China’s Baidu.com, Sun Yat-sen University Jointly Launch Search Engine Marketing Course

Chinese Internet search engine firm Baidu.com and the School of International Business of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou have jointly announced the launch of an elective course in search engine marketing.

Wu Peiguan, deputy director of the School of International Business, told local media that the Internet has developed rapidly in recent years and university students should update their knowledge and skills in accordance to the changes of the environment. By cooperating with well-know domestic Internet enterprises such as Baidu.com, Sun Yat-sen University hopes to provide the most advanced Internet knowledge and skills to its students.

Lu Shucheng, general manager of the Guangzhou branch of Baidu.com, said that search engine marketing is a professional subject with high practicality and it focuses on the practical use behind utilizing search engines to build brands online. In the current market business course system in China, there are few reliable courses that cover the systematic instruction of search engine marketing.

The joint program aims to provide education to tackle the imbalance between recruitment vacancies and lack of qualified talents in search engine marketing fields. The course lasts for 10 weeks, with three study sessions in each week. The teaching group is constituted of the staff from Baidu.com and academic staff from the School of International Business.

Staring from June 2009, Baidu.com jointly launched search engine marketing training courses with Beijing Normal University and Hunan University. Apart from the cooperation with universities, it also supported professional vocational training institutes to implement search engine marketing training.

These courses will invariably focus on using Baidu’s own search engine services for marketing in China, as rival Google recently announced plans to redirect mainland China users from its Google.cn site to its website in Hong Kong. In addition, Google’s search engine partners such as Tom.com and Tianya have dropped Google i recent days and are expected to move to services offered by Sogou.com and Baidu.com.