Chinese search engine company Baidu aims to be a familiar name in at least half of the world within 10 years, the company’s chief has said. According to a Relax News report, Baidu chief executive Robin Li made the comment in a meeting earlier this month with China’s ‘propaganda chief’ Li Changchun.
Li added that he aims to represent Chinese businesses on the global stage. A statement on its website read, "Robin Li reported on Baidu’s target for the next decade to ‘become a household name in more than half the countries around the world and represent Chinese businesses to influence global economies’."
Baidu, which currently has a market share of over 70% of China’s search market, was established in 2000 by co-founders, Robin Li and Eric Xu. It is registered in the Cayman Islands. Recently, Baidu teamed up with Microsoft’s Bing to avail its service to provide English-language search results. Baidu, which is planning its service in 12 international languages, said that it expected the service to start later this year.
Baidu, China’s most popular search engine, already has a presence in Japan. Recently, Baidu launched operations in Thailand and Egypt.
Beijing-based web research firm Danwei Jeremy Goldkorn told AFP, "This has been a push of the Chinese government for years now, making Chinese companies go global."
"Perhaps their idea is that they stand the most chance of success in non-anglophone markets where there are repressive governments.
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"They can position themselves as something that is not American, and therefore less likely to be hostile."
This month the company entered into a deal with PC maker Dell to develop tablet computers and mobile handsets, targeting the Chinese market currently dominated by Apple and Lenovo devices.
In April, the company reported that its search engine had been installed on 80% of China’s Android phones.
