China Reportedly to Shut 10,000 Unapproved Web Sites

China today is reportedly shutting down about 10,000 unregistered and unapproved Web sites, most of them operated by small businesses, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. He says that “multiple Chinese media sources” last night discussed the push to clean up unwanted Internet sites.

Munster says the move could have a small negative impact on Baidu (BIDU), the China-based Internet search service. He notes that at the end of 2008, the company had 197,000 customers. He figures that about half of the Web sites that the government is shutting down were likely buying keywords from Baidu, or about 2.5 percent of its customers.

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