Baidu Adds 20G Video Storage to Post Bar Accounts

Beijing Morning Post, 12/17/07

Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) announced Thursday that thousands of bulletin boards on its "Baidu Post Bar' BBS service now have 20GB of storage for video - much more than the 1GB per account-holder usually offered on video-sharing sites. This will help Baidu replicate - and siphon off - some of the hard-won popularity of online video-sharing sites.

Baidu also announced a joint laboratory with Huawei to work on strengthening its server platform. Baidu's Chief Scientist William Chang said that Baidu needs to triple its server capacity every year to meet user needs, and video capacity is a major part of this.

The new laboratory has already started operating, staffed by top-level testing engineers from both firms. Hardware is being supplied by Huawei, including its most advanced server groups and solutions - some not yet available on the market.

Baidu was also recently reported to be setting up a similar joint laboratory with Intel.

LENS: With the increasing popularity in vertical search, Baidu has been aggressively rolling out new and enhancing existing vertical search categories. In addition to video search, other channels it has launched in 2007 include video advertising, online games, patents (from Jan. 1, 2008), culture, and, in March 2007, a special search engine for blind users.

For more background on the development of Baidu's vertical search business during the past year, please see:

Baidu Launches Video Search, MW 02/16/07 issue;

Baidu Launches 'Culture Search' Service, MW 08/17/07 issue;

Baidu Launches Video Ad Service, MW 08/24/07 issue;

Baidu Introduces Game Search Channel, MW 09/21/07 issue;

Baidu Launches Interactive Online Video Service, MD 11/18/07 issue;

Baidu Preparing Mobile Search for 3G Handsets, MD 11/19/07 issue;

Baidu to Launch Patent Search Service, MW 12/21/07 issue.

Keywords: Baidu BIDU BBS Post Bar online video Huawei server alliance William Cheng R&D Intel Internet