Baidu

Baidu, Inc. (/ˈbaɪduː/ BY-doo; Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù; lit. 'hundred times') is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet services and artificial intelligence. It holds a dominant position in China's search engine market (via Baidu Search), and provides a wide variety of other internet services such as Baidu App (Baidu's flagship app for search and newsfeed), Baidu Baike (an online user created Wikipedia-like encyclopedia), iQIYI (a video streaming service), and Baidu Tieba (a keyword-based discussion forum similar to Reddit).

Besides its core internet search business, Baidu has diversified into several high-growth areas. The company is a leading player in autonomous driving (Baidu Apollo), and smart consumer electronics (Xiaodu). With over a decade of investment in artificial intelligence, Baidu is one of the few tech companies globally to offer a full-service AI stack, including software, chips, cloud infrastructure, foundation models, and applications.

The holding company of the group is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Baidu was incorporated in January 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu. Baidu has origins in RankDex, an earlier search engine developed by Robin Li in 1996, before he founded Baidu in 2000. The company is headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District.

In December 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index. As of May 2018, Baidu's market cap rose to US$99 billion. In October 2018, Baidu became the first Chinese firm to join the United States–based computer ethics consortium Partnership on AI. During the 2020s, Baidu has increasingly focused on generative AI related products.

The Chinese government views Baidu as one of its national champion corporations.^{: 156–157}