Baidu expands social effort into Vietnam

Chinese internet giant Baidu confirmed that it has launched its PostBar (‘Baidu Tieba’) social network in Vietnam, where it is called ‘Tra Da Quan’.

According to The Next Web, a source at Baidu confirmed that the company had launched the service earlier that this week.

One thing the company refuses to comment on however is the possibility, raised by Tech in Asia, that it failed to properly notify Vietnamese officials before launching the site.

In the South-East Asian country, anyone looking run a social network must obtain a license from the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Tra Da Quan means coffee shop in Vietnamese and is Baidu’s first attempt at getting into Vietnam. It does however have a small, but growing base in the South East Asian region including Web directory Halo 123 in Thailand.

That’s just one region the Chinese giant is making moves in though. It also recently announced that it is close to opening up a Latin American office in Sao Paulo. In Egypt meanwhile, it runs question and answer service Zhidao.

Baidu accounts for some 78% of search revenues in China and, with the launch of its own Android-based OS, seems intent on dominating the Chinese mobile market.