The Wall Stree Journal reports that the leading Chinese language search engine Baidu.com is entering the Japanese market.
This looks to be a high risk bet on Baidu’s part. While the Japanese search market is large and tempting (10 times bigger than that of Chinese search market), the risk associated with such as a big undertaking can never be underestimated. For one, Yahoo (with local partners) and Google already owns the majority of the internet search market there. Secondly, Google is breathing down at Baidu’s neck in Beijing to try to steal market share away from Baidu. This is like, for Baidu, openning up two big battle fronts at the same time, while the resource at Baidu’s disposal is substantially smaller than either Yahoo Japan or Google. Maybe Baidu should be contemplating a secondary public offering of shares pretty soon.