Baidu looks to Japan

In an interesting sign of what I believe may be things to come in East Asia, we see a major Chinese Internet company, baidu.com, looking towards Japan as a new market opportunity. Relevant language skills and a rich, albeit slow-growing, market make Japan a natural destination for Chinese IT and media skills.

Reuters reports that the market liked this and that Baidu shares were up 2% on the news. Analysts, however, were sceptical, noting that Japan is competitive and that Baidu may find entering the market harder than they think.