Baidu TV recently received another round of investment another round of investment from Baidu, Intel and other key investors. The first round, back in 2007, brought in USD 5 million. Because of its name, many people do not know that Baidu TV is actually run by Adsit, an online advertising company in Beijing. Baidu provides funding, its brand name, and its network of existing customers.
The service has attracted the ire of many Chinese netizens, who complain that the video ads appear without warning, suck up bandwidth, and slow down the browsing experience. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Baidu has become popular in large part because it catered to user demands; in the case of its mp3 search service, it did so against the objections of many in the music industry. Now Baidu seems to be aligning itself with the companies, but will it drive away its users in the process?
Comments