with purchasing copyrights and
seeking out business partners. According to the
subsidiary's strategy, it will focus on providing
high-quality online video products and offer free
video on demand (VOD) services. Besides, the
subsidiary's CEO earlier promised to divest it and
achieve an independent listing within five years.
(Source: Xinhua's China Economic Information Service
CEIS
Edited by Zhu Zhu, zhuzhu2007@xinhua.org)

Postbar linked with maps: say.map.baidu.com

2010-01-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

Users can enter search terms to see real-time results
for posts, with the querier's location plotted on Baidu
Maps. Baidu intends this to evolve into a real-time
search, with location filters.

[Source: Marbridge Daily]

Joint Venture with Japanese online retailer Rakuten

2010-01-27T11:53:00.000-08:00

The deal calls for $50 million over 3 years in a combined
online website catering to both business buyers and retail
consumers. Rakuten, which operates Japan's largest
e-commerce retail site, will own 51% of the venture, and
Baidu 49%. The online mall is expected to be China's largest
when it goes online in the second half of this year.

Deutsche bank upgrades Price Target again

2010-01-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

New street high of $604. Believes Google's likely departure
from China would leave Baidu Union the only Internet search
ad alliance around, allowing Baidu to lower TAC (amount
paid to the partnering websites) gradually. Specifically from
2H10. This should lead to margin improvement, though
limited by maintenance costs and improvement in TAC
revenue itself as traffic rebounds this year. DB raised its
FY10 and FY11 margin estimates both to 44% from 41%
and 39% respectively.

[Source: streetinsider.com]

Post bar linking up with Sohu IT

2010-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Sohu's digital products forum will be integrated with
Baidu Postbar. They will share a rating system for
moderators and allow posting to Postbar from Sohu's
system. Sohu will also operate Postbar forums for
numerous high-tech and electronic devices such as
computers, netbooks, e-readers, mobile phones
including Android and iPhone, video cameras,
cameras, LCD TV sets, and home appliances such as
refrigerators and washing machines. The two companies
will jointly organize online events on the forums.

Baidu Post Bar has more than 200,000 active forums
and about 20 million active daily users, with average
daily traffic of 250 million.

[Source: Sohu report, Pacific Epoch, Marbridge Daily News]

Analysys report on Q4 China Internet searchmarket

2010-01-26T09:41:00.000-08:00

The keyword advertising segment was RMB 1.96 billion.
Baidu seemingly had 56% of the market, which translates
to 1.09 billion. The other source of revenue for Baidu is
TAC from Baidu Union members (third-party websites
where Baidu places ads and gets a cut of the click-thru
revenue). If one estimates TAC as 12%, search should be
88% of total revenue. Which leads to RMB 1.238 billion.
The high end of Baidu's guidance was RMB 1.23 billion,
The high end of current analyst estimates is
RMB 1.28 billion, and the average, RMB 1.227 billion.
A TAC estimate of 12% is conservative, but where Analysys
includes TAC revenue is unclear.

Google counts revenue from ads placed by Chinese companies
on google.com as part of China revenue. This means the
total reported China revenue does not correlate to searches
made within China.

Shanghai Home Hotels heavily advertised on Baidu

2010-01-26T08:44:00.000-08:00

Shanghai CPPCC member Tu Haiming says around 1000 home
hotels can be found with a Baidu search. Most are unregulated
and charge from RMB 15 to 200 a day. Hainan Province's
Sanya City has a regulated home hotel business model similar
to the bed-and-breakfast one. Shanghai's, being unregulated,
consists of unlicensed businesses, with safety and sanitation
problems. Sometimes packing too many guests into one room,
and not changing sheets and quilts regularly.

[Source: Shanghai Daily 01/26]

Baidu wins IFPI lawsuit

2010-01-26T08:33:00.000-08:00

The Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court found Baidu's
MP3 search service was legal. They ruled providing search
results of copyrighted material does not break copyright
laws. The IFPI, consisting of Sony BMG Hong Kong, UMG
and Warner Records, had filed the lawsuit on Feb 2008,
asking for $9 million.

