The new .BAIDU gTLD has got its license from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. According to Domain Incite, the Chinese licensing program seems to be equally as strict for foreign domains as it is for national ones. It is known that Chinese citizens and entities can register domain names in any domain zone, but they can only be used to launch websites after they are approved by the Chinese authorities.
Many gTLD registries had to get this license; and the .BAIDU domain was no exception, although Baidu is the leader of the Chinese internet market. While not particularly well-known in Western countries, Baidu is second only to Google in terms of search engine market share. Last year, the company had revenue of $12.5 billion.
It is noteworthy that technically .BAIDU is not a dot-brand gTLD: its ICANN contract does not stipulate that the company alone will register domain names. The gTLD was delegated to Baidu at the end of 2015, but it is still unknown when it will be launched.
