FYI: New Japanese search engine coming
Marceline Therrien
December 4, 2006
Baidu to Raise
Web-Search Stakes
With Japan Entry
By JASON DEAN
December 4, 2006; Page A3
BEIJING -- Baidu.com Inc., China's top Internet-search company, is taking
its battle against Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. overseas, with plans to enter
the Japanese market.
Baidu expects to announce today that it will begin offering
Japanese-language search services in 2007, Chief Executive Robin Li said in
an interview.
The timing hasn't been finalized, he said, but the company has been hiring
Japanese staff and is in the process of establishing a Tokyo office. Baidu
expects to expand into other Asian markets in the future, although Mr. Li
wouldn't say which ones.
Baidu is the latest in a growing group of Chinese companies that are setting
their sites on foreign markets after expanding at home.
Other companies have had mixed results in their overseas forays. Foreign
revenue at telecommunications-equipment-maker Huawei Technologies Co. has
increased quickly, thanks mainly to sales in developing countries. Lenovo
Group Ltd. bought International Business Machines Corp.'s personal-computer
business last year but has struggled to expand its market share since.
Baidu's expansion into Japan, the world's second-largest economy, raises the
stakes in its competition with Yahoo and Google. Baidu has long dominated
those companies in China, which, with more than 120 million Internet users,
has the world's second-largest Internet population after the U.S.
But China's online advertising market is still relatively small. Baidu
estimates that Japan, where Yahoo and Google are dominant, has about $1
billion in annual search-engine revenue, four to five times larger than
China's market, Mr. Li said.
"We carefully studied the Japanese market," said Mr. Li, who is also Baidu's
chairman. "It's primarily dominated by two players we are very familiar
with. We think we can do better."
Yahoo's Japanese site, which is run by a joint venture with Japan's Softbank
Corp., is that country's most-visited Web site, according to Alexa Internet
Inc., which measures Internet-user traffic. Google's Japanese site ranks
second.
Baidu's site is the most visited in China, according to Alexa. Yahoo's
Chinese site -- which is operated by Alibaba.com Corp., a Chinese company in
which Yahoo holds about a 40% stake -- ranks No. 6. Google's
English-language site ranks No. 8 (its Chinese site ranks lower).
Mr. Li said Baidu has spent about six months preparing for the move into
Japan. The company is planning to operate there by itself but is "very open"
to working with a Japanese company, he said. Baidu feels it will have an
advantage because the Japanese written language is based on Chinese
characters.
He wouldn't say how much Baidu plans to invest, but he said the company has
plenty of cash from its initial public offering last year, when it listed
its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Baidu reported about $138 million in
cash and equivalents as of Sept. 30.
Still, Japan is sure to be a challenge. Baidu has long said that its Chinese
roots give it an edge against foreign competitors in China. In Japan, Baidu
is not only foreign but also far less well-known than its U.S. rivals.
Moreover, some analysts say Baidu has benefited from being seen as
cooperative by China's Internet regulators, who put strict limits on Web
content and who have sometimes blocked access in China to Google and other
Baidu competitors.
Mr. Li said Baidu's advantage in China comes not from any positive
relationship with regulators but because it has been better at tailoring its
services to local users' needs. He said the company plans to replicate that
in Japan. "We understand the local user better," he said.
Write to Jason Dean at jason...@wsj.com1
Alan Siegrist
> Baidu is the latest in a growing group of Chinese companies that are
> setting their *sites* on foreign markets after expanding at home.
Jason and the WSJ: Argh! We expect better editing than this...
Regards,
Alan Siegrist
Orinda, CA, USA
<AlanFS...@comcast.net>
David Farnsworth
getting so common that I don't even blink over it anymore... (sigh) And we
can blame Internet chat groups for this...
David Farnsworth
Tigard OR 97224
> --
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.6/568 - Release Date: 12/4/2006
>
>
Steven P. Venti
> Marceline Therrien writes (quoting Jason Dean of the WSJ):
>> Baidu is the latest in a growing group of Chinese companies that are
>> setting their *sites* on foreign markets after expanding at home.
