Search Engine In China Research Articles

How Do Implausible Tensile Price Claims Affect Consumer Perceptions of Deceptiveness and Consumer Willingness to Purchase in Online Environments?

The study explores how and why an embedded implausible tensile price claim (TPC) affects consumers’ decisions as to whether to click on the associated online advertisement and their subsequent purchases. The authors conduct a field experiment by designing a structured set of search advertisements with implausible TPCs for a global apparel brand and launching them on Baidu, the largest search engine in China. Using a hierarchical Bayesian model, the authors quantify how implausible TPCs influence consumers’ two-stage decisions: clicking on the advertisement and purchasing the product. Using two laboratory experiments, the authors further demonstrate that the purchase decision is mediated by consumers’ perceptions of deception in the advertisement, despite the fact that the click decision is not. Results show that implausible TPCs in a search advertisement motivate consumers to click on the promotion. However, the discrepancy between the advertised and the actual discounts makes the advertisement seem deceptive to consumers, which reduces their likelihood of purchasing the product and leads them to search for other products and promotions. The results address advertising deception in online price claims, offer critical policy implications regarding implausible TPCs, and shed light on designing and executing implausible TPCs in online advertising.

Assessing the Interplay Between Public Attention and Government Responsiveness With Digital Trace Data: Navigating Leadership and Followership in China’s COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign

China’s digital campaign to “vaccinate all who can be vaccinated,” officially launched in December 2020, carries global implications. Grounded in the agenda-setting framework to reveal how the responses of different groups are shaped and their agendas interact, this study analyzed two years of Sina Weibo (the largest Chinese microblogging service) and Baidu (the leading search engine in China) search index data to investigate the interrelationships among different groups’ issue foci and the effects of sentiment, rationality, and moral motivation in the agenda-setting process. Large-scale computational analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which the Chinese government followed the public’s issue preferences and identify which segment of the public had a stronger ability to set the agenda. The results indicated that as the central government transitioned from leading to following the public, regional governments had a greater impact on the public agenda compared to the central government or media. The government, public, and media differed in their usage of sentiment and moral motivation on social media during the vaccination campaign, and this varied depending on the campaign’s stage. Notably, all stakeholders emphasized individual-centered values over community-centered values when addressing vaccination. The findings shed light on effective strategies for social mobilization through targeted public health messaging.

Is ChatGPT-like technology going to replace commercial search engines?

PurposeThis paper aims to give an overview of the history and evolution of commercial search engines. It traces the development of search engines from their early days to their current form as complex technology-powered systems that offer a wide range of features and services.Design/methodology/approachIn recent years, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology have led to the development of AI-powered chat services. This study explores official announcements and releases of three major search engines, Google, Bing and Baidu, of AI-powered chat services.FindingsThree major players in the search engine market, Google, Microsoft and Baidu started to integrate AI chat into their search results. Google has released Bard, later upgraded to Gemini, a LaMDA-powered conversational AI service. Microsoft has launched Bing Chat, renamed later to Copilot, a GPT-powered by OpenAI search engine. The largest search engine in China, Baidu, released a similar service called Ernie. There are also new AI-based search engines, which are briefly described.Originality/valueThis paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional – algorithmic powered search engines and modern search with generative AI support, and the possibilities of merging them into one service. This study stresses the types of inquiries provided to search engines, users’ habits of using search engines and the technological advantage of search engine infrastructure.

Forecasting volatility with investor pessimism index: Exploring the predictive power of search queries

AbstractThis paper discusses whether investor sentiment contains useful information to predict volatility by constructing investor pessimism index based on Baidu, which is the largest search engine in China. We discover that the investor pessimism index is significantly negatively correlated with contemporaneous returns but predicts following days' returns reversals. Furthermore, the heterogeneous autoregressive model of realized volatility (HAR‐RV) with investor pessimism index performs better than other HAR‐RV‐type benchmark models. We perform a series of robustness tests, which include alternative construction of investor pessimism index, crisis subsample, alternative predictive model, alternative measures of volatility, and considering the role of institutional investor. Our results remain robust. Taken together, investor pessimism index constructed in this paper seem to be a suitable proxy to measure investor sentiment in China and can enhance the accuracy of volatility forecasting in the Chinese stock market.

