Microsoft signs search pact with China's Baidu

HONG KONG: Microsoft and Baidu agreed to bolster their Internet-search partnership in China as the companies seek to gain users from Google in the world’s biggest internet market. The agreement will let Baidu users see English search results generated by the US company’s Bing technology to users in China, Viola Wang, a spokeswoman at Microsoft’s MSN venture in China, said by phone on Monday. A service jointly offered by the companies will start this year, Baidu said in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

Baidu, based in Beijing, is expanding outside its main business of Chinese-language search, after fending off Google in China. Microsoft, which is gaining users for Bing in the US, is building on its partnership with Baidu after ending a search-engine agreement with China's Alibaba Group Holdings. “This is not good news for Google,” said Jake Li, who rates Baidu shares ‘accumulate’ at Guotai Junan Securities in Shenzhen.