Originally Posted By Mr X Just curious, if there are any bi(tri?)lingual posters here? I have a question about baidu.com Is it popular in China? Is it a good search site? I've been reading it's number 1 in China, much more popular than even Google or Yahoo, etc., do most Chinese people use this search engine. Why is baidu.com popular? Is it really cool, or just more known than google (the most popular everywhere else in the world)? Thanks in advance. p.s. non-Chinese speakers are welcome to comment, if they know something about baidu.com (I'm thinking of investing in the company).
Originally Posted By HongKongDisneyLand the interface is very similar to google even the new Microsoft LIVE search is made to look like google.
Originally Posted By Mr X Thanks, HK. I've heard that too. So, do you like it? Is it popular? If it's so similar to google, why do you think so many more people choose baidu instead of just typing "google" (like everyone in the rest of the world lol)? Do you speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Or both? Does Baidu cover both dialects? Thanks for the reply, bro!
Originally Posted By jlghk <<<I'm thinking of investing in the company>>> I think it is very risky to invest in this kind of stock in China. You'd better think twice. Apart from baidu.com, as far as I know some other websites are also very popular eg. sina.com, sohu.com, 163.com etc. These are all local companies in China. They know the China better than Yahoo or google which are based in the US. It is true that sina/sohu/163/baidu perform better than Google/Yahoo when it comes to searching information about China. In my case, I used to type in chinese words into sina/sohu/163/baidu to search informatin about China. Otherwise I would use english to search other things by means of Google or Yahoo e.g information about Europe/US etc. I don't think baidu.com is a leader in the industry. I cast doubt on that.
Originally Posted By HongKongDisneyLand my opinion is that baidu offers a better search interface...the others like sohu/163 are too cluttered and clumsy. i prefer to use baidu myself.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>I don't think baidu.com is a leader in the industry. I cast doubt on that.<<< No, it definitely is. It's the largest in China and 4th largest in the world (who knows if that will REMAIN true, but it's definitely up there now). As for investing, actually Baidu.com is listed in New York on the NASDAQ exhange (ticker BIDU), so it's not really investing "in China". Thanks for all the info, guys.
Originally Posted By jlghk Can you tell me one thing? what kind of voice over IP software are you using? i.e. making internatinal calls via. internet. Which one is the best in terms of sound quality? Thanks in advance!
Originally Posted By Mr X Sorry, I don't do that. I just pick up the phone (old fashioned, I guess ).
Originally Posted By jlghk I have to make a couple of international calls to HK every week nowadays. Some voice over IP provider only charges about US$ 1 cent per min. That is really cheap, but the sound quality is an issue.