Google has done it hard in China. Confined to acting within both local laws and US copyright laws it has failed to take the lead in a market that will have more broadband users that the United States in the next 12-18 months.
The NASDAQ listed Baidu dominates mainland search, in a big way due to its thorough indexing of illegal music and video and related search capabilities, a service that Google either refuses to or cant compete with.
It would seem that it’s not just MP3’s that bring Chinese users to Baidu, it appears that ISP level redirects do as well.
Reno Peng, a Chinese developer I occasionally correspond with on Skype and over Twitter discovered that typing in blogsearch.google.com into a browser in his Shanghai office over a internet connection provided by the NYSE listed China NetCom resulted in this:
(image cropped to fit post)
China NetCom is a major player in the Chinese ISP market and is the second biggest provider in the country.
We can’t confirm as yet whether this is a one off restricted to just Shanghai or applicable to all China NetCom access points. We also don’t know whether this is an initiative of Baidu or China NetCom, or both. Given both are listed in the United States they should rightfully answer as to whether they are indeed hijacking Google traffic; after all, it’s not very sporting of them to do so.
Update: the redirects are more widespread than we first thought.
China may overtake US in the number of broadband users..But they are one isolated bunch who are never going to make or break world opinion..They are in an island of their own. Hate the Chinese government for that!
China is as bad as Russia….:(
how do you feel when some1 say “*(refer to your motherland is as bad as evil”?
damn!~~
This looks bad, Baidu is cheating on google.
it’s not just in Shanghai,most of China do like this,China telecom also have this problem..
youtube is blocked today.
live search and msn search also redirect to Baidu….
what’s the hell going on?
writing from shanghai… and have lived here for a few years. have not had this problem or encounter anything similar at all….
I think the point here is not that China will change world opinion, but that they are becoming the “world” itself. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. But if you can beat ‘em, make your own damn rules. Watch out?
i’m working in beijing now and so far, my colleagues (locals) hit http://www.google.com and i’ve NEVER seen ANY of them hit http://www.baidu.com. whatever it is – dont believe whatever you read online
another Q – Anand – have you worked in china before? or does all ur knowledge and opinion on china are totally shaped by a niche media like those who report on china but have never done proper research about this market? whatever it is – every government is a pain and if you’ve escaped a lousier govt – believe me – china can be someone’s heaven.
Every time I hear about China and how they are going to take over the world I think of that song by Monty Python “I like Chinese”, which goes:
“I like Chinese, I like Chinese, there’s 1 billion of them in the world today, you better learn to love them, that’s what I’ve got to say”
or something similar…
Did you know Google owns Baidu stock?
i had big problems last year with chinese spyware (i had a chinese gf at the time and she often browsed chinese sites from my pc). The spyware was redirecting a lot of my type ins to Baidu. Maybe your friend has this spyware on his PC?
Spyware Doctor cleared it all out for me.
Maybe someone type the address and didn’t press enter key, instead of grabbing baidu screen.
i agree with u.
No offense, but something tells me that #5 Allen is a Chinese government official
)
#8
San, no – have never been to China. My opinion is all based on what the media feeds me..But then, the very same media has also told several positive things about the country. So I think I’ve been fed a very balanced diet!
Maybe Reno Peng is idiot!
Type http://blogsearch.google.com & PRESS “ENTER” KEY
Stop playing around tabs.
anand – u are right to point out that the cn govt is an island of their own – because they are. and google, whose huge office tower is so dominant at haidian district – is n will always be a laowai – a foreigner. so hate the cn govt all u want – it’s ur prerogative anyway innit. cheers mate
san (#7)
there’s no suggestion that this is a Google.com redirect, only a Google Blogsearch one. I’m interested in Comment #4 though, if Microsoft Live search is being redirected to Baidu then it’s more evidence that perhaps the Great Firewall of China is being used for trade purposes, after all if it’s a clear block it should say so, not redirect to Baidu.
As for freedom in China see my post on P2P tech in China: China is more free in some areas than the United States.
thanks duncan didn’t mean to point the ‘dont believe’ entirely toward techcrunch anyway. should have said dont believe everything you read. everywhere. u guys are fab and u guys are used to commentors like moi. anyway on a lighter note – i’m sure u already know about this thingy but youtube’s blocked at this very moment. maybe it’s a ‘random routine’ thing. i’m sure it’ll be up again.
I was getting it for Google earlier today, and am still getting it for Yahoo searches.
I can access yahoo, but when I perform a search (”blog” in the example below) I get redirected to this Baidu link:
http://www.baid...c=&fp_ip=CN
I’m writing this from my office in Shanghai. I can confirm that, prior to today, I’ve never experienced anything like this (although Google’s availability is off-and-on)
I just tested this using a chinese proxy and got the same redirect….
I lived in China (Beijing) for quite awhile and hosted my own dedicated servers at China Netcom data center.
Here is the story with Baidu:
It has a partnership with both China Netcom and China Telecom to redirect all invalid (or blocked) dns entries to baidu. In practice that’s how Baidu gets all of its users. What you see is probably not the change that Baidu made but a recent blocking of Google Blogsearch in China – and yes, this affects the whole mainland China (since China Netcom covers north and educational networks, while Telecom covers the rest).
Google must use its buying instincts to swallow Baidu just like they have swallowed many others.
I am in Beijing and can confirm that I also see this problem. AFAIK, We are using China NetCom.
I believe Shanghai primarily is served by China Telecom.
China NetCom (CNC) dominates northern China while China Telecom (CT) dominates southern China, in terms of Internet access.
@Matt #19
Can you share the proxy info? I tried googling Chinese proxy, but had no luck of finding one.
