China's Baidu accused of search bias in monopoly complaint

24.02.2011
China's largest search engine, Baidu, is facing a potential antitrust investigation after the company was accused of blocking and degrading the search query results of a Chinese online encyclopedia website.

The company behind the Wikipedia-like site Hudong.com said it has successfully filed its complaint with China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The complaint requests SAIC to begin an anti-monopoly investigation against Baidu and to fine the search giant 790 million yuan (US$120 million).

Hudong, however, does not know if or when an investigation of Baidu will begin. SAIC could not be reached for comment.

Hudong started its business in 2005, a year before Baidu launched its own online encyclopedia. Hudong said that its articles on popular topics are ranked low in the query results when searched on Baidu. Other search engines such as GoogleGoogle and MicrosoftMicrosoft's Bing, however, rank Hudong's articles at the top. Alles zu Google auf CIO.de Alles zu Microsoft auf CIO.de

"We believe that Baidu has used its dominant position to bully and block competitors," said Pan Haidong, CEO of Hudong.

A Baidu representative said the company did not want to comment because the spokesman was not available.

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