Information Searching from New Media and Households’ Investment in Risky Assets: New Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment

In 2010, Google withdrew from mainland China unexpectedly, which is an important issue that significantly changed the information acquisition environment in China. After that, Baidu has dominated a search engine in China, which provides less informative results. We use Google’s withdrawal from mainland China as a quasi-experiment and the data from Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) to test the relationship between the information searching in new media and household investment in risky assets. By using the difference-in-difference method, we find that Google’s withdrawal from mainland China significantly decreased households’ willingness to invest in risky assets. The results are robust after parallel trend test, PSM–DID, entropy balancing, placebo test, as well as changing the control and treatment group, using a Logit model and excluding other factors. As for the heterogeneity, the effects are different among females and males, rural and urban residents, and residents with different incomes. As for the plausible channels, we find that Google’s withdrawal from mainland China significantly affected firms’ information disclosure quality, the convenience of getting information and the risk preference, by which their investment behaviors are affected.

Urbanites’ mental health undermined by air pollution

The rising mental health difficulties of the urban population in developing countries may be attributed to the high levels of air pollution. However, nationwide large-scale empirical works that examine this claim are rare. In this study, we construct a daily mental health metric using the volume of mental-health-related queries on the largest search engine in China, Baidu, to test this hypothesis. We find that air pollution causally undermines people’s mental health and that this impact becomes stronger as the duration of exposure to air pollution increases. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that men, middle-aged people and married people are more vulnerable to the impact of air pollution on mental health. More importantly, the results also demonstrate that the cumulative effects of air pollution on mental health are smaller for people living in cities with a higher gross domestic product per capita, more health resources, larger areas of green land and more sports facilities. Finally, we estimate that with a one-standard-deviation increase of fine particulate matter (26.3 μg m−3), the number of people who suffer from mental health problems in China increases by approximately 1.15 million. Our findings provide quantitative evidence for the benefits of reducing air pollution to promote mental health and well-being.

Searching for the Rainbow Connection: Regional Development and LGBT Communities in China

ABSTRACT China is estimated to have 70 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and in recent decades, the LGBT movement has seen rapid growth. However, because of the unavailability of data, a comprehensive understanding of the degree of regional development of the Chinese LGBT movement has been unavailable. By analyzing keyword search volumes for LGBT-related terms on Baidu (the largest internet search engine in China) from 2009 through 2015, we have produced the first representative and longitudinal portrait of LGBT orientation across the country. Our data revealed that the level of LGBT orientation search index in a province is significantly correlated with modernization and cultural capital stock factors, such as GDP per capita, resident income level, openness to foreign culture, and local cultural infrastructure.

Using Sina-Weibo microblogs to inform the development and dissemination of health awareness material about Zika virus transmission, China, 2016-17.

