中国最大的互联网搜索引擎百度(Baidu)昨日承认，有些公司利用其网站推广虚假信息。由于百度在其搜索结果中将排名最高的位置拍卖给出价最高的竞标者，该公司正面临越来越多的批评。
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.

百度在一份声明中表示，该公司已就此问题展开内部调查，并承诺会配合监管部门的行动。百度还“对用户和其它客户的感情造成的伤害表示真诚的歉意”。
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”.

百度在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)上市的股票本周一下跌了25%。上周末，中国官方电视台对该公司进行了一系列批评，这表明，百度的商业模式可能面临来自政府的挑战。
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.

与大多数搜索引擎不同，百度将推广链接与“真正”的搜索结果混杂在一起，而不对推广链接进行明确标注。
Unlike most search engines, Baidu mixes sponsored links with “genuine” search results without marking the sponsored links clearly.

百度客户可对搜索关键字进行竞价，出价最高的竞标者，其网站链接将出现在搜索结果的顶端。
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，几乎全部来自于对此类竞价排名收取的费用。与之相反，其竞争对手则主要依赖广告收入。
The fees generated from these auctions account for almost all of Baidu's revenues, as opposed to the advertising revenue its competitors rely upon.