The leading search giant from China, Baidu Inc (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) has decided to leave Japanese search market. According to a report of NetEase, it has decided to shut its search engine Baidu.jp after spending eight successful years in Japan. The company set up its operation in Japan as part of various initiatives taken for strategic international expansion.
Management’s Call
The management team of Baidu has confirmed that Baidu has shut its operations in Japan. According to one of the spokesmen of the company, it’s true that the company has closed down Japanese language search engine for now, but there are strong chances of it returning in the market. If it feels the necessity and finds a suitable partner in the future, it will return to the Japanese market for sure.
It was 2006 when Baidu made public its intentions to go global for the first time. It wanted to explore the opportunities available in the overseas market; hence, it chose Japan as the first stop to begin its trial services.
After initiating trial operation in Japan in March 2007, it found the domestic conditions, market opportunities and political scenario in alignment with its growth plans. Finally, the company launched its services in Japan on January 23, 2008 to explore the favorable market situations.
While giving an interview to one of the popular dailies in 2007, Baidu’s founder Robin Li stated that the company had spent $15 to make Baidu a huge success in Japan. He was confident about Baidu’s future and claimed that it would explore the local market conditions effectively. However, the company failed to have success in Japan due to the availability of other search engine giants like Google and Yahoo. Baidu has failed to attract a large number of users in Japan; hence, it can no longer run operation in Japan.
Image Credit: Chinadaily.com
