Minimalism Is For The Young, Baidu Thinks. What Will Google Think?

If there is one country that invariably fascinates me in terms of how internet operates over there, it is China. At least to me it is totally amazing how internet works in that huge crowded country with people mostly immune to international invaders and choosing their own internet players like they choose Baidu over Google. Another fascinating thing is how the authorities in China block everything they feel is improper for consumption by Chinese citizens and those citizens objecting much less than international bloggers do in our blogs - they either live without sites they don’t need or find workarounds easily.

All in all, when looking at it from abroad China looks like a huge mystery with all these factors combined. I remember when I first visited China 4 years ago I stayed in a hotel without any WiFi and only one computer available for guests to send emails or browse the web. I remember we spent a few minutes looking for that lonely computer on one of the floors and another hour looking for someone responsible for the machine and aware of the password. The computer looked ancient and the connection was as slow as everything else on that machine.

Things changed a lot when I visited China last year for a vacation - WiFi was almost everywhere and local computer stores sold plenty of the latest and greatest machines from the world’s leading manufacturing at bargain prices (well, I mean bargain for someone from Russia who buys electronics at the prices that are twice as expensive as they are in the US) so of course I left the country with a shiny new Sony laptop.

All in all, China looks like a country full of contrasts wherever you go - you will see huge malls with luxury brands and walking only a few minutes from downtown will bring you to the slum quarters like you’ve never seen anywhere in the world. You will be served excellent food in restaurants for tourists and at the same time you will see local people eating something that hardly even look like food right on the street nearby.

So China may either leave you depressed after watching poverty and foulness or it may very well leave you impressed by how rapidly they construct new modern districts and even the whole cities or by how determined they are to make mobile phones and internet available to everyone in the country. And since I myself am more impressed than depressed by China, I can’t help but pay attention to news from the Chinese internet businesses whenever they are on my radar.

Today’s interesting piece is about the major player on the Chinese internet market - Baidu, the local search engine that manages to stay more popular than Google here. The thing is that Baidu management has decided that while the elderly people were not numerous online in China, they very much deserved both attention and special treatment from service provider - and hope this special treatment will be exactly what will make more and more of older adults use of the web.

So what the search engine and portal did was offering a new version of the portal customized specifically to the likes and needs of the older Chinese people. As described by Owen Fletcher of PCWorld (as I can’t read the hieroglyphs myself at all it is hard to judge the content for myself), “Baidu elderly search” portal focuses specifically on the interests of older citizens - classical Chinese poetry, revolutionary songs, calligraphy, bird-raising or the traditional Chinese martial art tai-chi. All these interests get proper attention here as the links lead to special content sections and forums where older internet users can consume content that they are supposed to enjoy the most.

But while I can’t read the content of the site, there is certainly one difference between the traditional version of Baidu and this new one: the portal for elderly population is far less minimalist than traditional Baidu is. So where Baidu itself kind of resembles Google in its approach to the main page layout, the elderly portal is full of lengthy links to content areas that one will have to actually read to find something that is needed as the page lacks any icons or any graphical elements that could help find content easier instead of doing the whole reading.

Traditional Baidu looks:

Crowded Baidu elderly search:

And while it certainly does not feel comfortable to be on a website that is crowded with so many links (probably particularly uncomfortable because the links are in a language I don’t read myself and also because I am still qualified as a young adult usually), I believe that the team over at Baidu have done their research well and they must know that this is exactly how older adults want to get the content online.

I am not sure if this affection towards huge (and honestly, quite ugly) links is international or is only valid for older people in China but I can’t help but wonder if Google will come up with something similar targeted at the specific audience Baidu is targeting with their search engine. For now I can’t imagine how Google could look if the homepage was as crowded with content as this one is but I certainly would not want to see it.

The interesting part is that these changes are not even targeted at anything that can be characterized as a large audience: less than 6% of Chinese internet users are over 50. But of course it is understandable that if the Chinese internet companies somehow manage to further increase the internet population in the country, there will hardly ever be a market more appealing than that of China. The country already has the social network that is not hyped in international blogs but makes more money than any of the largest international social networking giants do - Tencent - and there probably will be more amazing examples of how they make money off their internet users.

Of course it is quite logical that things like social networking are more for younger people - teens and young adults - but if there is further growth potential by bringing older adults online, Chinese market will definitely be something that everyone will want a share in - though I have my doubts about local authorities letting international strangers in easily.