Baidu in paid search scandal
Chinese search giant Baidu.cn is fighting to save its reputation after state media accused it of selling high rankings to unlicensed medical services; to the detriment of public health.
Several unlicensed providers have taken advantage of Baidu’s ‘Pay for Performance’ (P4P) scheme to buy their way into the rankings for popular search terms, putting the search engine’s users at risk from expensive and often useless medical products and procedures.
In response to the complaint, which saw its share price plunge 30 percent in one day, Baidu has promised to overhall operations.
“Baidu employees who are found to have been involved in the scandal will be penalised… We have already fired people who helped fabricate documents for unlicensed suppliers,” Baidu CEO Robin Li told China’s official Xinhua news agency.
“We have removed the key words of all four clients mentioned in the report and have begun to double-check the licences of all other hospitals and pharmacies on our client list,” he continued.
Li was also keen to stress that the checking of licences was not required by law and that search engines could not be expected to vouch for companies found via their results.
Although paid search rankings are common in China - on Baidu they appear among the organic search results as a matter of course - sensitivity over threats to public health is riding high due to the recent melamine-related milk crisis and other safety scares.
Earlier this month, the state-run China Central Television featured a patient who had spent 10,000 yuan (£950) on a treatment to cure abdominal pain at a clinic found via Baidu’s results, only to have to turn to a public hospital when it failed to help him.
The clinic in question had paid 17 yuan (around £1.50) per click for its search engine ranking.
Baidu will be keen to repair the damage done to its reputation, which has seen it become the pre-eminent search engine in China with around 60 percent market share and profits up 91 percent in the last quarter alone.
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