Bing Searches for a Partner in China

As part of its expansion plans, Microsoft is searching for a Chinese partner to boost its Bing market share in China's Internet search market.

A Chinese search partner for Bing?

According to its chief executive for Greater China Simon Leung, the computer giant aims to grow its presence in the country and invest over 100 million dollars into Chinese companies.

Microsoft did not disclose any names of companies the firm was interested in teaming up with. Neverthess, analystis say that Microsoft will likely partner with a domestic search company.

Sohu which develops Sogou search engine, Tencent (Soso) and NetEase (Youdao) appear as possible candidates.

Microsoft wants to boost Bing market share in China

Microsoft clearly wants to boost its weak Bing market share. Bing currently controls only a few percents of the country’s search market.

Contrary to Baidu which dominates China’s search market with a market share over 70%, Bing did not benefit from Google’s Hong Kong move. Google now owns around 21% of the market. Recently, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba invested in Sogou search engine.

Microsoft has already invested around 40 million dollars in domestic firms since 2006. In addition to its search engine ambitions, it also plans on investing in companies in the gaming, cloud computing and software sector.