Red Wired. China’s Internet revolution

What has worked in the West often does not work in China.

All governments have a strong incentive to help their local companies, and China’s is no exception. The temptation to help Baidu may be particularly strong for the Communist Party, which sees the internet as a part of the media, and hence something to be controlled, just like the press, television, and radio.

In the early days, the Chinese government diverted traffic from Google to Baidu whenever there was politically sensitive news about China

Jacky Huang, China Internet Research Manager of IDC.

“Baidu’s popularity only began to surge in 2003–04. Before that, most people in China used Google

“Just like Google has Google Maps, Gmail and many other applications, Baidu was making applications to attract users and increase user stickiness,” he said. “MP3 search was just one of the applications.”