Comments on Shane Farley's articles RSS Syndication from SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/author/shane-farley/articles http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-676607 676607 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:16:23 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-676071 676071 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:18:06 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-675738 675738 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:45:19 -0400
Keep a close eye on Google China traffic. Looks like its up nearly 100% since early June. My checks in China from companies doing search marketing tell me that Google China traffic is far more valuable than Baidu traffic as Google is used by more intelligent people, with better educations, and more money. Baidu is more about poor kids with no money who use Baidu for the free music. Ministry of Culture music piracy initiatives sort of guides a Dec 31st deadline/time frame for full implementation so Baidu might have a little elbow room before they get hit hard.

Google China Traffic Surging:
www.chinarank.org.cn/r... ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-675682 675682 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:30:03 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-674392 674392 Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:49:16 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-673443 673443 Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:02:24 -0400
I read your post, blah, blah, blah, you keep saying the same thing but the stock keeps going up. At what price did you short? Have you added to your position? Is there some point you will admit you were wrong about the direction of the stock and cover? It seems we will get to hear from the management of BIDU next week so more will be revealed. Any thoughts on numbers for the coming quarter? Even if your thesis is correct, and I am not saying it is, what will you do with your short position if BIDU beats the street estimates again? ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-672449 672449 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:06:18 -0400
1) Baidu is sooo Dodgy

This video shows you how users on Baidu don't even have to visit the actual site listed in their MP3 search results to actually play or download songs illegally. This is why the record labels think Baidu goes far beyond just being a site that accidentally links to music. Instead, they distribute illegal music, help users download illegal music, and play illegal music without even having to go to the so called independent site that has the track.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

Music Copyright Society of china Director of Legal Services Liu Ping used the following real life analogy to describe deep-linking:
“If Google’s search works as a guide by giving directions and telling you the address while taking you right to the door of your destination, Baidu’s search brings you directly through the door, right inside the room and helps you take away the CD from shelves without the owner’s permission.” Liu Ping considers this to be beyond the scope of a search engine, and a practice which moves Baidu into the area of transmission of music.

You will find this quote on this page: www.theregister.co.uk/...

Baidu does this for 250,000 songs illegally according to the IFPI.

2) Baidu Proxy Server Test

This video also exemplifies how tons of illegal music is available in China but when Baidu thinks you are outside of China their results return nothing.

www.youtube.com/watch?...

3) How to download songs from baidu.com

Another video that shows you how Baidu transmits music, and doesn't even really link to sites in their MP3 channel. You will see how the user clicks on a MP3 result and how a download/play box pops up immediately, without going to the site in the mp3 search results, and allows users to download and save illegal copyrighted music. Baidu allows users to add these illegal tracks to personal playlists that also allow users to play music without going to the actual site that hosts the song. total scam

www.youtube.com/watch?...]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-671800 671800 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:15:57 -0400
Baidu to Present at the SIG Third Annual Beijing Management Summit

Press Release
Source: Baidu, Inc.
On Friday September 11, 2009, 9:00 am EDT


Baidu to Present at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference

Press Release
Source: Baidu, Inc.
On Friday September 11, 2009, 9:00 am EDT
Buzz up! 0
Print
Companies: Baidu, Inc.
BEIJING, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU - News), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, today announced that its chairman and chief executive officer, Robin Li, will present at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference. The presentation is scheduled to take place at 1:30 PM ET on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at the Goldman Sachs Conference Center, New York.

