Technology & Innovation

Technology makes personalisation possible for Baidu

Anonymous Writer

_______________________

_______________________

Baidu, whose name means “hundreds of times”, is a NASDAQ-listed company based in Beijing that holds about two-thirds of China’s search engine market. Its revenue reached US$468m (Rmb3.2bn) in 2008, an 83% increase on 2007. In addition to online and mobile-phone searches, Baidu’s businesses include keyword auctions, marketing and targeted advertising. All business lines rely on personalisation. According to Shen Haoyu, vice-president of business operations, the business is “really made possible by technology, and by the internet. We’re not selling a computer.”

One example is keyword auctions, an important revenue generator for Baidu. Companies that rank high in an online search receive more traffic. Baidu helps companies to achieve higher rankings by auctioning keywords related to their business: a plumbing company, for example, would join other plumbers in an ongoing auction for the keywords “plumbing” and “plumber”. Those that bid more rank higher in an online search result. The fact that companies can bid for any keyword at any time personalises the process.

Baidu also sells customisable advertisements targeted to specific customer segments. Advertisers pay only for the ads that generate “clicks”, or visits to their website. For example, if a carmaker plans to launch a new line in China, and aims to advertise to people who have researched the brand online over the past week or months, Baidu can analyse web traffic to help the company target its ads more effectively.

Baidu has more than 200,000 customers for its targeted advertising services. According to Mr Shen, most customers are small to medium-sized enterprises. But the number of bigger clients, such as Hewlett-Packard, Daimler, and Proctor and Gamble, is growing fast.
“We’re seeing more and more demand from advertisers for targeted advertising. Online ads used to be very simple—not that different from TV commercials—but more advertisers are realising the returns are higher for targeted advertising,” says Mr Shen.

Enjoy in-depth insights and expert analysis - subscribe to our Perspectives newsletter, delivered every week