I really doubt this is Baidu “hijacking” traffic — you know, that’s kind of hard for it to do. More likely, the Chinese government is going the redirection. They’ve done this type of thing in the past, to my knowledge. We’ve had similar reports of it hitting Yahoo: http://sphinn.com/story/9972. It could be something China is doing to hit back over the Dalai Lama honor the US is giving, blocking all the US search engines.
@ Wiru, Just do a google search for “free proxy list” and choose a chinese one from the first result…
found it, example of this type of thing happening before:
http://www.wire...s/2002/09/55030
OK, we got our own story up now, http://searchen...1018-071828.php, added the background of what’s happened in the past a little more comprehensively, and we’re pinging the search engines to see if they know what’s going on.
Here is the story with Baidu:
It has a partnership with both China Netcom and China Telecom to redirect all invalid (or blocked) dns entries to baidu. In practice that’s how Baidu gets all of its users. What you see is probably not the change that Baidu made but a recent blocking of Google Blogsearch in China – and yes, this affects the whole mainland China (since China Netcom covers north and educational networks, while Telecom covers the rest).
….it has failed to take the lead in a market that will have more broadband users that the United States in the next 12-18 months.
Duncan, a link to the source of this info is necessary.
come on,do you really believe that baidu hijacked google?maybe it is the dns server or maybe someone’s computer hijacked
i am from shanghai,everything goes right
China is very young in terms of open market competition. A lot of laws are not complete. It is google’s responsibility to stop such things to happen.
what the hell r u saying?
have yr mum given a thinking brain to u,my poor buddy
I’m on China Telecom and while I can confirm that I haven’t been able to access YouTube today, I was able to reach the blogsearch.google.com page just fine. Moreover, I was not redirected to Baidu from a Yahoo search as mentioned in a previous comment. The concept of an ISP defaulting URL entries to Baidu given a certain set of conditions would be interesting if we had more information substantiating it. The idea of the Chinese government manipulating the web to spite American web properties over the Dalai Lama is also amusing but, even if entirely possible, something we should not assume too quickly. Cheers.
Stop the Google love, this is not just a Google issue:
http://blogosco...-10-18-n42.html
Baidu even has a partnership with Microsoft’s Search here in China, doesn’t seem like they themselves are doing this. Probably a government f…k up while they were “testing” some firewall controls (those types of mistakes happen all of the time here in China, though rarely this obvious).
Celement (#29)
It was Reno direct via Twitter, hence the link to his Twitter account.
I just typed in blogsearch.google.com, yes, it redirected to baidu.com.
I’m in Shenzhen, south China, I’m using Topway.
Baidu is infamous, so does the government.
adamGo (32).Don’t you think that these guys (Baidu and comapny) have switched off the redirects now that their evil scheme has been exposed?
For what it is worth, blogsearch.google.com is still pointing to Google here in Taiwan further solidifying our independence from China
TechCrunch.com, however is being redirected to Valleywag.com. -whoa-
(ok I made that last part up)
Duncan (#34)
I know about the twitter link.
But I wanted you to provide a link to a site which says the Chinese market will have more broadband users that the United States in the next 12-18 months. This is just for my own interest.
Good website for China Internet News:
http://www.chinamemes.com/
@31
“China is very young in terms of open market competition. A lot of laws are not complete. It is google’s responsibility to stop such things to happen.”
It is google’s responsibility to open China’s market, say what?
Is this a joke????
Why do I never meet this problem? I lived in Shanghai for 7 years.
Clement (#38)
hope this report makes sense to your question a bit:
http://www.webs...on.com/bw/0703/
To those never meet such problem before in China,
try it today to witness the history, a history of political shame.
I strongly agree that indexing illegal music is not going to make Google to compete with Baidu. The Chinese government should take action to make the search industry, a level playing field.
This news is indeed shocking. I can understand blocking, which is due to some sort of political reasons (though itself is also weird). But automatically redirecting one company to another? It is really a shame unless there is a contract between Google and Baidu. Hopefully we can hear some explanations from either Google or Baidu side.
– Yihong
Not very sporting? Man, that is what totalitarianism, of the left or right kind, does to consumer rights … I mean, what rights!!! It is perfectly business as usual in a place where just a few – and a lot fewer by a long shot than in other parts of the world – decide for a 1 billion +.
Still, China is or will be the biggest consumer market and the crux is in how to work with their government.
Maybe China NetCom redirects a lot of requests to baidu.com – when the request fails perhaps. And wow, Live.com is redirected to baidu.com. When you get flu like symptoms do you assume you are having a primary episode of HIV?
Secondly, the Chinese market generally doesn’t use Google.com. When they use Google, they use Google.cn. So the idea that this is being used as an economic tool sounds fallacious.
Is that screen shot supposed to be proof or something?
We can’t expect fair and open competition from China, that’s just the way it is with any totalitarian system
waaaah! china this china that
The US has no economic power over them to do a damn thing and they know it. Dollar is already hammered. China knows it. Russia knows it. The whole damn world just about knows it.
We’ve become a service economy that can’t even manufacture the strings we need to pull.
At this point, you’re going to have to live with it.
Sorry, this post is absolute bull. I know there are flaws in China’s legal system, education system, health system, etc. – there is certainly corruption. But that doesn’t mean you should attribute any wrinkle you see to corruption, a flawed system, etc. Get your facts straight!
If you take this post seriously you are actually suffering from a type of psychosis in which you attribute anomalies to some mysterious, perhaps imaginary cause. The cure – be objective and consider all possible explanations.
it happened to me too, in germany! tried to access music.cn.yahoo.com but was redirected to baidu