Well, at least according to an independent Japanese research firm (Video Search). According to their report, Baidu is now ranked fourth, trailing Yahoo Softbank (market leader), Google and MSN.
Personally, for a number of reasons, I don’t really expect Baidu to do that well in Japan, at least not that fast. I will be posting more on this as soon as I get additional information from other sources.
Baidu currently displays no ads with search results conducted on its Japanese site.
I just tried to visit Baidu Japan site (www.baidu.jp) but it was not reachable. I was able however to get to it through a proxy site. Is Baidu Japan blocked in China or just a network glitch? I will try to connect to it from office and post updates here.
Baidu has announced that it will implement measures for assisting Japanese advertisers to place ads on its PPC network.
Through the help of its Japanese unit, Japanese advertisers and ad agencies will receive advanced sales support, including translation of ad copy into Chinese and paying locally in Yens for their ad campaigns. So far, the only option for Japanese advertisers (as well us most international advertisers) to advertise on Baidu network was to open an account directly through the head office in a Chinese city and pay in RMB (Chinese Yuans).
The presence of Baidu in Japan explain this move (Baidu has just launched a couple of weeks ago its Japanese search engine baidu.jp); however, one can expect Baidu to start opening sales offices in other developped markets considering the increasing demand for advertising solutions targeting the Chinese market.
