Yesterday Dao Kim Phu, chief of the Department’s Southern Office, said the department has yet to receive any application for registration from the site, Baidu Tra Da Quan, which has operated since July 1 at http://tieba.baidu.com.vn, using Vietnamese.
Under current regulations, all social networking websites operating in Vietnam must obtain a license from the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Therefore, the department will coordinate with other concerned agency to investigate the case, Phu said.
The site is owned by Baidu Inc., a giant Chinese web services company headquartered in Beijing, which owns many Vietnamese domain names, including baidu.com.vn, tieba.com.vn, hao123.com.vn, hao123.vn, zhidao.com.vn, to name a few.
All the domain names were registered on February 22, 2012, but these sites have been using servers that are located in China, Phu said.
Baidu Tra Da Quan, one of the Chinese social networking site that are operating without a license from Vietnamese authorities
Baidu Tra Da Quan is the third social network website that Baidu has so far targeted at Vietnamese people. The two others, neither of which have a license, are Ngoi Nha Moi, at hao.com.vn, and Hoi Dap, at zhidao.baidu.com.vn.
In addition, Baidu Inc. has yet to set up a legal entity in Vietnam for its official operation in the country.
Vo Do Thang, director of the Athena Network Security Center, told Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper that the three Baidu websites have used their overseas servers so that they avoid Vietnam’s control and can operate on the Internet without obtaining a license from Vietnamese authorities.