China’s Baidu opens augmented reality lab in Beijing

Chinese search engine Baidu on Monday launched an augmented reality (AR) lab in Beijing as part of a $200 million effort to revitalise the company’s shrinking profits with cutting edge technology.

The lab, which currently employs 55 people, will initially aim to drive revenue through AR marketing, though will later explore healthcare and education.

“AR marketing is taking off,” Andrew Ng, the chief scientist overseeing Baidu’s artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality and deep learning projects, told Reuters.

“There are few content formats where the content is evergreen – AR will be like that,” he said.