your persuasive argument probably shook em up]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-671281 671281 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:22:22 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-670850 670850 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:07:49 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-670841 670841 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:03:32 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/160845/comments?source=feed#comment-670175 670175 Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:18:54 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/107640/comments?source=feed#comment-336881 336881 Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:33:27 -0500
GO MAPP!!!!]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-325166 325166 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:27:50 -0500 http://seekingalpha.com/article/107640/comments?source=feed#comment-316642 316642 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 09:49:25 -0500
With respect to the migraine drug its a slim chance for approval, another company tried for approval with the same drug in an oral delivery and was denied for hypothetical safety concerns. This doesn't bode well for mapp. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/107640/comments?source=feed#comment-315775 315775 Managed care won't care if a patient needs 10 minutes of therapy > instead of 5 minutes. > > If you were a parent would you pay $20 for your generic pulmincort > or $100 for MAPP's? Total extra cost to your family of $960/year? > > > I don't find mapp to be particularly compelling.]]> Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:10:14 -0500
The biggest X factor here will be to se if Map has done any head to head (with Pulmicort) longer term studies looking as asthma rates, FEV1 over the 24 hour period, and ER visits with the two products. My guess is they have not since negative results would significantly hurt this drug and their ability to market it that way I have described above. Hope this helps.

sense22@comcast.net


On Nov 25 10:06 AM Jose Mcintyre wrote:

> Managed care won't care if a patient needs 10 minutes of therapy
> instead of 5 minutes.
>
> If you were a parent would you pay $20 for your generic pulmincort
> or $100 for MAPP's? Total extra cost to your family of $960/year?
>
>
> I don't find mapp to be particularly compelling.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/107640/comments?source=feed#comment-314992 314992 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:46:40 -0500 Thank you for your comments about MAP Pharmaceuticals.
Both UDB which is called MAP0010 and Migraine (MAP0004) are great products, specialy MAP’s drug delivery system for migraine which is a robust combination device drug product that delivers the medicine via pulmonary/inhalation. A lot of migraine suffers are waiting to this product to hit the market! I am the packaging engineer for both these product at MAP Pharmaceuticals.
Best regards,
Lydia
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/107640/comments?source=feed#comment-314581 314581 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:06:38 -0500
If you were a parent would you pay $20 for your generic pulmincort or $100 for MAPP's? Total extra cost to your family of $960/year?

I don't find mapp to be particularly compelling. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-277490 277490 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 01:53:27 -0400 You are right in one of your assertions - I am involved with the music industry, as has been pretty obvious so far with my focus on music. And I do have reason to be negative about Baidu as you conveniently ignore the fact that Baidu is hosting music files instead of simply just linking to music files on 3rd party sites.
You have a simplistic view that giving away music is the norm but it does not justify Baidu's illegal methods - and simply doing what everyone else is purportedly doing is how we ended up with the financial mess in the US and the tainted milk scandal in China.

And note that mp3 traffic as part of Baidu's overall traffic is not as minor as you make it out to be - in China, even Baidu acknowledges the fact when you talk to them. They use this traffic to monetize other parts of their business - it is a devious exploitation.

It's fine to be bullish about Baidu, and if it is your preferred path to blood money, it's your personal choice, but realize that it engages in fradulent behavior with regards to its so-called music search and then make an informed decision - that's all I'm trying to do here. Too many people are promoting Baidu without having a full picture of the beast with its cunning use of technology.

]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-275539 275539 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:43:59 -0400
Oh yeah, I bet Baidu launches a fully paid advertising based music service after their ecommerce marketplace launches. Any lost mp3 traffic will be more than offset by all the ecommerce shoppers on Baidu. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-269812 269812 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:52:37 -0400 I don't think anyone here has mentioned that "the majority of Baidu traffic results from illegal MP3 searches" BUT if you had access to yesterday's (29/9) Guardian, you would read that Baidu's associate director of entertainment stated their "MP3 search accounted for 40% of Baidu's traffic - roughly 100 million MP3 search inquiries per day".

