Baidu intensifies expansion, aims at search on mobile phones: report

July 26, 2010 9:53 AM EDT

With already more than 70 percent share in the search market in China, Baidu Inc. now plans to offer search on mobile phones, the most preferred choice of internet access in the country.

The internet giant in China is in parleys with mobile phone manufacturers which include search facility in their handsets, the Wall Street Journal quoted Robin Li, the company's chief executive officer, as saying.

With the introduction of 3G network and smartphones, mobile internet access is rapidly growing in China, representing about two-thirds of Internet users in the country.

By the end of June, there were 420 million internet users with 65 percent of the total internet users accessing the web through their mobile phones, according to a latest report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

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"Mobile phones will catch up with personal computers to be another main access to the Internet in the coming years," said Liu Bing, director of Internet Research Department of the CNNIC.

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The growth will also be fueled by the availability of more applications for the mobile internet users, said Liu.

The company is also in plans to list shares in China, the newspaper quoted Li as saying, without specifying exact dates of the offer.

Google already provides mobile and Internet search services in China in partnership with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile telecom carrier.

Baidu growing at the cost of Google

Cashing on the Google’s troubles in China, Baidu reported significant jump in both the earnings and market share for the second quarter. Its second-quarter sales stood at 1.9 billion yuan, compared with 1.1 billion yuan a year earlier.

Its net income grew more than doubled reaching 837.4 million yuan (123.5 million U.S. dollars) in the second quarter on yearly basis.

By winning advertisers from Google redirecting troubles, Baidu added 33,000 clients taking the total to 250,000 customers by the end of second quarter.

In June, Google Inc had to change the approach in China after the government said the company could no longer automatically redirect users to the unfiltered Hong Kong site as the Chinese government officials found it unacceptable.

In June, Baidu had announced new plans to hire U.S engineers to enhance its technical skills and propel its growth globally.

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