But China's microblogging market is dominated by two other major domestic Internet firms. Internet portal operator Sina has its own service, called Weibo, which has 140 million registered users. Meanwhile, a Twitter-like service from online game and instant messenger operator Tencent has 160 million registered users.

U.S. social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus have all been blocked by Chinese Internet censors. The country's authorities routinely block sites and delete content deemed politically sensitive or anti-government.

Baidu Talk failed to gain traction in China's market partly due to timing, and launched months after its rivals had already begun to gain a sizeable following, said Mark Natkin, managing director for Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. But the Chinese search giant has also struggled to create successful products outside its core business of search.

One example, was Baidu Youa, the company's effort to combine its search engine with e-commerce. But the site failed to achieve a major share in the country's Internet market. In April, Baidu effectively of the site to other platforms and made Youa a lifestyle portal.

"Within the corporate culture of Baidu, these products could be considered not as important and are lower in the pecking order," he said. "They're not able to get as much access to key decision makers and end up being more limited."