[Sources: China Business News, SinoCast Internet and Media
Beat]

Citi maintains buy; PT of $440

2010-01-25T10:52:00.001-08:00

Believes google.cn will likely exit in the next 12 months, and
that the Chinese version of google.com is inferior. Believes
Baidu stands to gain significantly.

Comscore reports global numbers

2010-01-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

As per them, in 2009, the US had 18 billion searches while China
had 12 billion. The numbers, unfortunately, are not consistent
with other data showing Internet growth in various parts of the
world. Google searches, as per Comscore, have grown 58%
while Baidu's have grown 7%. The only two Chinese companies on
the list have the lowest growth rates (Alibaba is at -1%).
Comscore toolbar penetration is not analyzed in the report.

(Source: PR Newswire on Factiva, Comscore)

Motorola will provide Baidu search as an option on its Android app store

2010-01-21T17:56:00.001-08:00

Mobile users going with Motorola Android phones in China
will be provided an online shopping store, Shop4Apps or
Zhi-Jian-Yuan, from where they can pick the search engine
they want. (Source: Dow Jones News Wires,
roger.cheng@dowjones.com)

Various analysts commenting on management level changes

2010-01-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

"There are signs the transition to Phoenix Nest may not
be going as well as originally anticipated," said
Nomura Securities analyst Jin Yoon. (source: WSJ: 01/19)

Pali Research's analyst said that the frequent reshuffling of
Baidu's senior management indicates its inability to retain
talent. (source: Xinhua CEIS)

Mr Li's resignation could be linked to other changes in
Baidu's business - he had been expected to take over as
chief executive of 12580, the service hotline business of
China Mobile, said Cao Junbo, chief analyst at iResearch.
(source: Financial Times, 01/19)

Pali maintains neutral rating on Baidu

2010-01-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

Believes CTO's departure will lengthen transition to
Phoenix Nest, and slow the progress of Aladdin, since
Li Yinan was in charge of both.

Report from Xinhua: zhuzhu2007@xinhua.org

Postbar to be opened to third-party apps

2010-01-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

Baidu plans to bring in around 100,000 partners to
provide apps for Postbar in the next three years. The
site is expected to draw revenue of RMB 100 million by
then.

There is also a rumour Baidu has canceled its outsourcing
contract with 178.com and has revived the original,
inhouse, version of the channel. This is consistent with
Goldman Sach's note that, with competition in China's search
market done, Baidu will be freer to look at other parts
of the Web experience.

Baidu sues the US DNS registrar

2010-01-19T21:15:00.000-08:00

The company operating the site, register.com, has been sued
for gross negligence for failing to stop the hacker attack that
redirected Baidu's domain to a different IP address. Baidu's
main site was down for about four hours. In addition, Baidu was
unable to access its account to re-register the DNS entry. The
specific Baidu claims are trademark infringement, breach of
contract and negligence, under the Lanham act.

The redirected website had a flag of Iran, a broken star of
David (a Jewish sacred symbol), and "Iranian Cyber Army"
written on it. Chinese hackers retaliated the next day attacking
Iranian websites, but it seems likely the Iranian connection
is a red herring.

The case is Baidu Inc v Register.Com Inc, U.S. District Court
for the Southern District of New York, No. 10-444.

Pali: Baidu may not get most of competitor's share

2010-01-19T09:50:00.000-08:00

Believes Google generates most of its China revenue from
google.com, not google.cn. Shutting down China operations
will not cost Google much China revenue. Hence Baidu's
revenue pickup from the expected withdrawal will not be
as high as the market seems to estimate. Also claims Google
has changed its tone, and is more likely to stay, with some
concessions from the Chinese Government.

Credit Suisse (Wallace Cheung) believes China is likely to
block google.com periodically if Google leaves China. Neither
analyst has commented in detail of the potential fallout on
tie-ups with China Mobile (wireless search), China Unicom
(G-phone/Android), Xunlei (downloads), Tianya (SNS) and
others.

China TransInfo - realtime traffic update provider - tie up

2010-01-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

China TransInfo provides a real-time traffic application for
monitoring traffic, with the app running on mobile phones.
They will be providing traffic info for Baidu's map search
service in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and
Chongqing. The company will also develop new applications,
working with Baidu, to map real-time traffic status.

