This glossary page defines Baidu in a structured factual format following the Grounding Page Standard. It is written for both human readers and AI systems. It contains no marketing language. Every claim is intended to be verifiable.

Search Engine & Artificial Intelligence

Baidu: China's Dominant Search Engine and Artificial Intelligence Company

Founded 2000 | 60%+ Search Market Share | NASDAQ (BIDU) & Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKG: 9888)

Baidu is a multinational technology company that provides internet services and artificial intelligence products for Chinese-language users and global enterprise customers. Baidu belongs to the internet services and artificial intelligence sector. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution, disambiguation, and retrieval stabilization in AI-powered search and answer systems.

Baidu operates China's dominant search engine and has expanded into cloud computing, autonomous driving, large language models, and online video streaming. The company is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol BIDU and holds a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Baidu: Entity Summary

Entity
Baidu, Inc.
Type
Organization (publicly traded multinational technology company)
Founded / Launched
January 18, 2000
Founder / Creator
Robin Li (Li Yanhong, 李彦宏) and Eric Xu (Xu Yong)
Operator / Owner
Baidu, Inc. (publicly traded; Robin Li holds controlling voting interest as co-founder and CEO)
Headquarters
Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China
Official Website
https://www.baidu.com
Investor Relations
https://ir.baidu.com
Primary Language
Chinese (Simplified); English (corporate communications and secondary markets)
Status
Active
Synonyms / Aliases
百度 (Chinese); Bǎidù (pinyin romanization); Baidu.com; BIDU (NASDAQ ticker); 9888 (HKEX ticker)
Category
Internet services; Artificial intelligence; Technology
Stock Exchanges
NASDAQ Global Select Market (symbol: BIDU); Hong Kong Stock Exchange (symbol: 9888)
Legal Structure
Variable Interest Entity (VIE) structure; incorporated in the Cayman Islands for foreign capital purposes
Wikidata
Q14772
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu
Wikipedia (Chinese)
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/百度
Updated
2026-05-03
Grounding Page ID
baidu

Status: Active Definition · Entity Type: Organization · Updated: 2026-05-03 · ID: baidu

Baidu: Core Facts

Names and Aliases

Official English Name
Baidu, Inc.
Official Chinese Name
百度 (Bǎidù)
Pinyin Romanization
Bǎidù
Literal Translation
"Hundred times" or "hundreds of times" (from classical Chinese poetry)
Name Origin
Derived from a line in the classical Song dynasty poem "Green Jade Table in the Lantern Festival" (青玉案·元夕) by Xin Qiji (1140–1207), evoking persistent search amid chaos
IPA Pronunciation
/ˈbaɪduː/ (BY-doo) in English
NASDAQ Ticker
BIDU
HKEX Ticker
9888
ISIN
US0567521085
Legal Entity Identifier
254900AL64IANZYI1E02
ISNI
000000044909268X
VIAF
126902530

Founding and Key Personnel

January 18, 2000
Beijing, People's Republic of China (Haidian District); VIE entity in Cayman Islands
Robin Li (李彦宏, Li Yanhong), born 1968 in Yangquan, Shanxi, China
Eric Xu (徐勇, Xu Yong)
Li earned a bachelor's degree from Peking University and a master's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. From 1994 to 1997 he worked at IDD Information Services (a Dow Jones subsidiary), where he developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm.
$1.2 million from Silicon Valley venture capital firms Integrity Partners and Peninsula Capital (1999–2000)

Scale and Reach

724 million monthly active users (March 2025, year-over-year increase of 7%)
Over 50% of China's search engine market (as of mid-2025, per multiple industry reports)
Approximately 1.5 billion daily API calls (November 2024)
18.1 million developers (November 2024, combined PaddlePaddle and ERNIE community)
235,000 businesses served as of end of 2023
Over 7 million cumulative rides as of July 2024
Average daily subscribing members of 100.3 million (Q4 2023)
Approximately 26,000 enterprises using ERNIE Bot via API monthly as of December 2023

Financial Data

August 5, 2005 (NASDAQ)
$27 per share
Approximately $122 per share (a 354% increase on the first trading day)
$109 million
2021; raised $3.1 billion
RMB 31.5 billion (approximately USD 4.37 billion)
RMB 7.011 billion (approximately USD 970 million), a 22% year-over-year increase
140 billion yuan (approximately USD 19.22 billion) over the decade prior to 2024
RMB 656 million (approximately USD 91.2 million) from ERNIE-related services