@SMF,
I will state again that you are not qualified to push the Baidu case - your research of Baidu seems to consist of online searches for stories about Baidu. Go down to China and find out the real truth - it is laughable that you are still quoting the WSJ article with the Baidu quote stating "Baidu said it "believes in copyright protection" and "continues to work to fight piracy on the Internet by developing innovative business models."
As I have stated before and as confirmed by other reports I have pointed you to, Baidu is one of the main perpetrators of music piracy in China as it is HOSTING MUSIC FILES and that is an undeniable truth.
Note that I am not debating the merits of Baidu's other services, but that this fact about Baidu's music piracy needs to be highlighted. This shows the nature of the beast and their fradulent behaviour which does not befit a NASDAQ-listed company, and yet you insist on turning a blind eye to this ethical blemish in promoting Baidu further
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-268859 268859 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:34:20 -0400

online.wsj.com/article...


Excerpts that mention baidu:

In this survey's featured category, "Innovative in Responding to Customer Needs," readers gave first place to Baidu.com Inc., a Beijing search-engine company that claims to out-Google Google Inc. Baidu cites research showing it conducts more than 60% of China's Internet searches by doing a better job looking up information in Chinese, the second-most-popular language on the Web.

In this survey's featured category, "Innovative in Responding to Customer Needs," readers gave first place to Baidu.com Inc., a Beijing search-engine company that claims to out-Google Google Inc. Baidu cites research showing it conducts more than 60% of China's Internet searches by doing a better job looking up information in Chinese, the second-most-popular language on the Web. Some 427 million people surf the Internet in English, compared with 233 million in Chinese, according to research published by Internetworldstats.com.

Baidu Chairman and founder Robin Li named his company for a Song Dynasty poem. The Baidu Internet homepage has the look and feel of Google, a company named for a play on "Googol," the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. But Baidu rejects the copycat label, noting that Mr. Li got his first patent on Internet search in 1995, the same year Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met as computer-science students at Stanford University.

A spokeswoman for Baidu says at least three functions on the Baidu.com homepage "distinguish us from our competitors in the Chinese search market." The company says its Baidu Knows system offers user-generated answers to questions and is the largest online question-and-answer system in the world.

To tap the Web-engineering potential in China, Baidu holds an annual programming competition that asks users to create, for instance, a martial-arts character using the fewest lines of computer code to maximized effect. One hiccup that limits the competition's usefulness as a recruiting tool: Many of the best engineers it locates are high-school students, too young to hire. At an average age of 26, Baidu's own employees aren't much older.

Baidu is structured differently than Google. About 60% of Baidu's more than 6,700 employees are in sales and marketing. At Google, only about 40% of 16,805 employees last year were in sales and marketing, while 34% were in research and development.

The company has had setbacks. Its well-regarded chief financial officer died in an accident late last year; he has since been succeeded by a former China financial chief of General Motors Corp. More recently, Baidu was accused by a group of domestic and foreign record companies as being "the largest and most incorrigible purveyor of pirated music in China." Baidu said it "believes in copyright protection" and "continues to work to fight piracy on the Internet by developing innovative business models."


A total of 2,477 executives and professionals participated in the survey, which was conducted in 2007, between May 11 and July 3. On behalf of The Wall Street Journal, market-research firm Colmar Brunton polled subscribers as well as other businesspeople in the 12 Asian-Pacific countries.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-268360 268360 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:11:21 -0400 http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-268222 268222 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:22:06 -0400 Patrick A.
seo4china.com]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-268127 268127 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:03:46 -0400 1) Alexa is a grossly incompetent measurement tool that is frequently gamed especially by Chinese internet companies - there have been numerous Chinese companies that have had their Alexa rankings deleted totally. The Chinese CNNIC internet organization itself had stated that mp3 search is the key factor for Baidu's traffic
2) That Baidu's CFO Jennifer Li is claiming that they have a few deals with a selected number of labels is true, but so what if they have a few of these while they steal from the majority? Even the EMI deal they claim to have possibly excludes most of their international repertoire. Baidu has done these deals as a cover to deflect criticism of their methods, and writers like you have fallen for it.
As I have stated before, Baidu is illegally HOSTING MUSIC FILES, and whatever else they say in order to justify their actions, this is fradulent behaviour that is not in keeping with a NASDAQ listed company.

