Baidu apologises for ‘scam ads’ that showed up in search for US consulate in Shanghai

Baidu has apologised for promoting “scam ads” in search results for the US consulate in Shanghai after a popular Chinese writer openly criticised the country’s largest search engine on her Weibo microblog.

The company feels “deeply sorry” for the inconvenience Liu Liu encountered and has removed all advertisements for visa application agencies that appear under the search, Baidu’s promotion department said in its own Weibo post on Thursday afternoon.

The response comes hours after the writer – using the pseudonym of Liu Liu – slammed Baidu and its founder Robin Li Yanhong for the “numerous scam ads” that appeared when using its search engine to look for the US consulate in Shanghai.

“Are you in the search business or chief of fraudsters?” she asked in the post addressed to Li and Baidu. The post got about 30,000 thumbs-up and over 7,000 comments as of 5.30pm Thursday.

The Nasdaq-listed company fell into public disgrace in 2016 when its medical advertisements were blamed for the early death of a 21-year-old, who died from a rare form of cancer after receiving treatment from a hospital whose ads appeared on top of the list on his Baidu search.

Baidu has about 70 per cent of the country’s search market, according to data from StatCounter Global Stats.