Baidu Strong on Censorship
Baidu, China's most popular search engine, is largely popular for mirroring the desires of Chinese leaders:
The reason for Baidu's success, they argue, is that it collaborates with the communist authorities on censoring sensitive political information more than its rivals do and is less stringent in blocking access to sites that offer pirate film and music downloads. Look for the name of dissident writer Lu Xiaobo or references to the Tiananmen Square massacre on Baidu and no information appears. But search for Radiohead or Britney Spears and Baidu offers a specific MP3 channel that directs you towards pirate downloads of every song the band and singer have ever made.
- Y! MyWeb
I don't know
if the Chinese leaders are crazy about downloading MP3 files. They might be filtering the internet for bad words but I don't think that is the succesful part of Baidu. As the average internet user is young and male, it is likely the fact that mp3's and other content can be downloaded for free, that contributes to their succes.
The recent report "Survey Impact Internet Study 2005" published by the Markle Foundation and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences gives a good insight into the current Internet user in China.