Last month, netizens in Hong Kong confirmed the sighting of a Baidu mapping vehicle in Chai Wan. Joining the list of companies that are mapping one of the largest economic centers in East Asia.
Although this is an interesting initiative by Baidu, the Hong Kong market for Street View/Digital Maps is already quite saturated by Western services such as Apple Maps, which has been collecting data for years to improve its maps in this region of Asia. Google Maps has also been present in the territory for 20 years.
Baidu began operations in Hong Kong after establishing a subsidiary in November 2007. In 2013, the company created the “Baidu Panorama” service (百度全景 / Pinyin: Bǎidù Quánjǐng). Later, in April 2014, after obtaining prior approval from local authorities, Baidu launched its street view service in Hong Kong.
The last time Baidu drove in Hong Kong was in 2017, but it seems that things have changed significantly with regard to image capture in the territory. The company is willing to move forward with some of its initiatives.
The State of the Project
Throughout 2025, users have reported sightings of Baidu Panorama vehicles in different regions of mainland China, from Daqing, the fourth most populous city in Heilongjiang in the far northeast; to Lu’an City in Anhui province, located in eastern China.
Provinces such as Shandong have also been covered by Baidu this year, including avenues in Rizhao, Jining, and Taian.
Filming Hong Kong
It seems that Baidu wants to aspire to be on par with other mapping services. Hong Kong has a special political status, and this territory has been quite open to Western companies such as Google and Apple photographing large parts of the cities.
In fact, Google is deploying several trekkers to photograph some alleys and parks in Hong Kong this year. Other emerging services such as Apple Look Around have begun photographing Hong Kong annually since 2021, even sending backpacks to photograph parks and certain tourist sites.
On the other hand, Baidu has found it difficult to make progress with its street view project in Hong Kong, due to the fact that it is a company based mainly in Mainland China. Relations between mainland China and Hong Kong have been quite complicated and delicate, making logistics much more difficult for companies such as Baidu.
Baidu next approach
Things have changed significantly since the 2010s, as evidenced by the direction Baidu has taken in recent years, indicating a desire to expand into a more international market than just the domestic market in Mainland China. At the end of 2024, the Hong Kong Transport Department approved the use of the company’s self-driving cars. Subsequently, Baidu collaborated with Uber to introduce these vehicles into Western markets.
This gives us a good indication that Baidu wants to expand, and the fact that they have decided to transport their special cameras for taking images to Hong Kong suggests that their street view project is taking a much more extensive direction.
Despite tense relations in this part of East Asia, things would begin to improve in December 2024 following the implementation of a visa-free policy between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau. According to statistics provided by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), travel to the territory has increased by 12% with a large majority of people. A large proportion of tourists arriving in Hong Kong are from mainland China, representing a total of 21.3 million people, accounting for more than 75% of tourists.
This gradual increase in tourists to Hong Kong has created a gap in the digital map market. Most Chinese users rely on Baidu Panorama to navigate certain cities, which gives the company an advantage over other mapping services such as Google and Apple, which are mainly used by other types of tourists, mainly western.
