I’ve received a lot of questions asking what Baidu is, and why all the hoopla over Baidu?

Well, Baidu (Nasdaq symbol “BIDU” - more on that in a moment) is the Chinese search engine that is being tauted as the next Google, and which claims to be the sixth-most visited Web site in the world, which is, I suppose a bit of an irony, given the press that Google has received over what has been dubbed the great Google wall of China, and its capitulating to the Chinese censorship demands made of Google.

What distinguishes Baidu from Google is the ease with which you can download music and videos. See, China isn’t subject to much of those pesky U.S. copyright issues. And so Baidu became wildly popular, which was probably helped by the fact that until Google started playing nice in China, people in China trying to use Google were redirected to one of the Chinese search engines, including Baidu.

Aside from the music and video advantage, Baidu looks a lot like Google, and perhaps nowhere more than in its stock…

[Continue reading What is Baidu, and Why Should I Care? (BIDU)]