[photopress:baidu_hi.jpg,full,alignright]IM instant messenger penetration rate is in China is much higher than email (81% vs. 57%), and Tencent has built a cash machine around its popular IM client QQ. Baidu would like some, please. If you want to crash a market the key is you should do it better. IM from Baidu, which is called Baidu Hi, is out for public beta.
Baidu Hi has almost all the basic features which an IM in China should have, such as voice/video chat, file transfer, IM group and interface personalization. Baidu Hi is bundled with Baidu Space which has over 920k concurrent users already, which will definitely be helpful to Baidu Hi’s promotion.
The integration of Baidu Space is just the first step, all other Baidu community products, such as Baidu Zhidao and Baidu Tieba, will also be integrated with Baidu Hi eventually.
Baidu Hi is quite smart with viral marketing, only users who has invited at least 30 friends successfully are qualified to have right to create IM groups.
It was hoped Baidu Hi would adopt open standard XMPP protocol instead of building its own proprietary protocol. By exploiting the power of an open source community, Baidu can build an open platform to compete with the QQ.
Now it has decided to go it alone. And it is up against QQ, AliWangWang, MSN Live Messenger, GTalk, Skype and others.
Yes, it is very, very good. That is not, perhaps, enough. It should be startlingly better. Baidu has an extensive user base and strong community products, Baidu has a good base to promote its IM software. But whether it can get to a dominant position is another thing. It will be very, very difficult.
Source: China Web2.0