BackgroundOn 1 February 2016, the World Health Organization declared Zika transmission a public health emergency of international concern. Monitoring and responding to community awareness, concern, and possible knowledge gaps are critical during public health emergencies. Here, we describe the review and analysis of micro-blogs posted on Sina-Weibo, China’s largest social media platform, to develop and disseminate a Zika virus education campaign.MethodsWe used CYYUN Voice Express’ Weibo Spider tool and the search terms of "Zhaika" OR "Zika" OR "Zikv” to capture microblogs about Zika virus retrospectively from February 1 to December 31, 2016 and prospectively from June 1 to November 15, 2017. We described microblogs meeting our inclusion criteria by month and Zika virus outbreaks in Asia and by source (e.g., government agency, individual, or other). We identified common misleading or inaccurate content authored by individual micro-bloggers (i.e., not supported by available scientific evidence) through a qualitative review. We used this information to develop and disseminate health awareness material about the Zika virus through China CDC’s 12320 Health Hotline Weibo account. An online survey was conducted to obtain feedback on the material.ResultsWe captured 15,888 microblogs meeting our inclusion criteria. Zika-related microblogs peaked in September 2016, corresponding to news reports about the Zika outbreak in Singapore (August to November 2016). Most microblogs (12,994 [82%]) were authored by individual users, followed by media agencies (842 [5%]), businesses (829 [5%]), international organizations (370 [2%]), and Chinese government agencies (235 [1%]). Relevant microblogs primarily focused on clinical symptoms and health risks, modes of transmission, and actions taken by individuals to prevent infection and seek health care. Incorrect and/or mis-leading information from individual users concentrated on modes of transmission and possible treatments. The microblog "#Zika is that far and this close" health campaign was posted on Sina-Weibo and Baidu (Internet search engine in China) on September 18, 2016. Younger respondents (p-value = 0.01), and those with at least a college education (p-value = 0.03), were more likely than other respondents to consider the online campaign reliable and trustworthy.ConclusionRoutine review of Sina-Weibo and other social media platforms could enhance the ability of public health staff to effectively respond to community concerns and awareness during public health emergencies. Advancements of social media monitoring tools and staff training could help to promote health awareness during emergencies by directly addressing public perceptions and concerns. Various approaches may be needed to reach different at-risk populations, particularly older and less educated populations who may prefer more traditional modes of communication.

A network data-based survey and analysis of attention towards breast reconstruction after breast cancer surgery in Chinese and American populations

BackgroundBreast reconstruction is an effective technique to rebuild the appearance of the breasts in patients after mastectomy and improves the prognosis. The current study aimed to compare and analyze willingness for breast reconstruction after breast cancer between populations in China and the United States, from the perspective of social concern, using big data analysis. We also aimed to explore factors affecting surgical selection and to identify methods that can improve social cognition and acceptance of breast reconstruction. MethodsUsing Baidu and Google, two representative Internet search engines in China and the United States as research tools, and using big data search volume as the benchmark, we compared and analyzed breast reconstruction willingness and attention characteristics between Chinese and American people, based on search heat, geographical distribution, age and sex, keyword distribution, ethnic group, and social development degree. ResultsIn both the long-term and short-term, Chinese people paid more attention towards searching about breast cancer, but less attention to breast reconstruction after breast cancer surgery. However, in both the short-term and long-term, people from the United States paid more attention towards breast cancer and breast reconstruction with the help of the Internet, showing a synchronous change relationship. There was a large regional difference in the search volume for breast cancer among the Chinese population, while no significant regional differences were noted in the search volume for breast cancer in the United States. However, a large regional difference was observed in the search volume for breast reconstruction between the two countries; people in the coastal and economically developed areas paid more attention to it. Most people who paid attention to breast reconstruction in China were women aged 20–39 years, while the attention among men was low. Search keywords were also limited to breast cancer-related information. However, between Asians and European Americans, Americans paid more attention to breast cancer and were affected by regional development, religious beliefs, and health facilities. ConclusionAttention towards breast reconstruction after breast cancer was lower in the Chinese population than in the American population, and this difference was closely related to the level of regional development. There is insufficient information on breast reconstruction after breast cancer in recent Internet media. In addition to strengthening communication in clinics, media education is important to improve the cognitive level and social awareness of patients and their families, which is conducive to breast reconstruction.

Exploiting Real-time Search Engine Queries for Earthquake Detection: A Summary of Results

