Baidu Limits Number of Search Ads Per Page to Four
iFeng Tech, 5/25/16
Chinese search engine operator Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU) has announced reforms to how the company displays search results, including limiting the number of ads on the search results page to four.
The major changes include:
1. Changing the text that indicates whether a result is a paid advertisement by doubling the length from "Advertisement" to "Commercial Advertisement," changing the color of these two words (four Chinese characters), and underlining the words. This change was implemented on May 17.
2. Modifying advertisement content to comprise less than 30% of the search results page, which was implemented yesterday. On each results page, the total number of ads on the top, bottom, or right of the screen will be at most four.
3. Removing 2,518 hospitals and 126 mln healthcare-related search ads during Chinese authorities' investigation into Baidu's business practices in the online healthcare advertising sector. The company has adopted a new mechanism to eliminate a vast number of ads triggered by health-related disease keywords. For example, if a user searches for the name of a hospital such as "Peking Union Medical College Hospital," the search results will include only organic search results, but no advertisements.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Baidu Changes Designation on Paid Search Results to 'Commercial Promotion'," MD 5/19/16 issue and "Chinese Regulators Impose Stricter Rules for Baidu's Healthcare Search," MD 5/09/16 issue.
Keywords: online healthcare scandal Internet Baidu BIDU online search search advertising
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