Baidu boosts search engine market share with new services

BAIDU, the Chinese search engine has announced the launch of two services for mobile users, as it seeks to gain further market share in the world's largest mobile market.

Baidu launched client software combining search and other functions it offers on the PC Internet, allowing mobile users access to search services much faster than WAP browsers.

Baidu had earlier acquired Shanghai-based mobile software company DayHand Networks, the developer of Baidu’s input method.

Baidu's move comes in response to major rival Google having launched a Chinese-language voice search service, which can help Chinese users use Google's existing search services via mobile phones. Google expects its mobile search business to surpass the PC-based Internet search business.

Last month Baidu signed a partnership with China Unicom to provide wireless search for the carrier's 3G mobile subscribers.

Recent research has shown that Google still trails Baidu, which had 63.9 per cent of the search market share during the third quarter of the year. But in China's mobile search market, Google's share reached 26.6 per cent in the second quarter of this year, higher than Baidu's 26 per cent.

Mobile Internet users in the country reached 192 million by the end of September this year, an increase of 62.7 per cent year-on-year, and the number of computer-based Internet users grew to 360 million during the same period, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

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