Online search engine has been widely regarded as the most convenient approach for information acquisition. Indeed, the intensive information-seeking behaviors of search engine users make it possible to exploit search engine queries as effective “crowd sensors” for event monitoring. While some researchers have investigated the feasibility of using search engine queries for coarse-grained event analysis, the capability of search engine queries for real-time event detection has been largely neglected. To this end, in this article, we introduce a large-scale and systematic study on exploiting real-time search engine queries for outbreak event detection, with a focus on earthquake rapid reporting. In particular, we propose a realistic system of real-time earthquake detection through monitoring millions of queries related to earthquakes from a dominant online search engine in China. Specifically, we first investigate a large set of queries for selecting the representative queries that are highly correlated with the outbreak of earthquakes. Then, based on the real-time streams of selected queries, we design a novel machine learning–enhanced two-stage burst detection approach for detecting earthquake events. Meanwhile, the location of an earthquake epicenter can be accurately estimated based on the spatial-temporal distribution of search engine queries. Finally, through the extensive comparison with earthquake catalogs from China Earthquake Networks Center, 2015, the detection precision of our system can achieve 87.9%, and the accuracy of location estimation (province level) is 95.7%. In particular, 50% of successfully detected results can be found within 62 s after earthquake, and 50% of successful locations can be found within 25.5 km of seismic epicenter. Our system also found more than 23.3% extra earthquakes that were felt by people but not publicly released, 12.1% earthquake-like special outbreaks, and meanwhile, revealed many interesting findings, such as the typical query patterns of earthquake rumor and regular memorial events. Based on these results, our system can timely feed back information to the search engine users according to various cases and accelerate the information release of felt earthquakes.

PM2.5 exposure and anxiety in China: evidence from the prefectures

BackgroundAnxiety disorders are among the most common mental health concerns today. While numerous factors are known to affect anxiety disorders, the ways in which environmental factors aggravate or mitigate anxiety are not fully understood.MethodsBaidu is the most widely used search engine in China, and a large amount of data on internet behavior indicates that anxiety is a growing concern. We reviewed the annual Baidu Indices of anxiety-related keywords for cities in China from 2013 to 2018 and constructed anxiety indices. We then employed a two-way fixed effect (FE) model to analyze the relationship between PM2.5 exposure and anxiety at the prefectural level.ResultsThe results indicated that there was a significant positive association between PM2.5 and anxiety index. The anxiety index increased by 0.1565258 for every unit increase in the PM2.5 level (P < 0.05), which suggested that current PM2.5 levels in China pose a considerable risk to mental health.ConclusionThe enormous impact of PM2.5 exposure indicates that the macroscopic environment can shape individual mentality and social behavior, and that it can be extremely destructive in terms of societal mindset.

Search trends and prediction of human brucellosis using Baidu index data from 2011 to 2018 in China

Reporting on brucellosis, a relatively rare infectious disease caused by Brucella, is often delayed or incomplete in traditional disease surveillance systems in China. Internet search engine data related to brucellosis can provide an economical and efficient complement to a conventional surveillance system because people tend to seek brucellosis-related health information from Baidu, the largest search engine in China. In this study, brucellosis incidence data reported by the CDC of China and Baidu index data were gathered to evaluate the relationship between them. We applied an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model and an ARIMA model with Baidu search index data as the external variable (ARIMAX) to predict the incidence of brucellosis. The two models based on brucellosis incidence data were then compared, and the ARIMAX model performed better in all the measurements we applied. Our results illustrate that Baidu index data can enhance the traditional surveillance system to monitor and predict brucellosis epidemics in China.

Rapid Learning of Earthquake Felt Area and Intensity Distribution with Real-time Search Engine Queries

Immediately after a destructive earthquake, the real-time seismological community has a major focus on rapidly estimating the felt area and the extent of ground shaking. This estimate provides critical guidance for government emergency response teams to conduct orderly rescue and recovery operations in the damaged areas. While considerable efforts have been made in this direction, it still remains a realistic challenge for gathering macro-seismic data in a timely, accurate and cost-effective manner. To this end, we introduce a new direction to improve the information acquisition through monitoring the real-time information-seeking behaviors in the search engine queries, which are submitted by tens of millions of users after earthquakes. Specifically, we provide a very efficient, robust and machine-learning-assisted method for mapping the user-reported ground shaking distribution through the large-scale analysis of real-time search queries from a dominant search engine in China. In our approach, each query is regarded as a “crowd sensor” with a certain weight of confidence to proactively report the shaking location and extent. By fitting the epicenters of earthquakes occurred in mainland China from 2014 to 2018 with well-designed machine learning models, we can efficiently learn the realistic weight of confidence for each search query and sketch the felt areas and intensity distributions for most of the earthquakes. Indeed, this approach paves the way for using real-time search engine queries to efficiently map earthquake felt area in the regions with a relatively large population of search engine users.