People's Daily reports pornography on Baidu

2010-01-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

The paper's reporters investigated and found it was
possible to get to porn from image searches within
both the Senior's search site and the government search
site.

Robin Li: Baidu to grow 40 times in the next 10 years

2010-01-18T13:20:00.001-08:00

That is an average growth of 44.6% for the next 10 years.
That would also be $26 billion in revenues in 2020. By
comparison, the US search market is roughly $13 billion
now. China's online population would be far more than
double that of the US in another 10 years, even assuming
a 10% annual increase. The GDP is expected to cross
that of the US by then (projecting an average of 13%
growth from GDP growth and Yuan appreciation).

Baike and Maps added to the homepage

2010-01-18T09:55:00.001-08:00

Twelfth version of the Baidu homepage, starting from 2001.
The homepage position implies the features are considered
beta-quality.

Baidu home pages archive, 2001-10

CTO leaves to be CEO elsewhere

2010-01-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yinnan Li, Baidu's CTO, has left to become the CEO of
Beijing Wuxian Xunqi, operator of China Mobile's
12580 information service. The Wall Street Journal
believes this is related to the Phoenix Nest transition, while
some Chinese blogs think the resignation was caused by
Baidu's website going down for a few hours recently.
A promotion he could not possibly hope for at Baidu seems
the strongest reason. Note that Wuxian Xunqi is expected
to IPO this year or the next.

Baidu's market share fell in Q4 by 5.5%

2010-01-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

Likely from the Phoenix Nest transition. The numbers are from
Analysys. Baidu's share fell from 63.9% in Q3 to 58.4% in Q4.
The company had forecast a fall of 10% in revenues (and, by
implication,6.39% in market share, assuming the total market
size stayed the same). That, in turn, implies no market share
gains for competitors.

Ad sales employees contacting Google China customers

2010-01-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

to get them to switch. Calling them one by one.

Baidu apologizes for service interruption

2010-01-13T19:31:00.000-08:00

Hacked DNS server caused an outage of 4 hours for the
main website. CNNIC is putting in extra protection for
Baidu's domain-name registration.

Moderator rating system for Postbar

2010-01-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

Ratings of moderators will be shared across different forums
and Baidu platforms and with third-party community sites
which apply online with Baidu.

More analyst action

2010-01-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

BofA-ML maintains 'buy' and raises PT from $455 to $480.
Citi maintains 'buy' and $440 PT.
CS maintains 'underperform' and $323 PT.
Piper maintains 'neutral' and $315 PT.
RBS maintains 'buy' and $450 PT.
S&P ups rating to Hold from sell, and PT of $500

James Mitchell of GS believes a Google exit would up
Baidu revenue by 25% in 2010. Pretty much all analysts
see the standoff as positive for Baidu, however it is
resolved.

UBS upgrades from Neutral to Buy; PT of $523

2010-01-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

Comments Google China already has removed filters for censored
keywords, making it likely they will be shutdown for now. Even if
they negotiate a deal to keep operating, Baidu's leverage for
bargaining with advertisers will increase because of advertiser's
concern with google.cn.

Background: In his blog statement yesterday, Google's chief
lawyer stated Google China will stop filtering words required
by the government, largely related to pornography and politics.
This is in response to some phishing and other attacks launched
against some Chinese dissident's gmail accounts from within
China.

Deutsche Bank upgrades Baidu to Buy with PT $408

2010-01-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

Believes Google's decision to stop censoring its Chinese
site will benefit Baidu in almost all scenarios.

Citi maintains buy rating (morning call)

2010-01-12T20:54:00.001-08:00

and PT of $440.

Pali reduces 2009/10 estimates; maintains neutral rating

2010-01-12T14:40:00.000-08:00

Estimates revenue of $164.20 million in Q1.
For 2010, revenue estimate goes to $878.5M
from $937.6M and EPS to $8.99 from $9.65

Baidu website down for about four hours

2010-01-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Hacked at the DNS registrar site in the US. Would have affected
access to www.baidu.com. Most services restored.

