Influx of several Chinese companies including biggies like Alibaba and Tencent into the Indian economy over the years has now morphed into major debating topic amongst the Industry titans. With many claiming this to be an overarching power of globalization that can even blunt the political tensions simmering between two neighboring giants while others perceive this as China’s meteoric rise with India apparently have lot of catching up to do.
Now yet another big tech Chinese company is warming up to enter into the Indian market amid the ongoing contentious debate. The name of this company is Baidu, widely known as China’s Google. Baidu is China’s equivalent of Google, with the former virtually enjoying a monopolistic position in the Chinese internet market following Google’s ouster from China due to censorship issues.
Baidu’s CEO Robin Li is currently in India on an official visit, though this visit has largely been seen for talent scouting rather than investment. However, many Indian industry experts believe that this visit may as well lay the foundation ground for Baidu’s long term investment in India.
Conventionally, China’s search engine giant would not want to give amiss to the Indian economy, which is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is also home to 12% global internet users. Stagnating Chinese economy may have even propelled the Company to look for opportunities in the Indian market. Although Indian economy is itself feeling the blues of global slowdown, with the economy growing at a tepid rate of 4.5% during the last quarters. But this tepid growth cannot withstand the fact that Indian economy is still one of the fastest growing economies in the entire world.
What may have also spooked Baidu is the emergence of another Chinese tech company Bytedance. Bytedance’s rise has been so spectacular that it has already overtaken US ride hailing giant Uber to become the world’s most valuable startup. Its flagship video app Tik Tok is creating waves across the global markets inculding India.
Looking at the current dynamics of the global economy and massive challenges forthcoming from it, Baidu may need India for more than talent scouting. And hopefully this should abode well for Baidu as well as the Indian economy.