Comments on: China's Baidu.com: Drugged And Screaming For Better Management

By: BTeller

BTeller — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:06:56 +0000

Baidu's ultimate test in China will be to see how they can maneuver their way through the looming financial crisis without allowing quality and advertiser oversight to take a backseat to making money when everyone is scrambling for money.

Thank you for the great background on the advertising search engine situation with them in the past but can you give any prediction on how they will change their ethics and still continue to make money in 2009 and 2010?

-Ben

By: Marcus Wythe

Marcus Wythe — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:35:43 +0000

The devil is in the details and I appreciate your thoughtful analysis. I would like to also hear what you think about how the economic problems will impact small and medium businesses who use Baidu.com for their advertising and the effect that will have on their subsequent quarters.

By: eric

eric — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:34:35 +0000

You should have written this LAST week!!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:32:54 +0000

Thanks for the analysis. Just one point, on why the market reacted to the med/pharm scandal but not the music scandal — perhaps because CCTV reported on the former, but not the latter, and as the national broadcaster reaches over 80% of the population, a majority of whom are not yet Baidu customers and may be swayed to use Google.cn after this. Whereas the internet reports on illegal music downloads and website blocking are read by only a small % of people, most of whom are prob savvy web users who download illegal music themselves. What are your thoughts on how real is the potential for the music scandal and other user complaints about Baidu to blow up to the scale of the med/pharm issue?

By: ChinaTechNews.com Editor

ChinaTechNews.com Editor — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:08:04 +0000

@asiequana: nobody at ChinaTechNews.com has held any positions, long or short, on any of these securities within the last six months (actually more like within the last 5-6 years).

There is no such thing as good research. Research is filtered, and in China it is sometimes skewed because analysts and research organizations that operate in China have hidden stakes in certain businesses — trust us on that. Stock holders need to vet and filter their own data when dealing with China, but hopefully ChinaTechNews.com can help provide some of that information. We have been publishing for 9+ years, and the model seems to work.

By: asiequana

asiequana — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:13:21 +0000

Great ex post facto criticism but if it was so obvious to you that there was a risk to revenues it would have been much more helpful if you voiced it previous to the stock blowing up. How much money did you all make shorting the stock?

Really, if you think you can do a better job than most analysts then maybe you should get into the business because there is always ready buyers for good research. Being the first one to expose previously unknown risks can make an analyst's career these days. Just ask Meredith Whitney.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:08:12 +0000

Kudos to you for stating what needs to be stated about this issue.
There are many more skeletons I bet in Baidu's closet! Bring it all on!