Baidu International launches Australian office led by Dean Capobianco and Paul Christy

Genuine question: Will it censor results inline with its home base, or produce an entirely localised (and less filtered) alternative?

Hi Thomas, the opportunity is to target Chinese consumers as opposed to Australian users using the search engine. So it will be Chinese users who are viewing the standard results in China, as per the Chinese gov’ts regulations

Thanks

Genuine question: Will it censor results inline with its home base, or produce an entirely localised (and less filtered) alternative?

There is no mention here of Baidu launching locally with a search engine offering, rather this sounds like a local sales team for Australian businesses to advertise on the engine (in Chinese I’m assuming?) in China

@Nick – you’ve got it…

As an employee of a company that specialises in international online for the last 4 years, we see next to no interest in targeting china from our clients so it seems a little bold to be launching with such a high profile team when the current market spend is almost non-existent.

Have i missed something here?

nice one Dean!

@Alex We’ve got clients live from Tourism AU through to a few of the Universities, managed and delivered from our HQ in Singapore. The demand has given us enough confidence to see the return in putting in the local guys. If you want to look at how we might be able to work together then feel free to get in touch.

Alex – How about the over 1/2 million Chinese tourists who visit Australia every year (nevermind the millions of Chinese expats living in Australia who probably search on Baidu in their first language)? They’ve got to get here, stay here and spend money here. I guess the point of a high profile team is to educate and sell those facts and more into the market here. I think you have missed something here.

@anon Totally with you on this, and its something that we and our competitors have been trying to do over a number of years. The key here is getting major brands to market to multicultural groups, which is easier said than done. I appreciate what they’re trying to do (as its good for us all) however i just question the level of profitability

Also…one more thing. Baidu dont allow AU IP targeting only so this is about selling aussie marketers into targeting Australia, not Chinese tourists/expats.

@Alex this is about targeting Chinese users who are searching in China, who are showing intent to visit Australia, buy things, go to university abroad etc. you’re right, right now the AU IP’s can’t be targeted, but you can target regions in China, outside of China or Japan if you so wish. Cheers

@fionn. Thanks for clarifying. Best of luck with the new venture

If there’s someone who can spot the opportunity in an emerging market, it’s Fionn. For those who say it might not be profitable, well it might not, initially, but I’d say that it’s easy to envisage 100 Aussie companies spending 1k per month on Baidu. That’s not a bad start, is it?
Let’s not forget that Chinese love luxury goods, fashion etc. so Aussie companies will have an opportunity there, as well as the aforementioned b2b, tourism and the massive area that is education.
And what’s the score with translation help too?

I met with Dean at SMX on Wednesday, he is defiantly a great fit for the job, seems to be willing to tackle most questions around investment on Baidu. Did a great presentation on Baidu too. Who ever said it is going no where in Australia I think you need to research international search patterns.