Baidu

Baidu, the dominant search engine in China, says it has reached a digital music distribution deal with three of the world's largest music-recording labels that ends years of litigation over pirated music.

Baidu reached an agreement to stream and download Chinese and international music from One-Stop China, a joint venture of Universal Music, Warner Music, and Sony Music, the company today said in a statement. The China search giant will license the labels' catalogs and future releases, paying royalties for each song played or downloaded.

Baidu users will have access to music via Ting, an ad-supported social music platform … Read more

Today on Buzz Out Loud, we preview tomorrow's "awesome" Facebook announcement -- and we hope it's not just Skype integration. Microsoft is getting in bed with Baidu in China, but Cisco is getting in a much dirtier bed with China's government, helping build a massive surveillance system that we're sure will just be used to hand out traffic tickets. Plus, is #antisec officially in a world of hurt? We'll see.

Google has exited the Chinese market for online search, but two of its biggest rivals, Microsoft and Baidu, have signed a pact to cooperate in the populous country.

Specifically, Microsoft will supply search results for English-language queries on the Chinese search engine, according to representatives for both companies who spoke to The New York Times and Dow Jones today.

"More and more people here are searching for English terms...but Baidu hasn't done a good job. So here's a way for us to do it," a Baidu representative told the Times.

Baidu is the top search … Read more

Baidu, China's top search engine, is nearing the public launch of a legal music-streaming and download service.

Dubbed Ting, the service will allow people to find tracks they may want to hear and to stream them over the Web. Many of the songs will also be available for download at no charge, according to the Ting Web site (Google Translate version) and media reports. Listeners will be able to pause tracks and skip ones they don't like. The service will also include the ability for people to "find like-minded friends," according to the Ting site.

Ting … Read more

Facebook has signed a deal with search engine Baidu to launch a Chinese Web site, reports out of the country claim.

According to Sohu News (translated page), which cited anonymous sources, the two companies will deliver a new site that is not running on or connected to Facebook.com. The report didn't say how Baidu would come into play, but given that company's reach--it operates the most popular search engine in China--it could help the new site get off the ground quite quickly.

Even so, Facebook's reported move into China would be quite interesting. Currently, the social … Read more

China has unveiled a new government-run search engine that will square off against market leader Baidu.

Launched today and operated by telecom company China Mobile and state-run news agency Xinhua, Panguso will let people search for news, Web sites, images, videos, and audio, according to Xinhua. Mobile phone users will also be able to tap into Panguso directly and send search results to their PCs via SMS.

The partnership between Xinhua and China Mobile to build a new search engine was first revealed last summer. Xinhua's role will be to supply the news and information, while China Mobile will … Read more

Wall Street might have another China-based winner on its hands.

Chinese video site Youku made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, and after all the trading was said and done, the stock price was up 161 percent over its initial per-share price of $12.80. It closed the day at $33.44. That momentum is helping to carry the stock to even greater heights today. As of this writing, Youku shares are up nearly $5 to $38.36. The company's market cap is now at over $2.6 billion.

Youku's IPO success is following in … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Baidu CEO Robin Li was also frustrated by Chinese censorship when he returned to his native country to found a search engine, but he said he didn't have the same options that Google had earlier this year.

Li, speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit here in what host John Battelle said was his first U.S. appearance before an industry conference, fielded several friendly questions but was also asked about Google's decision to leave the Chinese mainland earlier this year in favor of a Chinese-language search operation based in Hong Kong, where censorship laws are different. … Read more

Microsoft and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group are testing a new search service that could offer Chinese users an alternative to major player Baidu and struggling Google, according to the Associated Press.

A beta of the new Etao search site came online this past weekend teaming up Alibaba's e-commerce search engine with a Chinese-language edition of Microsoft's Bing search engine. The new site joins the search engines on Alibaba's current e-commerce sites Taobao.com and Alibaba.com and has been set up to drive people to the Alibaba.com online retail store, according to The Wall Street Journal.… Read more