The association between PM2.5 exposure and suicidal ideation: a prefectural panel study

BackgroundSuicidal ideation is subject to serious underestimation among existing public health studies. While numerous factors have been recognized in affecting suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STB), the associated environmental risks have been poorly understood. Foremost among the various environment risks were air pollution, in particular, the PM2.5. The present study attempted to examine the relationship between PM2.5 level and local weekly index of suicidal ideation (ISI).MethodsUsing Internet search query volumes in Baidu (2017), the largest internet search engine in China, we constructed a prefectural panel data (278 prefectures, 52 weeks) and employed dynamic panel GMM system estimation to analyze the relationship between weekly concentration of PM2.5 (Mean = 87 μg·m− 3) and the index of suicidal ideation (Mean = 49.9).ResultsThe results indicate that in the spring and winter, a 10 μg·m− 3 increase in the prior week’s PM2.5 in a Chinese city is significantly associated with 0.020 increase in ISI in spring and a 0.007 increase in ISI in winter, after taking account other co-pollutants and meteorological conditions.ConclusionWe innovatively proposed the measure of suicidal ideation and provided suggestive evidence of a positive association between suicidal ideation and PM2.5 level.

Mapping Public Concerns of Electronic Cigarettes in China

ABSTRACTE-cigarettes have gained growing visibility in recent years. However, there lacks a panoramic image of e-cigarette concerns, particularly in low-income countries, such as China. Studying the public concern at a macro level may help reveal the development of the e-cigarette market, and potential health burden of a province as a whole, which is crucial for the policy regulation of the e-cigarette market, and for the allocation of medical resources in the future. In this research, we attempt to provide the first representative portrait of e-cigarette concerns by using the index of e-cigarette search (ICS), which is constructed by online query of e-cigarette-related words/phrases of 31 provinces spanning from 2011 to 2014 in Baidu, the most popular search engine in China. E-cigarette concerns in all Chinese provinces increased over the time span. Our results from fixed-effects models further show that ICS is positively associated with the number of beds in medical institutions and road density of the province, but negatively associated with the proportion of urban population. In sum, provincial health care, infrastructure and urbanization are pivotal in shaping e-cigarette concerns at the provincial level in China.

Searching for Red Songs: The Politics of Revolutionary Nostalgia in Contemporary China

AbstractApplying a novel approach based on online query volume data, this study provides the first large-scale portrait of revolutionary nostalgia among the Chinese, undertaking an empirical analysis of how the aggregate level of nostalgia is shaped. For each Chinese province, we use the normalized frequency of searches for red songs on Baidu, the most widely used online search engine in China, to quantify the local level of nostalgia. We find that the evolving trends of nostalgia among the provinces are similar but stratified. The results from the dynamic panel data analysis using the Generalized Method of Moments indicate that revolutionary nostalgia is significantly affected by a set of socio-economic determinants, including GDP per capita, income inequality, social development, legal development and the degree of globalization.

National Policies and Intervention Programs on Childhood Obesity Prevention in China (P22-018-19)

ObjectivesThis study examined:1) prevalence of overweight and obesity (ov/ob) in children aged 0–18 y in China, 2) national policies and intervention programs on childhood obesity in China since 1949, and 3) provided recommendations for future work. MethodsLiterature search and expert consultation were conducted to identify childhood obesity related national intervention programs and policies in China since 1949. We systematically searched: a) Baidu.com, the dominant search engine in China, b) official websites of national-level government sectors, c) Chinese databases: CNKI and Wanfang from 1949 to 2018, and d) google.com. 20 leading international (eg, from the US) and national (from China) experts on childhood obesity were surveyed in November-December 2018. ResultsIn China prevalence of ov/ob increased from 5.8% in 1991 to 9.5% in 2011 in preschool children (2–6 y), and from 8.0% in 1985 to 27.9% in 2014 in school children (7–18 y).Development of national policies on childhood obesity prevention experienced 3 stages: 1) 1949–1994: Childhood ov/ob were low, related research and national surveys emerged; 2) 1995–2010: childhood ov/ob increased rapidly, related policies and intervention programs were gradually established; 3) 2011-: policies focused on improving nutrition status of children in poor areas, establishing monitoring systems, but effectiveness of these polices was not assessed.Nine major national intervention programs were identified. Institutions implementing the interventions mainly included the State Council and institutions directly under the State Council. The programs focused on preschool or school children and aimed to promote physical activity (eg, “The Happy 10 Minutes Program”) and healthy eating (eg, School Meal Program). No interventions targeted at improving environments. Effectiveness of the programs was not reported. ConclusionsChildhood ov/ob has increased rapidly in China, with the fastest increase among major countries and has the largest number of ov/ob children in the world. Compared to many industrialized countries, national policies and interventions on childhood obesity in China are limited, more future efforts are needed and publishing the Chinese Obesity Blue Paper help fill a gap. Funding SourcesUnited Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Mapping Public Concerns About Class Immobility in China

