Recently I had noticed that my blog had visitors from Baidu until then I didn’t even know what the word Baidu implied.  This time I got to know that it is one type of search engine may be used in a particular country.  Being inquisitive I entered in Baidu and found it as search engine of China. I got astonished not only for visitors getting my English sub-domain without any indexing but also for visitors coming to Bengali blog from it.

Thus I gave a thought to study on Baidu in details. Here goes the description of this search engine that I could learn from my search.

As Baidu is a search engine let’s find some analogies between these two: Baidu and Google.

Baidu vs Google: an overview

As we all know google is a global search engine whereas Baidu is a local Chinese search engine.

From 2010 Google got partially restricted in China for the sake of different  securities. If someone search Google.com being in China, then it will take him in a server which is  Hong Kong based google site google.com.hk. Some services of google such as search, Gmail, translate, drive, YouTube, Play Store, News, Maps etc are blocked in China. Nevertheless one can enter in google from China using VPN.

According to May,2021, Baidu has occupied 72.37℅ market share  of China. In the meantime, as a subsidiary of Google, being a 4th online search market, google China is worth of 1.95℅ market share in China.

Though both Baidu and Google are registered in American based financial market NASDAQ, the main difference between these two is Baidu is local and focused on national market whereas Google will keep dominating the world with their products, service and business as an international search engine.

When it comes to service providing Baidu is in no way lagging comparing to google as it is fulfilling all those search supports, location based services, software, programming, gaming, entertainment, educational, social service of Chinese individuals.

As Chinese is the most complex language of this world and the developers have used Chinese language in this search engine , the main challenge for the service of Baidu  without any doubt is  Chinese language. If you search something in English it will show the result in Chinese language. As in Chinese same word has different meanings, the algorithm of Baidu has been set accordingly as far as possible.

Baidu wants to spread their solo rule in China and wants to grab maximum market. But the main problem is China has fewer internet user comparing to its massive population.

Baidu operates its service in two segments – Baidu Core and iQIYI.

Baidu Core focuses on Artificial Intelligence that includes keyword based marketing.

On the other hand, iQIYI offers online advertisements.

Among these two segments, the maximum revenue comes from Baidu Core that is approximately 70% comparing to the total income of the company. There is a popular free mobile user platform named Baidu App under this segment in China that also provides AI cloud service .

Though google has so many unique and wide services,  for Chinese people being a specific chinese based platform,  in China Baidu downplays google in many ways. For example, by avoiding the difficulties of laws, it can provide the information of missing person; it helps in searching for senior citizens and patients and helps to fulfill other bunch of daily needs of Chinese.

Baidu’s development centers around artificial intelligence and developers are working for expanding different products in order to give more comfort to Chinese.  They are going to release Robotaxis or Driverless car for revolutionizing the communication facilities of China. They are also trying their utmost  to make progress in techs like Virus directors and  taking effective actions  to produce  and progress in vaccine. Baidu is also planning to make their company more digitalized by turning it fully into virtual or in another word into a metaverse.

Recently in February, 2021, Baidu has launched a driving platform for the advantage of the plying of their invented AI cars like robotaxis, robobus and other driverless vehicles. They have launched their first AI cars in the town of Guanju, HongKong that the consumers can have according to their personal preferences and demands.

In same way, Google has been working on producing AI cars and developing the techs for medical science in order to diagnose diseases faultlessly for a long time and has been launching new products from time to time.  Google’s subsidiary company OMO once launched driverless car.

At last we can declare Google and Baidu both are helping this civilization to glow up being in their own way. Google is combating with a bunch of other companies for existing in global market while Baidu’s target is only Chinese market so far. Let’s see whether Baidu give a thought in strategy to expand it into a global platform in the near future.

Translated by: Khatuna Jannat Esha, Student of EEE, University of Dhaka.

Original content was in Bengali Language-

Baidu Vs Google(Search Engines): How They Differ