No longer an oasis: Even Chinese search engine Baidu falters

Until this week, China was widely considered immune to the economic woes surrounding the rest of the globe. But now, the nation's Baidu search engine is experiencing some similar sounding financial strains.

Historically successful Chinese Internet search company Baidu.com Inc. shocked NASDAQ investors this week by slashing its fourth-quarter revenue outlook by $20 million (USD). Aside from the economic slowdown impacting just about every other corner of the globe, the Chinese search engine is now up against its own set of antitrust and other legal concerns.

In a statement announcing that its quarterly outlook has now fallen to somewhere between $131 million to $133 million, Baidu blamed "the economic slowdown's greater-than-expected impact on online marketing," first and foremost.

But executives of the Chinese search engine firm also indicated that Baidu has lost money from the removal of some paid search listings, "particularly those by medical and pharmaceutical companies without licenses on file with the company." Some of these customers have since been reinstated in the search directory by getting their licenses on file with Baidu, the statement said.

In an apparently related matter, Baidu is just about confronting the Chinese equivalent of a class action suit over alleged violations of China's new anti-monopoly law.

Since October, more than 50 companies have filed complaints that Baidu is breaking this law. A "mass complaint" will be filed if the number of plaintiffs reaches more than 100, according to a report in the Financial Times.