JP Morgan again reiterates "Overweight" rating

2010-01-08T17:12:00.000-08:00

and PT of $460. Believes the COO's departure has no
material impact, and repeats what they said two days
ago.

iResearch: China online ad market grew 21.2% in 09

2010-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

to almost $3 billion. Baidu has around 21.2% share, which
comes to $639 million, almost inline with analyst estimates.
The market is expected to grow 50% this year, stimulated
by the World Expo in Shanghai and the soccer World Cup
(very popular in China).

The search engine section of the overall online ad market is
projected to have grown 38.2% in 2009.

Shakeup at executive level

2010-01-08T09:08:00.000-08:00

COO Ye Peng leaving immediately, for "personal
reasons". No replacement announced. Shen Haoyu,
VP of Business Operations, is now a senior VP. Wang
Zhan, senior director of Business Products, is now
a VP.

Pacific Crest raises price target to Wall Street high of $600

2010-01-06T10:13:00.003-08:00

Obviously, rating "buy".

JP Morgan maintains overweight rating and $460 PT

2010-01-06T09:49:00.001-08:00

Joint venture with foreign investors for a new online video company

2010-01-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it that Gong Yu, recently from China Mobile,
would head the offshoot. The new company would have
the standard advertisement-based revenue model, with
licenced content. It has seemingly won $60M in outside
financing, with Baidu holding a controlling stake. Expected
to be online in two months.

Confirmed on 1/5 that the foreign investor is
Providence Equity Partners, an investor in Hulu.

China Mobile's Chairmain of 12580 service leaves for Baidu

2009-12-31T09:03:00.000-08:00

Gong Yuyi, Chairman and COO of China Mobile's
Information Service Platform 12580, has left to
take charge of Baidu's online video service. He was
previously COO of Sohu, and moved to China Mobile
December of last year.

Postbar launches "Baidu Lighthouse"

2009-12-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

An interactive marketing tool companies and individuals
can use to collect groups of customers on Tieba. The tools
available include videos, images, polls and posts, which
the receiving individuals can then repost, triggering a viral
campaign. China Mobile is advertising its mobile music
service, "Miguhui", one of the first users of Lighthouse
("Dengta"). Baidu is providing the service free to over
230 celebrities and media outlets.

Oppenheimer maintains "perform" rating

2009-12-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

Equivalent of neutral.

Baidu fined for unfair business practices

2009-12-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

A district court at Chaoyang fined Baidu and
Evercare for hijacking the branded keyword
Shianba, belonging to Evercare's cosmetic
surgery competitor. Baidu's subsidiary, Baidu
Times had argued they did not have the ability
to police the bidding for keywords, but the court
rejected that claim, pointing out Baidu does
reserve the right to inspect keywords bid on.
The court held the the right was a responsibility
as well.

The combined fine is RMB 130,000 , and will be
effective in fifteen days.

Baidu wins anti-monopoly lawsuit

2009-12-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

Renren Information Services company had filed the
suit, the first of its kind in China, with the Beijing
First Intermediate People's Court last December.
At issue was Renren's website showing up further
down in search results, after they stopped using
Baidu's ad-placement system.

iTieba - the SNS service - has 12 million users

2009-12-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

Growing fast. Baidu expects the service, just launched
after one month of beta testing, to overtake
kaixin in another four months. The Baidu service
focuses heavily on celebrities and fans, distinguishing
itself from Kaixin001.com, which focuses on game
applications cloned from facebook.

Baidu Library adds new file formats

2009-12-24T14:07:00.000-08:00

Earlier known as Baidu Docs. The new formats
are . Vsd,. Pot,. Pps,. Rtf,. Wps ,. et,. dps. The
library now has almost 90,000 shared docs.

Baidu Space updated

2009-12-24T14:02:00.001-08:00

The mobile Baidu Space has been updated. The new version is at waphi.baidu.com, and accessible from wap.baidu.com.

Phoenix Nest still has ads on the leftside

2009-12-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

Advertisers, however have to improve the quality of
ad-text, that is have it be more relevant to the search,
to be listed on the left. The top three leftside ads,
where they exist, are shown on a gray background.
The others are mixed in the search results.

