Baidu Made a Move in Indonesia, Partly Right But May Fail

Baidu made its first move in Indonesia as reported. This time it is Baidu's division Hao123, web link portal, who made this first stealthy step.

However, this Hao123-sponsored directory site chooses Google rather than Baidu.com (3 out of 5 options) as its search engine, besides, it includes some popular local websites such as Kaskus and Tokobagus  and some social websites such as facebook.

I think this is a partly right decision for Baidu to enter the Indonesia market.

1, It's right to make Hao123, rather than the search engine, the first product to enter Indonesia, because Hao123 is much simpler in technique, costing mush less but monetizing much faster. So this may be a right step for Baidu to stand in Indonesia.

2, However, a single directory portal can do little without being backed by the strong search engine power. Here I doubt whether Baidu could support it with good-enough techniques, as it has been used to being protected by Chinese government and is not strongly motivated in R & D.

3, Baidu tried to develop the market in Japan and Vietnam before in East Asian, but did not perform well. I don't know why it so hurries to move to Indonesia before it is experienced enough in foreign markets.