Baidu is the parent company of the search engine Baidu and the streaming service iQIYI. Baidu was founded in 2000 by Robin Li and Eric Xu and became one of China’s best-known internet companies through search and online advertising.
Baidu Search is a major Chinese-language search service. The company expanded into maps, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving, and other technology businesses. iQIYI, often described as a major Chinese online-video platform, became a separate publicly traded company in the United States in 2018 while remaining associated with Baidu.
Baidu’s market capitalization has reflected both its established advertising business and investor expectations for newer areas such as AI. The company’s AI work includes the ERNIE family of large language models and products built around conversational and generative systems.
Baidu is sometimes confused with Tencent or Alibaba because all are major Chinese technology companies. Their core businesses differ: Baidu is especially associated with search and AI, Tencent with social platforms and games, and Alibaba with e-commerce and cloud services.