Amid the backdrop of the pressure on China’s internal economic circulation and the escalating US-China technology war, Baidu’s important partner in central China, Wuhan Century Baijie Network Technology Co., Ltd., recently announced the initiation of liquidation procedures. On June 30, the company issued a notice stating that due to Baidu’s channel model adjustment and imminent termination of cooperation, the company has lost its main source of revenue, leading to operational difficulties and an inability to continue.
As a long-established Baidu general agent in Hubei Province with an annual revenue of nearly 2 billion yuan, Century Baijie’s liquidation has sparked industry attention. It is widely believed that this is not just the withdrawal of a local partner of Baidu, but also reflects the gradual decline of the search advertising agency model under platform changes and technological advancements.
A network advertiser from Wuhan, Ms. Liu, interviewed by Epoch Times on July 4, stated that Century Baijie entering the liquidation process marks the end of an era, “Baidu advertising used to be the preferred channel for Chinese brand promotion, but now platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat, and Tencent offer more direct and efficient promotion methods, making the customer transition natural.”
Data shows that Century Baijie was established in 2003 as Baidu’s general agent in central China, covering regions such as Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi, with a peak employee count exceeding a thousand. However, in recent years, with Baidu gradually phasing out the agency system, strengthening direct operations, and the cooling Chinese macroeconomy, the company’s business scale has shrunk gradually.
According to Qichacha data, Century Baijie had 616 employees in 2022, which decreased to 289 by 2024. Several internal employees disclosed to multiple media outlets that Century Baijie’s customer renewal rate has been continuously declining, leading to a decrease in performance over the years.
On July 2, a reporter from Epoch Times called their official hotline posing as a customer, and the staff mentioned that the Baidu advertising business has been “taken over by others,” and Century Baijie will no longer continue the service.
Although Century Baijie has promised to pay all salaries up to June 30 and allow employees to continue using office resources until the end of 2026, some employees have already expressed on social media, “Received a layoff notice abruptly during work hours, with no public compensation plan available yet.”