中國最大的互聯網搜索引擎百度(Baidu)昨日承認，有些公司利用其網站推廣虛假信息。由于百度在其搜索結果中將排名最高的位置拍賣給出價最高的競標者，該公司正面臨越來越多的批評。
Baidu, China's largest internet search engine, yesterday admitted that some companies had used its website to market fraudulent information, as it faced mounting criticism for auctioning top search result rankings to the highest bidders.

百度在一份聲明中表示，該公司已就此問題展開內部調查，并承諾會配合監管部門的行動。百度還“對用戶和其它客戶的感情造成的傷害表示真誠的歉意”。
In a statement, Baidu said it had started an internal investigation into the problem, pledged to co-operate with regulators and expressed a “sincere apology for hurting the feelings of users and other customers”.

百度在納斯達克(Nasdaq)上市的股票本周一下跌了25%。上周末，中國官方電視臺對該公司進行了一系列批評，這表明，百度的商業模式可能面臨來自政府的挑戰。
Baidu's Nasdaq-listed shares suffered a 25 per cent fall on Monday following a barrage of criticism on state-run television channels at the weekend, a sign that its business model could be open to challenges from the government.

與大多數搜索引擎不同，百度將推廣鏈接與“真正”的搜索結果混雜在一起，而不對推廣鏈接進行明確標注。
Unlike most search engines, Baidu mixes sponsored links with “genuine” search results without marking the sponsored links clearly.

百度客戶可對搜索關鍵字進行競價，出價最高的競標者，其網站鏈接將出現在搜索結果的頂端。
Baidu's customers can bid for search keywords and the link to the highest bidder's website will appear at the top of the search results.

百度的收入，幾乎全部來自于對此類競價排名收取的費用。與之相反，其競爭對手則主要依賴廣告收入。
The fees generated from these auctions account for almost all of Baidu's revenues, as opposed to the advertising revenue its competitors rely upon.