Baidu owns the search engine Baidu, founded in Beijing in 2000.
Baidu was founded by Robin Li and Eric Xu in January 2000. Robin Li had previously developed search-related technology in the United States before returning to China. The company’s core search service became a major Chinese-language internet destination and remains central to its business.
Baidu expanded beyond web search into online advertising, maps, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and autonomous-driving research. Its Apollo program, announced in 2017, is an open platform for autonomous-driving technology. The company also operates Baidu Baike, a Chinese-language collaborative encyclopedia.
Baidu is often grouped with Alibaba and Tencent as one of China’s leading internet companies, but the three companies have different historical strengths. Alibaba is associated especially with e-commerce, while Tencent is strongly associated with social platforms and games. Baidu’s original identity is search and information retrieval.