Baidu, the world's largest Chinese search engine, has expanded its activities in recent months.

In September, it released three new channels - 2008.baidu.com (on the Olympic Games), baidutv.baidu.com (video ads) and game.baidu.com. One month later, it announced it was entering the C2C (consumer to consumer, a kind of e-commerce) arena. November saw a new wave of expansion for Baidu, when finance.baidu.com and renwu.baidu.com (a kind of Person of the Month selection) were released; free interactive TV programs have been offered, and wireless search engine services for mobile phones operating in the 3G network will also be provided next year. Baidu Japan, currently in its trial edition, is scheduled for release by the end of this year.

However, industry responses towards Baidu's latest efforts remain conservative, even negative.

According to Zhang Yifen, Vice President of Yahoo China and General Manager of Yahoo China's Search Business Department, there seems to have been no progress in the search engine arena -- the core business of Baidu -- during the past two years.

The release of finance.baidu.com, according to critics, underestimates domestic competition in the financial content market, because both the content and data service that Baidu provides cannot compare to that offered by portal websites and professional finance websites. Worse, some experts predict that Baidu's over-expansion will probably marginalize its search engine business.

Interestingly, Baidu itself has nothing to say in this matter.

Creativity

One reason for Baidu's expansion is its need for greater creativity.

According to Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, 80 percent of Baidu's creativity derives from the needs of netizens, whose needs have now become more complicated.

In fact, as early as December 2003, Baidu created a solution that aimed to resolve shared problems in online communities. The portal opened a special online area for people to share and communicate. As a result, Web 2.0 products, such as hi.baidu.com (where you can post an online diary), contribute half of Baidu's pageviews and ads.

Such a non-commercially driven idea, in Li's eyes, probably brings better results.

"Most products that Baidu provides are non-commercial, but judging from the netizens' response, they are helpful and informative. This is really important. In other words, it will meet the market needs if netizens' feel satisfied; in return, it will be favorable to us and indirectly support the future of our company if it meets the market needs," said Li.