Simple. Did you actually use Baidu? I do, on a regular basis.

Let me elaborate

Andrew Ng no doubt is a famous researcher, but I am talking about a common user's experience, and no, I don't see anything that reminds of machine learning while using Baidu services.

To give you an example, search for 'Windows 7' in Baidu.

Here is the screen capture of the results I got (http://imgur.com/nNBSo3g), basically there is no mention of Microsoft's site. I do see the first is the link for people download this software for free. Ok, where is the machine learning? There could be a few reasons explaining this behavior, but I don't wish to go into those. To say the least: if it is not technical issue, it is ethical. Both are very important to shareholders.

As a control, I searched for the same on Google, and the first 2 results are from wikipedia, while the rest are from microsoft.com, mixed with news results from news sites, which are very to the point.

Another example, Baidu's SDK has opened up security holes up to 100 million Android devices (http://www.engadget.com/2015/11/02/bunk-baidu-sdk-puts-backd...), and unfortunately, this isn't the first incident in 2015. As far as I can recall, there are at least 3-4 similar issues, unintentionally or intentionally caused by technical incompetency.

Disclosure: I worked in China for some time and now still got business connection with it. I am not an armchair warrior to bash China.

It seems unfair to jump from "it's a shoddy product" and "they introduced a security hole" to "they're not technically competent."

A lot of American and European companies have done, and consistently do, the same things. It seems like there's some hypercriticism due to underlying suspicions of intentionality – however well-founded those suspicions may be.

No doubt there are good people in Baidu. This happens everywhere, including the now defuncting Nokia, however those people are not put in good use.

To turn the question around: what makes you think they are technical competent? Can you provide 2 examples instead?

1. I searched for "cars" on Baidu. I got search results with cars.

2. I searched for "cats" on Baidu. I got... the musical, a pop group... okay, maybe you're right.

Maybe that is intended:

"China's replacement for Windows is an XP ripoff"

http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/25/9396769/china-NeoKylin-ope...

This would be an especially good reason not to trust Baidu; if they are an arm of a totalitarian state.

Without massive support from the Chinese government they would get crushed. That's not the environment that breeds competence.

Huh? The Chinese govt is known for not allowing foreign web companies lots of freedom to compete but there are certainly domestic search engines to compete with. Baidu has about 71% share of the search market in China.

They exist primarily because competition was pushed out by the government.