Japan Says Goodbye To Baidu

Baidu.jp is no longer available for use. When enterign the site, a message stating Baidu Inc (ADR)BIDU's mission, a few emails for contact and links to company information appears.

The site was up for approximately eight years and was closed on March 16, 2015.

A Baidu spokesperson told "Tech in Asia" that the shutting down of the Japanese search engine “doesn’t preclude the possibility that we [Baidu] will bring it back one day, or introduce our search technology services through other platforms in Japan.”

According to the "Tech in Asia" article, “Baidu is keeping open its Japan office and pursuing its popular Simeiji app, which is a keyboard for iOS and Android for typing Japanese,” even in spite of this setback.

A Mobile-First Company

Baidu’s spokesperson said that the decision was based mainly on the company’s effort to focus its energies on “becoming a fully mobile-first company. (…) This means increasing our commitment to mobile and O2O when and where it’s most appropriate. In the Japanese market specifically, this move makes a lot of business sense. Smartphone penetration in Japan is now over 70 percent, and it’s a largely iOS-dominated market – over 60 percent market share as of December 2014. Our iOS input app Simeji is very popular, with over 14 million users and and a top-ranking position on Apple’s App Store in Japan. That’s just one example of the mobile potential of the Japanese market.”