None of the investment companies that push a 'Buy' or 'Outperform' rating have done any proper homework on Baidu's fraudulent practices and expediently want to simply chase a quick buck while sitting in their ivory towers.

Shane, I challenge you to read the Register article at www.theregister.co.uk/... and still state that Baidu is doing the right thing. It's all too easy to say that you will let the courts decide but ethically, you do have a responsibility when you write and promote a company whose ethical practices have been damningly questioned.
]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-267783 267783 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:46:25 -0400

Susquehanna Financial "Buy" rating and $444 target

Piper Jaffray "Buy" rating and $468 target

Citigroup "Buy" rating and $415 target

Sterne Agee "Buy" rating and no price target given

RBC Capital "Outperform" rating and $361 target

Pacific Crest "Outperform" rating and $350 target]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-267372 267372 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:37:48 -0400
Their CFO Jennifer Li was asked about the music issue recently and she said they are working on it, forming partnerships, going for ad supported.

from Interview:

Q) How big of a threat are the legal challenges from music companies over illegal downloads?

A) We have been resolving a couple of issues in that area. Baidu respects intellectual property rights and takes the matter seriously. We believe in advertiser-supported digital music and have worked with record companies to promote their artists online. For instance, we work with major record companies like Rock Music and EMI, we run music promotions, and share the advertising revenue associated with the songs that are downloaded.

www.cfo.com/article.cf...

Also, if you go to Baidu.jp and use the Google translation tool you will find a press release put out this summer about how they have partnered with 70+ music companies and are going for fully ad supported. I suspect baidu is likely working on this more than you think.

I bet their new ecommerce business will drive 10% of their growing traffic and they will start rolling ad supported music and music sales more into the mix. I believe Baidu will start eliminating copyrighted mp3's when the courts tell them to do so. Up until now Baidu has won their lawsuits regarding this.

Thanks for the feedback though. ]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-267189 267189 Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:54:24 -0400 I may have been a little harsh on you earlier in stating that you have a vested interest in pushing Baidu, but please, please do the right thing and see it for what it really is.
Pointing out that BNP and Morgan Stanley have major stakes in Baidu means jackshit - the Wall Street meltdown has shown what a morally bankrupt group a great number of financial companies really are. And the Sanlu tainted milk scandal also implicated New Zealand's Fonterra which had a 43% stake in Sanlu...major money indeed!!
I do understand that the main thrust of your article was to highlight the fact that Baidu has "more search queries in China than Google does in the USA", but at the same time, it needs to be told how/ why they are achieving this - hosting and disseminating mp3 files illegally. For the benefit of other readers, I suggest you also read this on CNet:
asia.cnet.com/blogs/li...]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-265190 265190 Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:41:07 -0400
BNP Paribas put out and sec filing today taking a 7.8% stake in baidu. Morgan Stanley owns around 9%, etc. Baidu is attracting major money.]]> http://seekingalpha.com/article/96785/comments?source=feed#comment-262576 262576 Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:26:28 -0400 www.theregister.co.uk/.../
As a Baidu shareholder it almost seems that you have a vested interest to talk up this company no matter what despicable acts Baidu has been engaging in, especially it's alleged role in the baby-killing tainted milk scandal. Your article shows a great deal of research and statistics to inflate Baidu's superiority yet surely with that kind of detailed research its surprising that you have instead chosen to conveniently neglect to mention that a significant portion of its traffic is brought about by its legally-challenged music search.
Your ignorance is laughable in suggesting that Microsoft should consider buying Baidu - can you imagine the can of worms that MS would inherit? You have no idea how some of these Chinese search companies work do you? You're simply just an armchair advisor who is clueless on the real workings of Baidu and yet wants to exhort others to jump into it.
David Wolf has written a much more balanced article on Baidu here on Seeking Alpha itself seekingalpha.com/artic...
The last I checked, greed is no longer good in Wall Street, and Baidu's actions will one day bring them the karma they are sowing now...
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