了解互联网巨头公司-百度

"Baidu, the word comes from the Song Dynasty poem."

The term originates from ancient times. Now it's the name of one of China's technology leaders.

"It has something to do with search."

Search?

Yes.

Baidu is China's answer to America's Google. The home-grown search engine dominates the Internet here. It listed on the NASDAQ in 2005 and most recently it's gained ground from the high-profile retreat of Google, which ran into problems with Chinese authorities over alleged cyber attacks and the country's notorious censorship. Baidu is now looking to compete outside China's borders, pitting it again against its American rival.

"Google is a very respectable company. We compete with each other. But, you know, we're very, we do very well in the Chinese market and, you know, when we go internationally, we will keep the core, you know, our, the key success factors that enabled us to be where we are today, and you know, replicate that in the international market."

Do you ever feel that you are in the shadow of Google?

"When we first became a public company in 2005, we had about 47% of the market share and today we have close to 80% and we win not only because of the search technology itself, because we understand the local markets. We offer a whole slew of different products that ensure user comes to Baidu."

I remember we talked about, ok, the Chinese Internet, there's a lot of censorship that goes on. How do you operate in that type of environment?

"Obviously, as a search engine, you want to enable free flow of information without border, without restriction. But, you know, you look at the history of China's media development, over the past 30 years; I think the media space has developed tremendously in terms of openness, freedom of flow of information. So you put things in perspective. We are moving towards the right direction."

Baidu has become such a force in the Internet in China, do you ever get a niggling feeling or concern that somebody somewhere in the government apparatus would actually think, huh, you know that Baidu-- it's getting powerful, maybe a little bit too powerful?

"No, I don't think so, no."

Can you elaborate why?

"It's just that, you know, the interest is alive. And I think just because of the Internet, it's nurturing a new kind of economy and I think from, you know, people come to Internet for live information, for news, for entertainment. This offers a new, like very rich dimension for people's life, so the society is very vibrant because of the Internet."

One criticism of Baidu is that you are a copycat and that you can't be a leader if you are a follower.

"There are plenty of international companies that has to come to China in the, in the Internet space. You look at eBay, you look at Google, you look at Yahoo. These companies, they have the technology, they have those ideas. Are they successful? You can't copy everything here and make it work. It has to suit the local markets. And it's those kind of appreciation, understanding and innovation that's in the DNA of the Chinese product that makes them successful."

Eunice Yoon, cnn, Beijing.