Baidu Talks Search-Distribution Agreement With Microsoft In China

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According to analyst Safa Rashtchy, Baidu is in talks for a search-distribution agreement with Microsoft in China. Similar deals are also being brokered by Baidu with blue-chip Internet service providers China Telcom and China Netcom.

Baidu's angle is obvious. The more virtual real estate it can lock up now, the better. Internet service providers tend to make their own landing pages the default starting page for their customers and that's a great place for Baidu to show up. As for Microsoft, turning to Baidu may seem to be conceding defeat, but it has got its hands full with the recent domestic launch of Live.com. Baidu is so far ahead of its rivals -- commanding nearly two-thirds of the Chinese language search engine market share -- that Microsoft is probably endearing itself to the locals by playing nice with the home team rather than taking on Baidu the way that Google has lately.

Baidu Talks Search-Distribution Agreement With Microsoft In China [msnbc.msn.com]

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The article doesn't say where Baidu would be providing results exactly. Does this mean that Live Search in China has been given up?

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It's not clear about that. I suspect it's simply trying to connect with the big players.

[bill]

They have been working on their MSN portal in Chinese [webmasterworld.com] this year. I assumed that the Live Search would be powering that. That might be what they're talking about. However, I thought that all the MSN/Live portals were using their own search now.