Baidu.jp bloggers meeting

February 28, 2008 1:36 AM

Baidu.jp held a meeting for Japanese bloggers in January in time for their formal service launch in Japan. I attended the meeting and here's the report.

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PCs were provided on each desk so that every participant can try Baidu freely.

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In the first half of the meeting, a presentation was given by their CEO, Robin Li, and Jun Masuda, Director of Baidu,Inc., explained their services.

Baidu has about 70 percent of market share in the Chinese search market. According to Mr. Li, Baidu is a technology-based media company and their main source of revenue is advertisement.
As for the reason why they chose Japan as their second target after the success in China, they pointed out several factors:

- Japan is the second largest economic market in the world
- The penetration rate of search engines are high in Japan.
- The search market in Japan has more space to grow(UK has smaller GDP than Japan, but has the larger search market)
- Their expertise with double byte characters can well be applied to Japanese searches.

What was striking for me was that they emphasized "User Experience" again and again during the meeting.

Mr. Masuda said that their strategic goal is to become the "second search engine" in Japan, i.e. the alternative choice to Yahoo! or Google.

According to a research, 60 percent of Japanese are using several search engines. They are aiming to establish a firm position in Japan as a "second search engine".

The top page of Baidu.jp is designed specifically for the Japanese market, they said (BTW, I found that the footprint is that of Panda).

The latter half of the meeting was reserved for discussion, but we did not have much time left since the first part took more than they thought.

I couldn't make a remark at the meeting, so I caught Mr. Masuda after the session and made a simple request.

I asked him to disclose a part of their algorithm, the general mechanism behind Baidu.

To be honest, I don't think their search engine is very sophisticated yet, but I can refine search results if I know how they are generating them.

I forgot to tell them, but I think it would be also great if they could provide content match advertising. I think it's a good thing to have more advertising options and I assume that there are still some spaces left for that kind of advertising in Japan.

Several participants commented that they could not see strong differentiation factors in Baidu. I agree them on that point.

It's impossible to attract and retain many users unless they can clearly state the benefits and advantages of using Baidu.

Mr. Li said at the end of the meeting: "I'd like to be prepared to tell you at least two reasons why you should use Baidu by the next time I see you again". I think they should.

Anyway, it's a new service, and I am expecting much of their future.

PS: Mr. Mizuno, who has just moved to Baidu from Hatena, was at the meeting, and I was surprised to know that Mr. Seki, a.k.a. "tetsu-jin of search (winner of a search skill contest)" has joined Baidu as well. It seems they are really serious about the Japanese market.