Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU) is trying to make a push in the bourgeoning china cell phones search market in a bid to capitalize on the opportunities in the 3G era. On May 4, 2009, Baidu announced its strategic partnerships with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Lenovo Group Limited (SEHK: 0992), Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co., Ltd. and MediaTek Inc, under which the Nasdaq-listed online search service provider will embed its wireless search services in the mobile phones and platforms launched by its partners.
The cooperation signals the Chinese-language online search bellwether's attempt to make a significant inroad in the domestic wireless search market, pointed out market observers. Presently, Baidu possesses a 70% share of the Chinese online search market, much more than a 50% share it takes in the wireless search market.Under an agreement with Samsung, Baidu will preinstall its wireless search services in the products made by the South Korea-based watch cell phones maker. S8300 and S5230, the first two Samsung models bundled with Baidu search engine, are scheduled to come into the market this month, disclosed people familiar with the matter.In terms of the strategic cooperation agreement inked with MediaTek, Baidu will work together with the Taiwan-based mobile phone chip giant to develop wireless search applications based on MediaTek operating system. Presently, the Taiwanese mobile phone chip developer's operating system is adopted in more than 90% of the mobile phones made in China.
The alliance with Lenovo, and Beijing Tianyu will enable Baidu to consolidate its dominance in the Chinese wireless search market. As a top-ranking personal computer (PC) maker in the world, Lenovo also enjoys high reputation in the domestic mobile phone market. Beijing Tianyu has been taking the lead among all the domestic mini cell phones makers by sales volume.