Shanghai — Software monopolist Microsoft Corp. and Chinese web giant Baidu Inc. agreed to bolster their Internet-search partnership in China, on Monday said it had inked an agreement with Microsoft to provide English-language search results generated by the software giant’s Bing search engine, as the companies seek to gain users from Google Inc. in the world’s biggest Internet market.
Additional details of the deal, including its financial terms, were not revealed.
The move follows Google’s decision last year to shutter its search engine from China’s mainland, following a high-profile fracas over censorship of search results. The Google.cn page now redirects visitors to Google’s Hong Kong search site when they attempt to enter terms into the search bar.
This collaboration will empower Baidu users view English search results generated by the Redmond, Wash. company’s Bing technology to users in China, Viola Wang, a spokeswoman at Microsoft’s MSN venture in China, said by phone today. A service jointly offered by the companies will start this year, Baidu said in an e-mailed statement today.
Moreover, some English search query from Baidu users will be automatically directed to Bing and its results will be displayed in pages in Baidu’s search engine, the Chinese company said in a statement.
“The collaboration between Baidu and Bing will bring into play technological advantages of both parties and jointly provide best search experience for users who need to search in English,” Baidu senior executive Zhang Dongchen said.
“More and more people here are searching for English terms…but Baidu has not done a good job. So here is a way for us to do it,” a Baidu representative told the The New York Times.
The move will also assist Baidu to explore the overseas Internet search market, Zhang said, without giving any details. Baidu gets around 10 million English-language search requests a day, mostly from professionals and students in major cities, Zhang said.
According to official data, Baidu is the dominant search engine in China, the world’s biggest online market with at least 477 million Internet users, with Google in second place. Microsoft, which acquired Yahoo’s search assets, is working hard to gain search influence. Search has been financially powerful for Google, which sells advertisements based on people’s search terms.
In the ensuing brouhaha, Google has lost part of its share of the lucrative Chinese search market to Baidu since the US web giant last year engaged in a very public dispute with Beijing over cyberattacks that it claimed had originated from China.
Baidu, based in Beijing, is spreading it wings outside its main business of Chinese-language search, after fending off Google in China. Microsoft, which is gaining users for Bing in the U.S., is building on its partnership with Baidu after ending a search- engine agreement with China’s Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd.
“This is not good news for Google,” said Jake Li, who evaluates Baidu shares “accumulate” at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen. Most Chinese Internet users currently prefer Google’s English-language search results over Baidu, whose service will be improved by the partnership with Microsoft, he said.
Besides, Baidu holds an existing agreement with Bing for some mobile- phone users in China, Haoyu Shen, senior vice-president at Baidu, said in May. Baidu is working on efforts to spread overseas, and its developing products in 12 foreign languages, Shen said at the time.
The Chinese search engine and Bing are expected to start offering the service later this year, the statement said.