Baidu Inc

Decision Points

Baidu, Inc.; (pinyin: Bǎidù), simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum. Baidu was established in 2000 by co-founders, Robin Li and Eric Xu. Both of the co-founders are Chinese nationals who have studied and worked overseas before returning to China. Baidu.com Inc. is registered in the Cayman Islands. In April 2010, Baidu ranked 7^th overall in Alexa's internet rankings. In December 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index.

Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files. Baidu offers multi-media content including MP3 music and movies, and is the first in China to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search.

Baidu proactively censors its content in line with government regulations.

In 1994, Robin Li joined IDD Information Services, a New Jersey division of Dow Jones and Company, where he helped develop a software program for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. He also did work on better algorithms for search engines. He remained at IDD Information Services from May 1994 to June 1997.

In 1996, while at IDD, Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm for search engines results page ranking  and received a US patent for the technology He later used this technology for the Baidu search engine.

Baidu focuses on generating revenues primarily from online marketing services. Baidu's Pay for placement (P4P) platform enables its customers to reach users who search for information related to their products or services. Customers use automated online tools to create text-based descriptions of their web pages and bid on keywords that trigger the display of their webpage information and link. Baidu's P4P platform features an automated online sign-up process that customers use to activate their accounts at any time. The P4P platform is an online marketplace that introduces Internet search users to customers who bid for priority placement in the search results. Baidu also uses third-party distributors to sell some of its online marketing services to end customers and offers discounts to these distributors in consideration of their services.

Baidu offers certain consultative services, such as keyword suggestions, account management and performance reporting. Baidu suggests synonyms and associated phrases to use as keywords or text in search listings. These suggestions can improve click-through rates of the customer's listing and increase the likelihood that a user will enter into a transaction with the customer. Baidu also provides online daily reports of the number of click throughs, clicked keywords and the total costs incurred, as well as statistical reports organized by geographic region.