Chinese search giant Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) says it has received a $50 million investment from Providence Equity Partners to start an online video subsidiary. Rafat was able to confirm reports that a deal for a Hulu-like service was in the final stages early last month. At the time, Baidu was…

Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU), the Chinese search giant which stands to gain the most if Google (NSDQ: GOOG) goes ahead and pulls out of China, had a standout fourth quarter, as it completed the roll-out of its new Phoenix Nest ad system and benefited from an uptick in online ad spending.…

A Beijing court has cleared Chinese search giant Baidu of copyright infringement suits brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the major record labels. The court’s judgment was simply that the search engine had not broken rules by linking to unauthorized music downloads. In the…

Updated below: The professional online video scene in China is now heating up, after a few years of fevered activity on the user-gen video side (with lots of pirated professional online video as well): now, after announcements by Chinese portal biggies like Sohu (NSDQ: SOHU) and Shanda (NSDQ: SNDA), search…

Thanks to the relative growth of China’s economy, the country’s dominant search-engine company Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) hasn’t been hurting in terms of revenue and profits the last few quarters. But that doesn’t mean everything has been going smoothly for Baidu, the WSJ says. The company, which has 62 percent of…

Baidu, which already controls 64 percent of the search market in China, is now targeting senior citizens. Last month, the search engine launched a specialty site, “Baidu elderly search,” which boasts bigger font sizes as well as links on its home page to sites that older people might like, such…

This week, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) officially launched Google Music, its most significant effort yet to eat into Baidu’s dominance of the search market there, since so many searches on Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) are for free music. Google Music promises to offer both higher-quality and legal downloads than Baidu, which links…

Boosted by increased usage during the Beijing Olympics, Chinese search engine Baidu’s Q3 profits came in at $51.2 million (347.9 million yuan), or $1.47 per share, up 91 percent from last year’s $24.2 million (181.7 million yuan). Revenues increased by 85 percent, to $135.4 million (919.1 million yuan), from $66.3…

Chinese search engine Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) reported its Q2 results today, and its profits came in at 265 million yuan, or $38.6 million, versus 141.9 million yuan ($20.7 million) a year earlier, beating the average expectation of $35.5 million from analysts. Revenues doubled to 802.6 million yuan ($117.5 million) from…

Chinese search engine Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) reported Q1 revenue of $81.9 million, a 108.4 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. Net income growth was up on a similar trajectory, gaining 71.5 percent to $20.9 million ($.60 per share). Traffic acquisition costs grew to 13.3 percent of revenue, a tick up…

Now that the Beijing Intermediate People’s Court has accepted the copyright infringement suits brought by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the major record labels, the amounts of their recent lawsuits against Chinese websites can now be made public: Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and…

Chinese search engine Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) reported Q4 revenues of $78.3 million, up over 100 percent from last year’s $37.7 million. Net income also soared, increasing 79 percent to $30.1 million ($.87 per share). The company said it had 155,000 online marketing customers at the end of the quarter, up…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is treading where others fear to tread: the Chinese digital music market, where search leader Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) leads the pack with borderline business of linking to “illegal” music download site and even won court ruling against labels on it (see related links below). Google is in…

The music industry is turning up the legal heat on Chinese websites it reckons are flouting its IP. First, Universal, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG and Warner have filed suit against Baidu, China’s biggest web portal, demanding it remove links to music files around the web. Second, Hong Kong-based EMI spin-off…

Music companies have lost their appeal against the Bejiing court’s ruling that the leading Chinese search engine was not guilty of copyright infringement, Variety reports. The companies, including EMI, Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) and Universal Music Group applied for damages, apologies and suspension of Baidu’s…

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) lost its appeal against a court ruling that its Chinese music website promotes copyright abuse. The site, which offers deep links directly to hundreds of illegal MP3 and other files on third-party web servers, was declared illegal and fined 200,000 yuan ($27,140) in April under new laws…

Baidu‘s revenues for Q307 increased by 107.5 percent year-on-year to RMB496.5 million (US$66.3 million). Net income for the company was RMB181.7 million (US$24.2 million), an increase of 113.2 percent year-on-year, while diluted earnings per share for the quarter were RMB5.23 (US$0.70)...this was better than analysts expected, reports IHT. The vast…

With China’s continued economic growth and the preparation for the 2008 Olympics in the background, two of the country’s primary internet companies have been working on ways to expand their advertising take. —Seeking to cement its dominance over western rivals Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Chinese search engine…