Bing was not blocked by the Chinese government, a source said, following complaints from some Internet users about the search engine's temporary outage in some parts of the country last week.
The source told Reuters that Bing's temporary outage in China on Thursday may have been caused by technical problems. This claim is contrary to reports alleging that Beijing blocked Microsoft's search engine in line with the government's censorship efforts.
Beijing would usually send prior notice to websites and search engines before censorship blocking takes place. In the case of Microsoft, no notice was received by the Washington-based tech provider.
Some reports suggested that China may have issued a blockage on the search engine but both Microsoft and Beijing did not issue a statement on the outage.
The outage in some Chinese regions started Thursday but operations were quickly resumed late the next day.
In an earlier report by the outlet, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said in a statement that it completed the erasure of over 7 million articles online due to "vulgar information."
The CAC is China's cyber police and has been deleting online pieces as part of the Chinese government's efforts to clean up search engines allowed to operate in the country. Aside from millions of articles and other data, the CAC also blocked 9,382 mobile applications.
China's censorship efforts kicked off in 2016, as Beijing sought to filter "harmful" content that is especially triggered by the rise of social media platforms. To further prove the CAC's stance against uncensored content, 700 websites were shut down.
Meanwhile, Bing isn't the only search engine that's gaining attention. Baidu, China's most dominant search engine, has been predicted to make a rebound after shares dropped over the past months.
Luke Lango, business analyst and Founder of L&F Capital Management, wrote in his entry for Investorplace that there are recent signs indicating Baidu stocks will soar once more. These signs are particularly linked to China's economic activities.
Lango explained that the latest market data suggest China is done with its economic crisis. The country may now be on its pivoting stage wherein technological and infrastructure advancements could drive Chinese stocks up, including that of Baidu.
On an overall basis, Lango suggested that while Baidu stocks are still weak, it could be a good time to invest in the Beijing-based tech giant. Lango pointed at increased OECD consumer confidence figures and weakening of the U.S. dollar against Chinese yuan as key indicators for the country's potential rebound this year.
