Thursday, July 26, 2007

Baidu vs. Google: Guess who gets the calls?

If this were college basketball, one would be the throwback Virigina Cavaliers led by Ralph Sampson.

The other would be the retro, Division III Chaminade Silverswords. Yes, this is what Google-versus-Baidu is really about. Look at the massive differences in spending when it comes to search in China. Google has 100 times the sales revenues of Baidu.

However, there's one other "player" who is a true X Factor in this battle. That would be the Chinese government. Yes, as with all industry in the Middle Kingdom, the government is a very proud, involved parent who has quite a say in all things business. Every industry leader in China is home grown. Intruders who have arrived — eBay and Yahoo — learned the hard way and have practically had to start over in their attempts to gain a stake.

Is it right that the referee makes a ton of one-sided calls? No. But this fact is not going to change and every competitor in and out of China knows it. This bodes well for investors who remain bullish on China coming into the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I was there for that Chaminade upset of then-No. 1 Virginia in 1982. There weren't any biased calls by officials. Just good basketball between a talented, well-coached small-college team and a fatigued Goliath that had gotten off the plane. From Asia.

Check out this frank article by John Liu of Bloomberg News.

Disclaimer: Pupule Paul is a teeny bit long BIDU.

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