>
> Jason and the WSJ: Argh! We expect better editing than this...
Where's your sense of humor, Alan? Haven't you ever made a pun that
other people didn't think was funny? (Not that I ever have, but . . .)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Venti
spv...@bhk-limited.com
Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the notes,
But you never quite learned the song, she sang.
--Mike Heron
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Alan Siegrist
> >> setting their *sites* on foreign markets after expanding at home.
> >
> > Jason and the WSJ: Argh! We expect better editing than this...
>
> Where's your sense of humor, Alan? Haven't you ever made a pun that
> other people didn't think was funny? (Not that I ever have, but . . .)
No, I don't think I ever have. I am quite convinced that everyone thinks my
puns are uproariously funny...
But seriously folks, could this really be an intended pun? It seems a bit
unlikely considering the tone of the remainder of the article, though.
Steven P. Venti
>>> Jason and the WSJ: Argh! We expect better editing than this...
>> Where's your sense of humor, Alan? Haven't you ever made a pun that
>> other people didn't think was funny? (Not that I ever have, but . . .)
> But seriously folks, could this really be an intended pun?
Well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, and file this one
under: Jason and the Argh or Nots!
:-P
Alan Siegrist
> > But seriously folks, could this really be an intended pun?
>
> Well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, and file this one
> under: Jason and the Argh or Nots!
Well you see, therein lies the difference. This is a clever bit of word play
that made me smile, where the use of "sites" instead of "sights" struck me
as an ignorant error that remained uncorrected by the editors of the paper.
If the pun was intended, I would have at least expected the word "sites" to
be set in quotes to keep with their editorial style.
Minoru Mochizuki
Web site - 2,840,000,000 hits
Web sight - 31,100,000 hits
Internet site - 1,300,000,000 hits
Internet sight - 18,600,000 hits
Just trying to add a fuel to your fire.
Minoru Mochizuki
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Siegrist" <AlanFS...@Comcast.net>
To: <hon...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 6:11 AM
Subject: RE: New Japanese search engine coming
>
Tenga Wataru
>Google search shows:
>Web site - 2,840,000,000 hits
>Web sight - 31,100,000 hits
>Internet site - 1,300,000,000 hits
>Internet sight - 18,600,000 hits
>
>Just trying to add a fuel to your fire.
You misspelled "fool". Try those same searches with quotation marks
around the phrases. Then look at how many of the results are errors and
how many are deliberate word-plays.
--
Tenga Wataru, Tokyo
天河 航
Minoru Mochizuki
At least you have a sense of humor.
However, you will see that both site and sight are used
by checking around Google. No need to count hits.
Minoru
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tenga Wataru" <wte...@gmail.com>
To: <hon...@googlegroups.com>
Minoru Mochizuki
My apology for mistaking your family name for
your fist name. I suppose your name Tenga is the
family name although it is written first and your
first name Wataru is written last, the reason for
which I don't understand. Minoru is my first name,
by the way, as you understood properly.
Minoru Mochizuki
Fred Uleman
> I suppose your name Tenga is the
> family name although it is written first and your
> first name Wataru is written last, the reason for
> which I don't understand.
It's a Japanese cultural thing. You wouldn't understand it.
--
Fred Uleman
Minoru Mochizuki
cutural thing," as Fred says, although
writing 天河渉 is. I don't understand why
Fred would say such a strange thing.
I would never write my name Mochizuki
Minoru, although I write MOCHIZUKI,
Minoru in certain circumstances and it
is not a Japanese thing either. It is written
in foreign characters, for one thing, which
is definitely not a Japanese custom.
Writing Japanese names in Alphabet
characters is for European and those
who are more familiar with European
languages and their customs to readily
pronounce them and see which are given
names and which are family names.
On my Japanese passport it shows that
my name is:
Minoru Mochizuki
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Uleman" <ful...@gmail.com>
To: <hon...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: New Japanese search engine coming
>
Charles Aschmann
> I think our English language is evolving. This sort of spelling mistake is
> getting so common that I don't even blink over it anymore... (sigh) And we
> can blame Internet chat groups for this...
>
>
about spelling.
Charles Aschmann