Baidu's Growing Market Share In China--A Market That Does Not Matter

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) wants to have 80% of the Chinese search market even though it does not matter. The company told Reuters that it believes that with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) out-of-the-way its piece of the largest internet market in the world will move to 79%.

But, Google may have figured out something which is counterintuitive. The search market in China may never generate much revenue. Search ads do well in free and open markets such as the US , Japan and EU where governments do not track internet activity. In China, most people and businesses assume that their actions online are being watched.

Baidu’s entire revenue last year was $651 million, a tiny fraction of Google’s global sales. Its market cap, which it will never be able to grow into with its reliance on China, is $24 billion. Google’s market cap is $152 billion.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Sponsor: 26 Cheap Stocks to Sell – Cheap stocks have been on a tear recently, but nine out of ten stocks are circling the drain!