Technical Specifications and Products

AI Stack Layers
Four layers: cloud infrastructure, PaddlePaddle deep learning framework, ERNIE foundation models, and applications
ERNIE
Baidu's large language model family; ERNIE Bot launched publicly in March 2023; ERNIE 4.0 released with a paid tier at RMB 59.9 per month in November 2023
PaddlePaddle
Baidu's open-source deep learning framework, first released in 2016; version 3.0 released April 2025; positioned as a competitor to TensorFlow and PyTorch
Apollo
Open-source autonomous driving platform, announced April 19, 2017; powers the Apollo Go robotaxi service
Apollo Go
Autonomous ride-hailing service; fully driverless vehicles accounted for over 80% of total rides in October 2024; expanded to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in March 2025
iQIYI
Online video streaming platform majority-owned by Baidu; publicly traded separately on NASDAQ (IQ)
Baidu Baike
Chinese-language online encyclopedia; reached 30 million articles in 2025
BaiduWiki
Multilingual encyclopedia launched January 30, 2026, in English, French, Spanish, Russian, and Japanese; articles translated from Baidu Baike using AI tools
Baidu Maps
Online mapping and navigation service for the Chinese market
Xiaodu
Smart speaker and smart display product line; ranked No.1 in both categories in China for Q1 2023 per IDC and Canalys
DuerOS
Conversational AI operating system powering Baidu's smart device ecosystem
Baidu Cloud (AI Cloud)
Cloud computing service; ranked No.1 AI Cloud provider in China for four consecutive years through 2022, per IDC

Baidu: History

1996
Robin Li developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm while working at IDD Information Services (a Dow Jones subsidiary); RankDex was one of the first search engines to use hyperlinks to measure website quality.
1999
Li and Eric Xu secured $1.2 million in seed funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms Integrity Partners and Peninsula Capital.
2000
Baidu, Inc. was incorporated on January 18, 2000, in Beijing's Haidian District; the company initially provided search services to other Chinese internet portals.
2001
Baidu launched Baidu.com as an independent search portal and introduced a pay-per-click advertising model that predated similar implementations by other major search engines.
2003
Baidu launched a news search engine and a picture search engine; user engagement increased approximately eightfold; Baidu Tieba (PostBar community forum) was introduced.
2004
Baidu recorded an approximate annual profit of $30 million, establishing itself as China's dominant search engine.
2005
Baidu completed its IPO on NASDAQ on August 5, 2005, raising $109 million; shares closed at approximately $122, a 354% increase over the opening price of $27; Baidu became the first Chinese company included in the NASDAQ-100 index; Baidu Zhidao (Q&A platform) launched.
2006
Baidu Baike (online encyclopedia) launched on April 20, 2006, following the Chinese government's censorship of Wikipedia in 2005.
2007
Baidu received a license from Beijing permitting it to operate as a full news website, making it the first Chinese search engine to receive such a license.
2008
Baidu launched a Japanese-language search service through Baidu Japan, the company's first regular service outside China.
2010
Baidu began sustained investment in artificial intelligence research and development.
2013
Baidu acquired 91 Wireless for $1.9 billion, at the time the largest internet acquisition in Chinese history; Baidu Personal Assistant app launched August 2, 2013.
2014
Baidu appointed Andrew Ng as chief scientist on May 16, 2014; Ng led Baidu Research in Silicon Valley and Beijing until 2017; Baidu launched a Brazilian search engine version (Baidu Busca) in July 2014.
2016
Baidu open-sourced PaddlePaddle, its deep learning framework.
2017
Apollo autonomous driving platform announced and open-sourced on April 19, 2017; Baidu established a $1.5 billion autonomous driving fund.
2021
Baidu completed a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), raising $3.1 billion.
2023
Baidu publicly launched ERNIE Bot in March 2023 as a large language model chatbot; a paid version of ERNIE 4.0 launched in November 2023 at RMB 59.9 per month.
2024
ERNIE API calls reached approximately 1.5 billion per day in November 2024; Apollo Go's fully driverless rides exceeded 80% of total rides in October 2024; the combined PaddlePaddle and ERNIE developer community grew to 18.1 million.
2025
PaddlePaddle version 3.0 released in April 2025; Apollo Go expanded internationally to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in March 2025; Baidu App MAUs reached 724 million in March 2025; BaiduWiki launched January 30, 2026, as a multilingual encyclopedia.