Public concerns about class immobility represent awareness of social closure and economic inequality on the part of members of the public. We provide the first representative portrait and empirical analysis of the growing immobility concerns among the Chinese. Using online query volume data from Baidu, the most widely used search engine in China, we extract the overall index of searching immobility-related words to measure the provincial level of concerns about immobility. We found that concerns about immobility rose dramatically from around 2008 and slightly decreased from 2012 and that all provinces show similar tendencies. We fit dynamic panel models using the Generalized Method of Moments estimator and found that the level of public concerns about class immobility in a province is profoundly affected by a series of the province’s political and socioeconomic conditions.

Reliability of information about the use of antiepileptic drugs during pregnancy from three major web search engines in China.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to assess the reliability of online information, as provided by three major search engines in China, about the usage of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) during pregnancy.MethodOver eight weeks, six physicians conducted a literature search on six computers and six smartphones at a frequency of once per week. During each web search on each computer and smartphone, three major search engines in China were used, namely, Baidu, Sogou and 360. The search terms used were a combination of words, including one AED name (valproate/oxcarbazepine/levetiracetam/lamotrigine) and one Chinese word ("huaiyun" or "renshen", which means pregnancy in Chinese). The top ten websites retrieved from each search were recorded. After the content of each website was evaluated, the sites were categorized into 9 types. Meanwhile, commercial advertisements on each web page were also registered.ResultsA total of 16,411 search results were assessed. After excluding the redundant web pages, 4840 search results were included in the data analysis. Only 12.05% of the search results were reliable, 47.75% were partly reliable, and 40.21% were unreliable. A total of 4139 (85.52%) webpages contained commercial advertisements. The results from a multivariate analysis suggested that websites with no advertisements and professional websites have an independent positive impact on reliability.ConclusionOverall, little information on AED usage during pregnancy provided by major search engines in China was reliable.Practice implicationsAccurate and professional online information for female patients with epilepsy should be provided through major efforts by the government, search engine companies, professional websites and epilepsy physicians.

Urban networks among Chinese cities along "the Belt and Road": A case of web search activity in cyberspace.

“The Belt and Road” initiative has been expected to facilitate interactions among numerous city centers. This initiative would generate a number of centers, both economic and political, which would facilitate greater interaction. To explore how information flows are merged and the specific opportunities that may be offered, Chinese cities along “the Belt and Road” are selected for a case study. Furthermore, urban networks in cyberspace have been characterized by their infrastructure orientation, which implies that there is a relative dearth of studies focusing on the investigation of urban hierarchies by capturing information flows between Chinese cities along “the Belt and Road”. This paper employs Baidu, the main web search engine in China, to examine urban hierarchies. The results show that urban networks become more balanced, shifting from a polycentric to a homogenized pattern. Furthermore, cities in networks tend to have both a hierarchical system and a spatial concentration primarily in regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta region. Urban hierarchy based on web search activity does not follow the existing hierarchical system based on geospatial and economic development in all cases. Moreover, urban networks, under the framework of “the Belt and Road”, show several significant corridors and more opportunities for more cities, particularly western cities. Furthermore, factors that may influence web search activity are explored. The results show that web search activity is significantly influenced by the economic gap, geographical proximity and administrative rank of the city.