Shares of Chinese search giant Baidu (BIDU 0.07%) blew the broad market out of the water in 2013, essentially doubling the rise in the Nasdaq this year.
This year in many ways represented a reversing of fortunes for Baidu. After being driven down over the past 18 months as the result of several emerging threats to its core search business, Baidu defied the doubters this year by posting several impressive quarterly performances.
Booming Baidu
Baidu's past share price struggles were essentially driven by two key factors, both of which appear, at least at this point, to have been overdone.
The first was the entry of tech rival Qihoo 360 into the Chinese search space. As the leading browser provider in China, Qihoo's move into this space threatened the way users access Baidu's search engine. The second issue for Baidu came from the rollout of its mobile offerings, which have proved to be a huge drag on margins at least in the short-term, although they certainly justify the cost over the long-term.
In this video, tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner looks at Baidu's successes throughout 2013 and how investors should look at this stock as we move into another new year.
