Baidu says its new big data platform can help manage traffic congestion. (Photo : Reuters)
China's search giant Baidu Inc. has announced that it will cooperate with authorities who started to conduct an investigation into the company for allegedly promoting gambling websites that used false business licenses, the Global Times reported.
The Beijing News reported on Monday, July 18, that several gambling sites unlawfully use the business license of other companies by photoshopping them to be able to register for Baidu promotional services.
Using keywords such as "casino" in search queries on Baidu between 10 pm and 9 am, showed that these websites lead the results list with the tag, "Baidu Promotion," the report said.
In addition, a large number of these websites were seen to be on top of search list or higher rank during weekends and ends of quarters.
The report cited the case of "The Venetian Macao," a gambling and entertainment services site, which was on top of the search results on Sunday, July 17. Bets on the website also increased from 79 million yuan ($12 million) to 100 million yuan within half an hour and the number of gamblers reached about 620,000.
In its official Sina Weibo account, Baidu released a statement on Monday, July 18, which said that all of the gambling websites have modified the information on their business licenses to get an initial approval for their promotion as the company reiterated that it is against the commercial promotion of gambling.
According to Liu Ming (fictitious name), a salesman working for a Baidu Promotions agency, salespeople received 80 percent of promotion fees given as perks by some agencies, which can reach as much as 300,000 yuan per night.
Another senior salesman, Li Sheng (not his real name), said that some companies get Baidu's approval by using business licenses which were usually falsified by using the information from other companies.
Most of the information used by these companies were taken from other companies that are unrelated to gambling and were not registered for Baidu's promotion.