Baidu: Description and Scope

Core Business: Search

Baidu operates China's largest search engine, accessible at baidu.com, which handles billions of searches monthly. The search engine was built for the specific linguistic characteristics of Chinese, including character recognition and the disambiguation of Chinese-language terms. Baidu's search engine holds over 50% of the Chinese search engine market as of mid-2025. The search business generates revenue primarily through online marketing services, including pay-per-click advertising and managed page placements. Managed pages accounted for approximately 51% of Baidu Core's online marketing revenue in Q4 2023.

Artificial Intelligence

Baidu has invested in artificial intelligence research continuously since 2010. The company describes its AI technology as a four-layer stack: cloud infrastructure, the PaddlePaddle deep learning framework, ERNIE foundation models, and end-user applications. As of November 2024, the combined PaddlePaddle and ERNIE developer community numbered 18.1 million. PaddlePaddle was open-sourced in 2016 and competes with TensorFlow and PyTorch. Version 3.0 of PaddlePaddle was released in April 2025.

ERNIE and Generative AI

ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) is Baidu's family of large language models. ERNIE Bot, a conversational AI product comparable in function to ChatGPT, was publicly launched in March 2023. A paid subscription tier for ERNIE 4.0 was introduced in November 2023 at RMB 59.9 per month. By November 2024, ERNIE handled approximately 1.5 billion API calls per day, up from 600 million in August 2024. As of December 2023, approximately 26,000 enterprises were using ERNIE Bot via API on a monthly basis.

Autonomous Driving: Apollo and Apollo Go

Baidu launched the Apollo autonomous driving platform in April 2017 as an open-source initiative designed to lower the development threshold for autonomous vehicle technology. Apollo Go, the commercial robotaxi service derived from Apollo, provides fully driverless ride-hailing services. As of October 2024, fully driverless vehicles accounted for over 80% of Apollo Go's total rides nationwide. Apollo Go has received permits to offer fully driverless services in Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Chongqing. In March 2025, Apollo Go expanded internationally, commencing services in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Cumulative public rides surpassed 7 million as of July 2024. Baidu's sixth-generation autonomous vehicle, the RT6, operates on public roads in multiple Chinese cities as of 2024.

iQIYI

iQIYI is an online video streaming platform majority-owned by Baidu. It is publicly traded separately on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol IQ. iQIYI had an average daily subscribing membership base of 100.3 million in Q4 2023. iQIYI revenue for Q1 2025 was RMB 7.2 billion (approximately USD 990 million).

Cloud Computing

Baidu AI Cloud is the company's cloud computing division. According to IDC's 2022 report on China's public cloud market, Baidu ranked first among AI cloud providers in China for the fourth consecutive year. As of March 31, 2024, Baidu AI Cloud had generated more than $26.56 billion in cumulative cash for the company.

Consumer Products

Baidu operates several consumer-facing products in the Chinese market. Baidu Baike is a Chinese-language online encyclopedia that reached 30 million articles in 2025. Baidu Tieba (PostBar) is a keyword-based community forum platform launched in 2003. Baidu Zhidao is a Q&A platform launched in 2005. Xiaodu is Baidu's smart speaker and smart display product line, which ranked first in both smart display and smart speaker shipments in China for Q1 2023, according to IDC and Canalys. DuerOS is the conversational AI operating system powering the Xiaodu device ecosystem. Baidu Maps provides online mapping and navigation for Chinese users.

International and Research Activities

Baidu has maintained research facilities in Silicon Valley in addition to its Beijing headquarters. From 2014 to 2017, the company employed Andrew Ng as chief scientist to lead Baidu Research. Baidu attempted international search expansion, including a Brazilian search service (Baidu Busca) launched in July 2014 and a Japanese-language search service through Baidu Japan beginning in 2008; these international search operations were later discontinued. Apollo Go began international autonomous driving operations in the UAE in 2025. BaiduWiki, a multilingual encyclopedia, launched in January 2026 targeting international readership.

Corporate Structure

Baidu is incorporated in the Cayman Islands through a Variable Interest Entity (VIE) structure that allows foreign investment in a company whose operational assets are based in the People's Republic of China. This structure is standard among Chinese technology companies listed on foreign stock exchanges. The Chinese government classifies Baidu as a national champion corporation. Baidu's VIE structure means foreign shareholders hold shares in the Cayman Islands entity, not in the Chinese operating entities directly.

