China issues new Internet rules on advertising after probe on search engine firm Baidu Inc. (Photo : Getty Images)
Baidu Inc. is likely to have a more difficult time in China as more companies in the West such as Bing and Yahoo may benefit from the current crackdown on the Chinese search engine.
According to an analysis from Forbes contributor Doug Young, Baidu's woes appear to be getting bigger by the minute as China's Internet regulator rolls out stricter rules in operation and some competitors from the United States may be gearing to take advantage of the situation.
Stricter Rules
Beginning Aug. 1, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will be implementing stricter rules for search engines and the companies that own them.
This news comes after the country's biggest search engine company Baidu was subjected to investigations following the death of a college student who suffered from a rare case of cancer and sought treatment from a military hospital featured in a sponsored ad from the Chinese search engine.
According to Young, this new set of rules from the CAC "look even more aggressive than earlier ones," referring to the mandate that requires all search engines to report all banned content to the regulatory body and verify advertisements before posting them.
The CAC also wants all sponsored search results to be thoroughly distinguished from the regular, unpaid ones so as not to mislead users.
Who Benefits
Google has been repeatedly being banned or blocked from being accessed in the country but is still working hard in getting accessed following the high-profile case in 2010 covered by the Telegraph UK.
Unfortunately, there appears to be no progress in this endeavor which is why Young deemed Google as the company that is least likely to benefit from Baidu's woes.
However, other players like Bing and Yahoo might enter the picture, with the tech giant out of the way and China's homegrown search engine company suffering from scrutiny in its own backyard.
"Bing looks like the best positioned to benefit, though it's currently a non-player in China and doesn't seem very marketing savvy," Young wrote, referring to the search engine that is currently offering a Chinese-language platform in Hong Kong.
Young also believes that Yahoo has a big chance at getting the best out of the situation considering that the company already has access and support from the inside thanks to Chinese billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba.
"The pair actually formed a search partnership centered on Yahoo's original China site more than a decade ago," Young said. "But Alibaba wasn't able to revive the site's falling fortunes, and now visits to yahoo.cn simply re-direct users to Yahoo's Singapore site."
