Baidu Inc. (BIDU) stock prices were up by 0.57% as of the market closing on October 16th, 2021. This brought the price per share up to USD$163.63. Subsequent pre-market fluctuations have seen the stock rise by 5.22%, bringing it up to USD$172.17.
Chinese Government’s Involvement
October 18th, 2021 saw China report its consideration of requesting Tencent Holdings to allow competing companies to access and display their content in search results. This move has the potential to further eradicate online barriers and disrupt the internet advertising market space. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is considering regulations to make hundreds of millions of articles on Tencent’s WeChat messaging app accessible through search engines like BIDU stock. The Ministry is also considering the production of short videos from ByteDance’s Douyin to facilitate its presence on the platform. Regulators are in contact with companies for feedback, with their participation still being discussed.
BIDU Stock Stands to Benefit
The implementation of regulations has the potential to substantially advance Beijing’s campaign to circumvent the obstacles faced by Chinese internet giants. The watchdog has already notified tech companies to mitigate their strict privacy by allowing access to rival services. This is a part of a wider effort to identify and deal with illegal activity across the world’s largest internet arena. Regulations that will allow BIDU stock access to ByteDance and Tencent’s scope of social media content in terms of appearance in internet searches will be the first of its kind. The development would have the potential to divert advertising revenue from the monopolistic giants to companies like BIDU stock.
Continued Efforts
Beijing is continuing its ongoing fight against closed ecosystems that have historically been operated by its biggest corporations. This serves as a campaign to curb the power of such monopolistic companies, wherein they would employ blocking and other methods to protect their market share at the expense of budding companies. These walls are slowly coming down, as evidenced by Tencent’s allowance of WeChat users to link to things like Douyin videos and Taobao stores in one on one messaging.
Future Outlook for BIDU Stock
BIDU stock is poised to capitalize on the massive scope of opportunities that would be afforded to it as a result of the changes in regulations. The company is setting the stage to be a frontrunner in the upcoming potential scramble, in a bid to ensure a continued trajectory of success. Current and potential investors are hopeful that management will be able to leverage the resources at their disposal. This is hoped to facilitate significant and sustained increases in shareholder value.
