Baidu

History and Early Development - Baidu was incorporated in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. - Baidu has origins in RankDex, an earlier search engine developed by Robin Li in 1996. - Baidu went public on Wall Street through a variable interest entity (VIE) based in the Cayman Islands in 2005. - In 2012, Baidu partnered with Sina to provide mobile search results. - Robin Li joined IDD Information Services in 1994 and helped develop software for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. - Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm for search engine results page ranking in 1996. - RankDex was the first search engine to use hyperlinks to measure the quality of websites. - In 2001, Baidu allowed advertisers to bid for ad space and pay per click. Services - Baidu offers a Chinese search engine. - Baidu offers a mapping service called Baidu Maps. - Baidu offers various search and community services, such as Baidu Baike (an online encyclopedia) and Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum). - Baidu offers a cloud storage service called Baidu Wangpan. - Baidu Global Business Unit (GBU) is responsible for Baidu's international products and services. Partnerships and Acquisitions - In 2014, Baidu launched a Brazilian version of the search engine, Baidu Busca. - Baidu announced the acquisition of Brazilian local e-commerce site Peixe Urbano in 2014. - In 2017, Baidu partnered with Continental and Bosch on automated driving and connected cars. - Baidu entered into a partnership with Snap Inc. to act as the company's official ad reseller for Snapchat in 2017. - Baidu divested the Global DU business portion of its overseas business in 2018. Milestones and Achievements - Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index in 2007. - Baidu's market cap rose to US$99 billion in May 2018. - Baidu became the first Chinese firm to join the United States-based computer ethics consortium Partnership on AI in 2018. - Baidu launched a self-driving vehicle platform called Apollo in 2017. - Baidu unveiled a new Robocar concept capable of Level 5 autonomous driving in 2021. Baidu Cyber Attack, Baidu Workers Arrested, and Register.com Lawsuit Settlement - Baidu experienced a cyber attack where browsers were redirected to a website claiming to be the Iranian Cyber Army. - Chinese hackers retaliated by attacking Iranian websites. - Baidu filed a lawsuit against Register.com for negligence in changing Baidu's email address without proper security verification. - Three Baidu employees were arrested for accepting bribes and deleting posts from the forum service. - Baidu announced its intention to purchase 91 Wireless from NetDragon, which faced privacy and legal issues. - Baidu settled the lawsuit against Register.com out of court, with undisclosed terms, and Register.com issued an apology as part of the settlement.