Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR)(NASDAQ:BIDU) Slumps 3.40% On Broader Weakness
Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR)(NASDAQ:BIDU) plunged 3.50% to $117.46, wiping out most of its recent gain. Today’s fall came as the broader slumped on global worries.
Baidu is all set for the launch of its newest smartphone, a move that could shake up the country’s budding mobile phone market.
Running on Baidu’s own search system, the Baidu Cloud will provide access to a gamut of applications which includes maps and licensed music services. In addition, it will also provide its users with 100 gigabytes of storage on its cloud system. Though the handset is being made in cooperation with Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. and China Unicom Ltd., it will be launched under a distinct brand. It will be priced under CNY1000 ($157 USD).
Baidu has dominated the Chinese search market reporting a jump of 79 percent in the net profit in the fourth quarter of last year. This has been parallel to Google’s shifting of its office to Hong Kong in 2010. Google’s move was directed amid concerns about censorship and hacking. Despite being a leader in the Chinese market with roughly one-third market share, Baidu faces greater competition from domestic rivals such as Tencent and smaller start-up companies, with its mobile search getting 35% of the total unique web site requests. Often known as China’s Google, Baidu hasn’t taken the challenge lying down and has already hired more than 1,000 engineers to help it build its mobile offerings.
Having roughly 300,000 mobile applications on its platform, Baidu’s new phone has the prospective of having an impending affect on China’s fast-growing smartphone market. The operating system is an expansion of Baidu Yi, the operating platform Baidu released last year.
In the highly competitive market where the high-end devices are dominated by players like Apple, Samsung and HTC, an increasing portion of China’s smartphone market is priced below Rmb1,000. The new phone’s low price could be a big advantage as prices have continued to drop in the Chinese smartphone market. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp., which has fiercely resisted releasing cheaper smartphones, recently announced it would sell a phone for CNY 1,999 ($315 USD) in China.