(NYSE: BABA) and Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) are both bellwethers of the Chinese tech sector. Alibaba operates the country's largest e-commerce marketplaces and cloud infrastructure platform, while Baidu owns its top search engine.

The two companies aren't direct rivals, but they indirectly compete with each other in the online advertising market. Alibaba's promoted listings on Tmall and Taobao actually made it the country's largest digital advertising platform by revenue last year. Yet Baidu ranked fifth behind Alibaba, Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD), Tencent (OTC: TCEHY), and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD).

That seismic shift suggests that businesses are buying more ads on e-commerce marketplaces and social networking apps like Tencent's WeChat instead of traditional online search engines like Baidu.

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Source Fool.com