There's more to Baidu
China's leading search engine is beefing up the monetization efforts on its popular message board platform.
China Daily reported over the weekend that the dot-com darling is gearing up to let its marketing customers reach out to users engaging in the millions of forums available on Baidu Tieba.
Investors need to have realistic expectations. Google
The problem with advertising on interactive forums is that people are there to socialize. Ads will be ignored. Regular users will just get used to overlooking the sponsored spots, and there's always the risk that the ads may annoy visitors to the point that they just stop coming.
It's no surprise that SINA
However, the attempt to cash in on Baidu Tieba should be incremental for Baidu -- and that's the point.
Baidu has spent the past few years padding both its market share lead in search as well as its Rolodex of advertising customers. This may not have the force of a fire hose, but it will be a gusher.
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