China's largest search engine, Baidu, is facing a potential antitrust investigation after the company was accused of blocking and degrading the search query results of a Chinese online encyclopedia website.
The company behind the Wikipedia-like site Hudong.com said it has successfully filed its complaint with China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The complaint requests SAIC to begin an anti-monopoly investigation against Baidu and to fine the search giant 790 million yuan (US$120 million).
Hudong started its business in 2005, a year before Baidu launched its own online encyclopedia. Hudong said that its articles on popular topics are ranked low in the query results when searched on Baidu. Other search engines such as Google and Microsoft's Bing, however, rank Hudong's articles at the top.
"We believe that Baidu has used its dominant position to bully and block competitors," said Pan Haidong, CEO of Hudong.
Baidu has faced similar accusations from Chinese websites alleging that the company has a deliberate search bias, said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. "None of the previous accusations of this sort have had any noticeable impact on Baidu," he said.
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