Baidu's credibility crisis self-inflicted

Baidu Inc has been accused of compromising patients' interests and putting people at risk with the exposure that its medical-related forums on Tieba, its online community-based group discussion service, are part of its commercial activities.

A forum for hemophilia patients, for example, has been used by 5,000 users as a platform to discuss and share information about the disease and its treatments. But by selling the forum to some unqualified medical agencies, Baidu has allowed it to be flooded with advertisements, some of them misleading.

A search on Baidu for medical information also leads to private and sometimes even unlicensed hospitals most of the time.