As Robin Li stated in the Q3 earnings call:

Phoenix Nest is a new option, a new system, it’s
a new mechanism and it’s independent of where [ads]
are displayed. So this switch that we are talking about
means Phoenix Nest as the auction system, as the
bidding system, as the keyboard management system,
will take over all of the inventory we have on our search
results page, meaning the main panel will also be powered,
if you will, by Phoenix Nest.

Rumours Baidu may buy Youku for 200 million USD

2009-12-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

Baidu had invested in online video site ku6.com, acquired
recently by another company. Baidu VP Ren Xuyang, in
charge of investments and purchasing, refused to comment,
and Youku denied the rumour. Youku had received a new
round of financing fairly recently.

Youa updates

2009-12-23T17:42:00.000-08:00

Baidu's e-shopping channel Youa now supports a fast
checkout mechanism. Users need not register on the
site, and and can checkout by providing just their
cell number or email address.

In addition, Youa has launched a lottery ticket
sales service, working as a proxy sales agent. Users
cannot purchase tickets directly on the site, but
can enter the number they choose. The site then
contacts a lottery sales organization to purchase
the ticket for the user. The winnings are deposited
to the user's account, subject to a limit of 10,000 RMB.
Larger amounts require user authorization.

Piper Jaffray maintains Neutral rating

2009-12-23T15:32:00.001-08:00

and $315 price target.

Recruiting interns to research grammar of foreign languages

2009-12-22T15:27:00.000-08:00

Specifically German, French, Russian, Arabic, Malay,
Turkish and Persian. The intern researches have to
sum up the grammar syntax and search usage patterns
in those languages.

Teaming up with Media outlets to create city post bars

2009-12-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

Baidu is aiming to locate a user by IP address, and
recommend local media outlets. These media
outlets will have exclusive rights to operate the
regional headline section of the Baidu PostBar page.
The scheme is in place in Hangzhou, the tie-up
being with the Hangzhou Daily, in Shijiazhuang
with the Yanzhao Metropolitan News, and in
Fujian with the Southeastern Express.

Shanda lit. planning to sue in January

2009-12-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

Shanda Literature listed seven reasons

News channel adds video

2009-12-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

The video channels have subchannels for national,
international, sports and entertainment feeds.

C2C shopping site, Youa, underperforming

2009-12-16T09:44:00.000-08:00

As per Analysys, Youa had just 1% of market share
in Q3 2009, despite having over 5% share in volume
of merchandise and number of retailers. Analysys had
predicted around 6% market share a year ago. Few
buyers, and underfunding seem to be the issues.

User search share grows

2009-12-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

As per iResearch, Baidu now has an all-time high user-search
share of 77%, up 1.3% points from last quarter. The second,
Google, is at 17.9%, falling consecutively for three quarters.
Volume of webpage search requests reached 54.5 billion in
China, a 7.4% rise quarter-over-quarter, of which Baidu had
41.94 billion, a rise of 9.4% qoq.

Children's search service shutdown

2009-12-14T08:34:00.001-08:00

following CCTV reports of porn in the results.
Shaoer.baidu.com has been up and running since
2006.

Self policing for vulgar Internet content

2009-12-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

Sina, Sohu, Netease, Baidu, Zhongsou, China Yahoo
and Qihoo have agreed to take measures to stop
linking to vulgar or pornographic content, and to not
provide network services to companies offering such
information. This seems to be in response to CCTV's
recent reports on porn on the net and on mobile
phones. A number of Chinese departments have
launched a crackdown on port on the net.

Kaufman Bros starts coverage with Hold

2009-12-08T08:37:00.001-08:00

Aaron Kessler places of PT of $470, pointing out the
positive long-term potential of the company. Believes
the stock may be flat in the near-term till the Phoenix
Nest transition is complete, at which point, monetization
should improve, making for better earnings. EPS 2010
estimate of $9.24.

Postbar has a new top-level domain name: tieba.baidu.com

2009-12-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce
has granted Baidu exclusive use of the trademark
Tieba (Postbar).

