Baidu bribed to allow unlicensed medical services

CHINESE INTERNET search outfit Baidu has said it will overhaul its operations after being named and shamed by the government for allowing unlicensed medical services to buy high search rankings to win more customers.

State television pilloried the company for letting the unlicensed services pay for prominent positions on its pay-for-performance (P4P) search platform.

This enabled them to profit from clicks for expensive but useless treatments.

Baidu's chief executive officer, Robin Li, has promised the company will do something about the scandal. He said that he had removed key words of all four clients mentioned in the report and has begun to double-check the licenses of all other hospitals and pharmacies on the company's client list.

Baidu claims to have sacked the staff responsible for the scandal and may get rid of more.

Li said he had already fired those who helped fabricate documents for unlicensed suppliers.

Chinese television news said that there were several ill people who used Baidu to search for treatments and were steered to unlicensed and expensive hospitals or medicines that failed to cure them.

One patient told the television news programme that he spent over £900 at one Baidu-boosted clinic listed to treat abdominal pain, but the treatment was ineffective. He was later cured at a public hospital for 100 yuan... or about £9. µ

L'Inq
Reuters