The Secrets of Baidu’s Investment

Written by Tangos on February 25, 2008
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Ku6.com, a video sharing sites in China, is the exclusive video service provider for Baidu’s very popular Tieba, or Baidu Postbar service. In Jan. 2008, Kevin Lee, founder of Ku6.com confirmed the long time rumor that Baidu is an investor of Ku6.com.

However, an article in the first issue of CBNWeekly disclosed some inside story of Baidu’s investment on Ku6. According to the article, Ku6.com defeated Youku to become partner and an investee company of Baidu at the cost of RMB 6 million yuan cash and 3% shares, while Youku originally proposed RMB 3 million yuan cash and less than 1% shares. A news on Donews said that Ku6.com denied the report on CBNWeekly. I believe that partnership with Baidu has led significant traffic to Ku6.com, but according to a report release by Baidu, Ku6 only ranked No. 5 among all video sharing sites in China in terms of traffic.

The article claimed that besides Ku6, Baidu also used similar partnership opportunities in exchange of shares from other Internet startups

According to the article, Baidu has acquired or invested Hao123, Ku6, Adsit, TTPlayer, a music player, and Skycn.com, a software download site, and is rumored to invest pp.cn, PKParty.com and MyDrivers.com.

Today, an article in Sohu said that Baidu has acquired Maxthon, a quite popular Internet browser in China. It is interesting since it is said that Google has taken shares of Maxthon in last year, though Maxthon’s founder denied it.

4 Responses to “The Secrets of Baidu’s Investment”

  1. Kaiser on February 26th, 2008 9:51 pm

    Strange rumor about Baidu acquiring Maxthon. I talked to Jeff Chen today and he flatly denied it saying there’s absolutely no basis for it: He even said that Baidu called him basically saying WTF?? I have no idea where this originated. As for Google having taken a share, no comment from me :)

  2. CER links: More Shanghai Disneyland rumors, Michael Pettis on macro issues - China Economic Review on February 27th, 2008 4:17 pm

    [...] China Web 2.0 Review: The Secrets of Baidu’s Investment – Baidu buys Maxthon, says Sohu IT [...]

  3. TagEdge » Blog Archive » Baidu Acquires Maxthon? on February 28th, 2008 3:09 am

    [...] Apparently, Maxthon browser has great appeal for Baidu or Google, because it is made-in China. While buying Maxthon raises a question of ROI (Return on Investment), but this news offers tips that Baidu has quietly expanded its product lines. Nevertheless, no news is not a good news for Baidu. Perhaps reading a newest article posted by China Web 2.0 Review will tell you more about the secrets of Baidu’s investment. [...]

  4. CER links: Tony Parson’s new book, Apple store Beijing? - China Economic Review on February 28th, 2008 9:17 pm

    [...] China Web 2.0 Review: The Secrets of Baidu’s Investment – Baidu buys Maxthon, says Sohu IT [...]

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