Tie-up with China Mobile and Unicom for charge cards...

2009-12-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

to be used on Baifubao, the e-commerce system.
There is a 5% surcharge.

Outstanding corporate citizen award

2009-12-02T07:58:00.000-08:00

Baidu has been awarded the outstanding corporate citizen
award from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China Association
of social workers, corporate citizen committees, and China
Central Television Business Channel. They jointly organized
the "2009 China Forum and the good corporate citizen
Corporate Citizenship Award Ceremony". Baidu was credited
for its strong sense of mission in fulfilling corporate social
responsibility, in providing a special search service for older
people, helping at times with various crises and natural
disasters, and promoting innovation among University
students.

Sanford Bernstein downgrades on valuation

2009-11-30T09:38:00.001-08:00

from outperform to market perform (buy to neutral).
Says the price has run up so much valuation is now
excessive. Raises price target from $420 to $460.

Baidu acquires Dayhand

2009-11-25T19:15:00.000-08:00

Rumored to pay 30million RMB. Dayhand has software
that allows mobile users to input Chinese characters by
picking from the screen.

CIC survey: Baidu user search share at 69.8%

2009-11-24T20:24:00.000-08:00

Baidu: 69.9%
Google: 19.8%
Sogou (part of Sohu): 3.5%
Soso (part of Tencent): 3.3%
Others: 3.5%

Last year's CIC survey

Chinese-language Japanese ecommerce site expanded

2009-11-20T21:45:00.000-08:00

renamed from "Window on Japan" at
japan.baidu.com to"Window to the world",
with sections on Japan and South Korea, for now.

Baidu Wendang catching on

2009-11-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

Baidu Wendang is the document sharing service
launched on the Q&A channel. Users upload docs
and gain points they can use to download other
docs. Unregistered users can browse and search,
but not download.

The service had amassed 7,400 documents within
48 hours of its November 12 release, and the number
had doubled to 15,242 by Monday morning. As of
Monday, professional reference made up the greatest
proportion at 5,578 files, while tests, essays and other
student educational materials represented 4,603 files,
and literary works accounted for 2,516 documents.

Pacific Epoch

GS removes from conviction buy list, but raises PT to $500

2009-11-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

The new street high price target. A 6-month target.
The firm is still positive on the Baidu citing "better
China advertising trends, US and China internet peer
re-rating, and our belief that paid leads and revenue
per click can both double over several years, while
customer adds can accelerate toward Alibaba.com's
levels."

New mobile touchscreen Chinese input method

2009-11-17T19:23:00.001-08:00

Baidu is planning to launch its new Chinese input
method product based on mobile phone terminals
on November 25, 2009. This new input method
will reportedly support several different ways of
Chinese writing, including Pinyin. In addition, the
new input method has a large vocabulary, which is
apparently 40% more than that of existing input
methods. Baidu said its input method has a strong
"do it yourself" ability and users can create their
own input methods by customizing the appearance,
operating habit, and vocabulary. It also features
powerful networking functions, which enables online
backup of vocabulary base and online updating of
popular new words.
ChinaTechNews

Document sharing on Q&A channel

2009-11-13T19:46:00.000-08:00

"Baidu knows" now lets users publish documents online,
which others can download. The documents can be in one
of the common formats - .doc, .txt, .pdf... Baidu expects
users to upload theses, articles, published papers, test
banks, courseware and the like. About five thousand
documents have been uploaded already. The system
works with a points system, with those who upload
earning points which can be redeemed toward downloads.

Credit Suisse maintains underperform rating and PT of $263

2009-11-12T19:56:00.001-08:00

Game site, game.baidu.com, to be operated by 178.com

2009-11-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Baidu plans to contract up to ten employees from game
portal 178.com to take charge of operation and
maintenance of Baidu's game channel,
game.baidu.com, reports Sina quoting an unnamed
insider. Baidu will retain responsibility for ad sales
on the portal, with 178.com taking a small share of
ad revenue, said the report. The new Baidu game
channel is expected to go online on Wednesday with
a notice that it is "powered by 178.com," said the
report.