Don't Watch This: Confucius
You're hot then you're cold. What gives, North Korea?
China's sick healthcare system breeding antibiotic-resistant "superbugs"
Meet the Spanish pavilion's Miguelin: the first female Expo mascot?
Feathers ruffled by tire tariffs, China slaps "anti-dumping" duties on chicken products
CCTV breaks the news that Chinese search engine Baidu has been accepting money from illegal medical companies for paid search results. While paid search results have been criticised for undermining the integrity of the search experience, they continue to account for 80% of the company's revenue. In the melamine scandal, Baidu was said to have accepted payment in exchange for censoring news that were not favourable to the dairy companies.
Explaining CCTV's decision to expose Baidu, Steven Tang of Global Voices Online says:
Sometimes it's hard for CCTV or Baidu to pick out illegal companies because of their “excellent camouflages”. In a sense, CCTV's action to expose Baidu actually reflects their market share competition. Before Baidu grew into a search giant, traditional media like CCTV controlled a large share of the ad market, while as the internet thrived, shares were reallocated. Therefore, CCTV's intention to expose Baidu's scandal is easy to understand in two ways: first, as a media, CCTV is under “obligation” to expose information. Second, CCTV can reduce the credibility of its competitor in order to fight for more market share.Almost overnight, Baidu announced that it would introduce a new system that would offer clearer distinction of paid links from ordinary search results.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
post to facebook
How hard can it be to copy Google's business model, really?
what I find amazing is that in a time where the government and industry are out touting CSR as the way forward, no one has gone after Baidu for its role in filtering information.
Perhaps the Human Flesh Engine should be called in on this one.
"CCTV is under “obligation” to expose information."
I think we should all do a bit of reading between the lines. CCTV's obligation to expose information only goes as far as what the Propaganda Department allows and what might help their reputation. In other words, the "obligation" is a sham.
Gee really?