On January 23, Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, announced that his
company's Japanese branch, after 10-months of preparation, has
officially started operations.
According to Baidu's financial statistics, the company has
invested about US$7 million in its Japan-based business during the
first three quarters in 2007. This has created a solid foundation
for their Japanese branch. Furthermore, Idei Nobuyuki, the
ex-chairman of the Sony Group, was appointed as the company's
independent director, thus showcasing their great ambitions
regarding the Japanese market.
Speaking of future developments, Robin Li said that Baidu's
Japanese branch would focus on developing local customer-targeted
search products and would make preliminary probes into business
modes for Japanese-language search engines.
For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/mainland/channel/37437.shtml)
(China.org.cn January 24, 2008)