Detailed SWOT Analysis of Baidu – One Of The Dominant Internet Search Engines In China

Quick Stats on Baidu

Founder	Robin Li and Eric Xu
Year Founded	2000
Origin	Beijing, China
No. of Employees	41,000
Company Type	Public
Market Cap	$55.74 Billion (2021)
Annual Revenue	CN¥107.07 Billion (2020)
Net Income/ Profit	CN¥22.47 Billion (2020)

 

Products of Baidu

Baidu has a range of consumer features including

• Search Engine
• Maps
• Encyclopedia 
• Cloud Storage 
• Discussion Forum
• TV

Competitors of Baidu

Baidu is a technology-based company specializing in Internet-related services and products. Baidu’s top competitors include

• Andex
• Alibaba
• 51job
• NetEase
• Sohu.com
• ByteDance

As now we have a better understanding of Baidu, let’s look into the SWOT Analysis of Baidu.

SWOT Analysis of Baidu

SWOT analysis of Baidu analyses the brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats. SWOT Analysis is a framework that enables a brand like Baidu to benchmark its business & performance as compared to the competitors. It’s an amazing tool to determine where the company excels, where it falls short, develop countermeasures, and determine how the company will be able to grow.

To better understand the SWOT analysis of Baidu, refer to the infographics image below.

From the SWOT analysis of Baidu, let us first begin by understanding the strengths of Baidu.

Strengths of Baidu

• Big data, AI, and Empowerment: Baidu’s strengths include data, the technological capability to efficiently analyze it, and the desire to empower society with these resources. The next level of empowerment is personalization, which is achieved through the use of data and AI. 
• A Track Record of Successful Market Entry: Baidu has a proven track record of not only releasing new services in the home market but also catering to a variety of markets based on user insights. Baidu has developed one of the world’s most unique and resilient ecosystems by connecting these disparate services under a shared membership and reward program.
• Strong Brand Portfolio: Over the years Baidu has invested in building a strong brand portfolio which is why Baidu today holds more than 85% market share of China and it makes it difficult for competitors to beat it easily.
• Visionary Leader: Robin Li & Eric Xu has brought massive success to this company with the help of the vision they set at the start of building this company which was to launch a primary advertising platform similar to Google Ads and AdSense where advertisers are allowed to have their ads displayed in Baidu search results pages and on other web pages that are element of Baidu Union.

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• Strong Innovation: Baidu’s growth strategy is built on a foundation of strong innovation. Baidu’s go-to-market strategy, which is based on innovation, provides efficiency in its entry. Baidu typically gains a competitive edge through developing innovations that reduce the company’s expenses, allowing it to undercut its competitors.

Weaknesses of Baidu

• Restricted Brand: Baidu has a protracted record of standing as the most active and restrictive online censor in the search arena. For example, Baidu along with other Chinese websites are restricted or blocked in India for federal safety reasons. Such restrictions directly question the quality of security of Baidu. 
• Limiting Its Global Market Reach: It started great at the beginning but as Baidu doesn’t have an English version of its search engine platform, it is limiting its expansion in the global market & lacking to create an online presence in international markets.
• Technology Integration in Processes: Even though Baidu has integrated technology into its backend procedures, it has yet to harness the power of technology in its front-end operations.
• Brand Recall Beyond China: Another weakness that is from the search industry is the absence of brand remembrance beyond China. Only a few people outside China have even heard the name Baidu. Baidu requires it to perform on this and start publicising outside because it cannot stay a China limited brand.

Opportunities for Baidu

• New Environmental Policy: New opportunities will create a level playing field for everyone in the industry. This is a great opportunity for Baidu, Inc. to realize the benefits of new technologies and gain market share in new product categories.
• The Rapid Growth of China’s B2C Market: Baidu’s B2C has seen 60% growth over the first half-year of 2013, twice as much as B2B. It’s cost-effective for new businesses to start advertising their products because of Baidu’s ready-to-use platform. The increasing demand for online ads and pay per click advertising helps and contributes to the success of Baidu.
• Expansion of the Business: Baidu has the potential of growing its business, increase sales, and bring in foreign currency by making its website in English. Having international players advertising on Baidu’s platform will ultimately help Baidu to generate revenues primarily from online marketing services.
• IT Infrastructure: Its current IT infrastructure is powerful and this can be utilised to extend its services in China. With outstanding servers and IT techniques in business, it is unbeatable by other competitors where web search is concerned.
• Global Demand for E-commerce & Social Media: Due to the Covid-pandemic, there was an increase in the use of global e-commerce & social media. Baidu used this pandemic to its advantage to capture the markets by launching a Chinese version of the international social network. If you are interested in the field, check out our social media marketing course to get started.

Threats to Baidu

• Fierce Competition: Strong profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over the past two years, putting downward pressure on overall revenue as well as profitability.
• Less Sustainability of Business: As globalization is taking place, it will make Baidu across the nation’s borders and deal with cultural diversity. Lack of cultural knowledge will impact the business as it is not profitable to just operate within the nation.
• Alternative Search Engine Platforms: New emerging competitors in Asia are following behind Baidu, its position is in danger. As the website is only restricted to Chinese people, other platforms such as Google can have this as an advantage. 
• Regulations and Bureaucracy in the Government: Baidu should keep a close check on fast-changing government policies, particularly in the areas of environmental and labour safety, as it faces rising pressure from protest groups and non-governmental organisations.
• The Pace of Innovation: The pace at which technology businesses are innovating has to be matched by Baidu if it has to remain appropriate in the industry. Businesses like Google hold considerably more funds than Baidu and therefore their pace and scope of innovation is much more than that of Baidu’s.

This ends our detailed SWOT analysis of Baidu. Let us conclude our learnings below.