tcpn8 - 2:34 pm on Aug 4, 2005 (gmt 0)

A couple thoughts.....I think any realistic chances of google acquiring baidu in the near future are very very small considering the amount of governemt agencies in china that might have to approve a deal like this. Definitely not something that a company who just opened a rep office in china is in any position to do.

Personally I have my doubts about baidu in the long run, they do have a large market share at the moment but that has a lot to do with google not being very good for searching for things like music and news in Chinese (at least in comparison to baidu). But over time google (as well as yahoo) will find their footing in the chinese market and will fine tune their products to the chinese market. At which point I think they will have the reources to give baidu a very serious run for their money.