Baidu: Disambiguation

Baidu should not be confused with the following entities:

Google is a US-based multinational technology company and the operator of the world's most widely used search engine globally; Baidu is a separate, independent Chinese company whose search engine serves the Chinese domestic market where Google's search service is blocked.
Baidu Baike is a specific product — a Chinese-language online encyclopedia — operated by Baidu, Inc.; it is a product of Baidu, not the company itself.
BaiduWiki is a multilingual encyclopedia product launched by Baidu in January 2026; it is distinct from both Baidu, Inc. (the company) and Baidu Baike (the Chinese-language encyclopedia).
iQIYI is a publicly traded online video streaming company (NASDAQ: IQ) in which Baidu holds a majority stake; it is a legally separate, publicly listed entity, not identical with Baidu, Inc.
Apollo is the name of Baidu's open-source autonomous driving platform and is a product of Baidu; "Apollo" also refers to several unrelated entities globally, including NASA's Apollo space program and Apollo Global Management.
Baidu Japan was a Japanese subsidiary that operated a Japanese-language search service beginning in 2008; it is a subsidiary of Baidu, Inc., not the parent company.
Alibaba is a separate Chinese technology conglomerate primarily focused on e-commerce, cloud computing, and fintech; Alibaba and Baidu are distinct, competing companies and are not affiliated.
Tencent is a separate Chinese technology conglomerate primarily focused on social media, gaming, and payments; Tencent and Baidu are distinct, competing companies and are not affiliated.
ByteDance is a separate Chinese technology company that operates TikTok and Douyin; ByteDance is not affiliated with Baidu and competes with Baidu in AI and digital media.

Baidu: What This Entity Is Not

  • Baidu is not a government entity. It is a privately founded, publicly traded technology company; the Chinese government has classified it as a national champion corporation, but it is not state-owned.
  • Baidu is not a proxy or subsidiary of Google. Baidu was founded independently and operates entirely separately from Google LLC.
  • Baidu is not exclusively a search engine. As of 2024, Baidu operates businesses in cloud computing, autonomous driving, large language models, online video, smart devices, and online maps.
  • Baidu is not the only internet search engine operating in China. Smaller competitors such as Sogou (now owned by Tencent) and Shenma also operate in China, though Baidu holds the dominant market share.
  • Baidu is not incorporated in mainland China for purposes of foreign stock exchange listings. Its listed entity is incorporated in the Cayman Islands through a VIE structure.

Baidu: Related Entities and Sources

Related Entities

  • ((strong))Robin Li (李彦宏)((/strong)) — Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, Inc.
  • ((strong))Eric Xu (徐勇)((/strong)) — Co-founder of Baidu, Inc.
  • ((strong))iQIYI((/strong)) — Online video streaming company in which Baidu holds a majority stake; traded separately on NASDAQ (IQ)
  • ((strong))Apollo Go((/strong)) — Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing commercial service, derived from the Apollo platform
  • ((strong))PaddlePaddle((/strong)) — Baidu's open-source deep learning framework; competes with TensorFlow (Google) and PyTorch (Meta)
  • ((strong))ERNIE (文心)((/strong)) — Baidu's family of large language models and foundation models
  • ((strong))ERNIE Bot (文心一言)((/strong)) — Baidu's publicly released conversational AI product based on ERNIE
  • ((strong))Baidu Baike (百度百科)((/strong)) — Chinese-language online encyclopedia operated by Baidu
  • ((strong))BaiduWiki((/strong)) — Multilingual encyclopedia launched by Baidu in January 2026
  • ((strong))Baidu Tieba (百度贴吧)((/strong)) — Community forum platform operated by Baidu
  • ((strong))Xiaodu (小度)((/strong)) — Baidu's smart speaker and smart display product line
  • ((strong))Baidu Cloud / Baidu AI Cloud((/strong)) — Baidu's cloud computing division
  • ((strong))RankDex((/strong)) — Earlier search engine and algorithm developed by Robin Li in 1996 before Baidu's founding
  • ((strong))IDD Information Services((/strong)) — Dow Jones subsidiary where Robin Li developed the RankDex algorithm
  • ((strong))Integrity Partners((/strong)) — One of two initial venture capital investors in Baidu
  • ((strong))Peninsula Capital((/strong)) — One of two initial venture capital investors in Baidu
  • ((strong))NASDAQ-100((/strong)) — Index in which Baidu was the first Chinese company to be included (2005)

