A notice posted on the home page of Baidu Shuoba, also known as Baidu Talk, informed netizens that due to "business adjustments", the service was shutting down as of today, 22 August.
The message encouraged users to try two of Baidu's other products: message board service Baidu Postbar, and user-generated question-and-answer service Baidu Knows.
Kaiser Kuo, a Baidu spokesman, declined to give any reason for the closure but said "we have learnt quite a bit from it. It will be very useful for the development of our other socially-flavored products”.
Industry observers attributed Baidu Talk's account verification restrictions as the key reason why the service failed to gain traction since it went online last September.
Baidu Talk required users to sign up with their real names and to prove their identities via a mobile phone number and a photo.
Having gained no popularity with that system, Baidu made it optional in mid-May but still fell behind rivals Sina and Tencent.
iResearch's latest report stated that Baidu Talk had just 13.2 per cent of active Chinese microblog users, behind the ones operated by Sina at 56.5 per cent and Tencent at 21.5 per cent.
Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo both offer 'verified' real name accounts but also allow users to set up anonymous accounts.
According to government researcher China Internet Network Information Center, the country had 195 million microbloggers as of June, out of a total of 485 million internet users.
Just as Baidu retreats from the microblog arena, Sina is expecting to monetise its microblogging service by the first half of next year, and Tencent is pumping investments in advertising its own site.
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