Beijing : A possible Google pullout from China could give a boost to its ambitious local rival Baidu Inc., which dominates the Chinese market and is expanding abroad.
Baidu, launched in 2000, is a standout in the global search industry — a local competitor that beats giant Google Inc. Baidu has 60 per cent of China's search market and has held onto that despite Google's launch of a local site and relentless efforts to tailor its services to Chinese tastes.
If Google closes China-based Google.cn, Baidu might be able to pick up many of its users and advertisers, analysts said. Google's main US site has a Chinese section but government filters hamper access for users in China.
"We view this development as a major positive opportunity for Baidu," Citigroup analysts Catherine Leung and Mark S. Mahaney said in a report.
Baidu shares on the US Nasdaq market jumped 13.7 per cent on Wednesday to $439.48 (Dh1,614) after Google's announcement that it would stop censoring search results in China and might pull out.
Little known abroad, Beijing-based Baidu is one of the world's most-popular websites based solely on its following in China, the world's most populous Internet market with 338 million people online as of June. Web traffic monitoring company Alexa ranks Baidu as the world's 8th most-visited site.
The company launched its first site abroad in 2007 in Japan and industry analysts expect other markets to follow. Less competition from Google might allow Baidu to boost profits and speed up its overseas expansion.
Baidu, pronounced "Bye-doo", has benefited in the past from government controls over internet access.