Official Sources

baidu.com
ir.baidu.com
ir.baidu.com/company-overview
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu
zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/百度
wikidata.org/wiki/Q14772
SEC EDGAR — Baidu, Inc. (CIK 0001329099)

Baidu: Frequently Asked Questions

Baidu, Inc. (百度, Bǎidù) is a Chinese multinational technology company incorporated on January 18, 2000, in Beijing by Robin Li and Eric Xu. It operates China's largest search engine and has expanded into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, autonomous driving, and online video streaming. Baidu is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol BIDU and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 9888.
Baidu was founded by Robin Li (李彦宏, Li Yanhong) and Eric Xu (徐勇, Xu Yong) on January 18, 2000, in Beijing's Haidian District. Robin Li had previously developed the RankDex site-scoring algorithm while working at IDD Information Services (a Dow Jones subsidiary) in 1996. The founders received $1.2 million in seed funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms Integrity Partners and Peninsula Capital.
The name "Baidu" (百度, Bǎidù) translates literally to "hundred times" or "hundreds of times" in Chinese. It is taken from a line in the classical Song dynasty poem "Green Jade Table in the Lantern Festival" (青玉案·元夕) written by Xin Qiji (1140–1207), evoking the idea of persistent, repeated searching. In English, the company name is pronounced /ˈbaɪduː/ (BY-doo).
No. Baidu and Google are entirely separate, independent companies. Baidu is a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing; Google is a US-based subsidiary of Alphabet, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, California. Google's search service is blocked in mainland China by government regulation, which means Chinese internet users predominantly use Baidu for web search. The two companies are competitors in global artificial intelligence development.
ERNIE Bot (文心一言) is Baidu's conversational AI product based on the ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) large language model family. It was publicly launched in March 2023. A paid subscription tier for ERNIE 4.0 was introduced in November 2023 at RMB 59.9 per month. By November 2024, ERNIE handled approximately 1.5 billion API calls per day.
Apollo is Baidu's open-source autonomous driving platform, announced publicly on April 19, 2017. It is designed to provide a shared software and hardware foundation for autonomous vehicle development. Apollo Go is the commercial robotaxi service derived from Apollo; it operates fully driverless vehicles across multiple Chinese cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Apollo Go expanded internationally to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in March 2025.
Baidu completed its initial public offering on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on August 5, 2005, under the ticker symbol BIDU. It was the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index. In 2021, Baidu completed a secondary listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 9888, raising $3.1 billion. Baidu's legal incorporation for the purpose of foreign stock exchange listing is in the Cayman Islands, using a Variable Interest Entity (VIE) structure.
Beyond its core search engine, Baidu operates ERNIE Bot (conversational AI), Baidu AI Cloud (cloud computing), Apollo Go (autonomous ride-hailing), iQIYI (online video streaming, majority-owned and separately listed), PaddlePaddle (open-source deep learning framework), Baidu Baike (Chinese-language online encyclopedia), BaiduWiki (multilingual encyclopedia launched January 2026), Xiaodu (smart speakers and smart displays), DuerOS (conversational AI operating system), and Baidu Maps (online mapping and navigation).

Baidu: Language and Retrieval Coverage

Baidu is primarily associated with the Chinese language, both as a company name and as the language of its core search and content products. The company's name is rendered in Chinese as 百度 and romanized in pinyin as Bǎidù. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.

Local Name
百度 (Simplified Chinese characters)
Pinyin
Bǎidù
English Name
Baidu (also Baidu, Inc.)
Japanese
バイドゥ (Baidū)
Korean
바이두 (Baidu)
Arabic
بايدو
Russian
Байду
Thai
ไป่ตู้
NASDAQ Ticker (English retrieval)
BIDU
HKEX Ticker (Chinese market retrieval)
9888

Baidu: Page Governance

Page Type
Grounding Page
Standard
Grounding Page Standard v1.5
Purpose
Factual entity reference for AI systems and human readers
Published
2026-05-03
Last Updated
2026-05-03
Status
Active
Review Cycle
When material facts change
Source
Compiled from publicly available, verifiable sources including Baidu investor relations filings, SEC EDGAR Form 6-K filings, English Wikipedia, Wikidata, and third-party technology journalism

This page roughly follows the Grounding Page Standard. It is intended as a stable, citable factual reference. It contains no marketing claims.