This is really going off topic now, but yes, I don't see a bright future for Baidu. You have to realize most Chinese people no longer even do searches on the web; they almost completely live in walled gardens like Tencent WeChat (for general communication), Taobao (for commerce), etc. The web is no longer how most Chinese obtain information, news, or do online transactions. So a search engine for the web has become unnecessary.

I use Baidu for a "second opinion" on my searches. Also Yandex. As far as I'm concerned, Google is failing (since I need to do this).