Book Description

An in-depth exploration of the political economy of the Chinese technology company Baidu which, along with China’s other tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, has emerged as a leading global Internet company. Baidu – not Google – is the dominant search company in China, the largest Internet market in the world, whose impact on the political economy is no longer limited to China, but the broader global market, and in particular the US economy. This book outlines the intense competition within the search engine market and illustrates the inter-capitalist dynamic in the contemporary Chinese Internet sector, and highlights Baidu’s uniqueness on the global stage as it pivots to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and expands into other industrial sectors. ShinJoung Yeo offers a window into the intensifying geopolitical shaping of the global Internet industry, and the contention and collaboration among multinational firms and states to control the most dynamic capitalist economic sector – the Internet. An important and timely analysis for anyone interested in the political economy of the global media, communication, and information industries, and particularly those requiring a better understanding of the Internet industry in China.