Microsoft and Baidu partner to take on Google
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Microsoft has formed an alliance with Baidu, the biggest search engine in China, to provide English language search results as it bids to boost Bing’s position against Google internationally.
The deal will also help Baidu, which dominates the Chinese search market, expand overseas, especially into English-speaking countries.
Baidu has a 76% share of China’s search market, ahead of Google’s 19%, according to Analysys International. Bing has a negligible search share in the territory.
Google’s share of the market has fallen since the company moved its search operations to Hong Kong, over concerns about censorship and security against hackers in China.
Zhang Dongchen, Baidu senior executive, says: “The cooperation 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.”
The partnership will not involve sharing revenue but will see Bing search results labeled on Baidu’s search results page, which will improve the brand’s visibility in China. Search results will continue to be censored by the Chinese government.
Dongchen says that Baidu receives around 10 million English-language search queries a day, largely from international students and business people from overseas.
Readers' comments (1)
Searchmetrics | Wed, 6 Jul 2011 10:08 pm
The last six months has seen Microsoft try a number of innovative ways to close the gap on Google in the search engine market, from deepening its integration with Facebook to extending Bing to new platforms such as the Xbox 360 and investing in its webmaster tools program. This latest partnership helps it make further inroads – providing access to a market that currently has 450 million internet users, where Google is weak. Bing now has around 30 per cent of the North American market and this agreement will increase market share outside core territories as well as providing greater ad revenues from search results. While this isn’t a killer blow for Google, it is a statement of how seriously Microsoft is about growing its search market share both in China and across the globe.
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