Lesson for Baidu means renewal for the internet

A smartphone with an Android operating system and the Baidu Browser application is seen in this picture illustration taken February 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

A young person's loss of life has turned into a meaningful lesson for China's whole e-service industry.

For over a week now, the largest Chinese search engine Baidu.com has been a target of public questioning and debate for its possible role in the death of Wei Zexi, a university student, who paid dearly for a cancer treatment that apparently didn't help prolong his life after allegedly being misled by promotional information from a hospital he found during an online search on Baidu.

Government investigators were dispatched to look into the roles of the search engine and the hospital in question.

People didn't have to wait for long for their conclusions. On Monday, investigators led by the Cyberspace Administration of China announced that Baidu's listing method, driven entirely by payments and in unclear format, had an indirect influence on Wei's decision.

At the same time, the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was found riddled with "serious problems" by investigators led by National Health and Family Planning Commission.

They ordered the hospital department concerned to stop offering the unauthorized treatment and to withdraw the misleading promotional messages. The medical staff are to undergo a review of their qualifications, and anyone found directly responsible for irregularities faces professional discipline and even criminal charges.

Soon afterwards, Baidu announced its resolve to meet the requirements set by the investigators.

The investigations have set a precedent in China. They signal a victory for consumer rights and the rule of law in the young, flourishing, and immensely powerful internet market of 1.3 billion people.

They effectively announced the death of paid online listings for all medical and health products and treatments, and the start of all online platforms requiring from their advertisers industry licenses and regulatory approvals for the services and products they promote.

Other changes can be expected both in the practices of the internet industry, and in the rapidly growing, though at times messy, medical services contracted by public hospitals to private practitioners.

For Baidu, something of a natural monopoly in the Chinese search business, some temporary loss of advertising income and investor interest are inevitable. But the company should be grateful, because the kind of money it used to report to the world as good fortune can be dangerous any time, as Monday's investigation report reveals.

A change in its way of doing business will help it achieve a more healthy balance sheet.