The world’s top five most innovative businesses

5. Baidu, China 12-month sales growth: 73.9 Innovation premium: 57.8% China is seen as the next big frontier for the likes of Facebook and Google, but local player Baidu is showing that it isn’t standing still in the quest to be the first port of call for the country’s growing online […]

Oliver Milman 07 September, 2012

5. Baidu, China

12-month sales growth: 73.9

Innovation premium: 57.8%

China is seen as the next big frontier for the likes of Facebook and Google, but local player Baidu is showing that it isn’t standing still in the quest to be the first port of call for the country’s growing online population.

The search engine and portal network recently said it will spend $1.6 billion on a cloud computing centre, after unveiling its WangPan – or “web disk” – that gives users 15GB free space, far more than DropBox’s 2GB.

The firm has also beefed up its range of apps and offers a rendered, 3D mapping service that looks more like Sim City than any sort of Google Maps rip-off.