Baidu expands mobile search with apps that aren't downloaded

Baidu is trying to navigate a shift from desktop computing, where it manages 82% of the nation's searches, to mobile devices

Baidu Inc, owner of China's largest search engine, is expanding with mobile applications that don't need to be downloaded as it competes with Tencent Holdings for users in the world's biggest smartphone market.

Mobile users can access so called "lite apps" for transportation, travel and entertainment information through Baidu's search programme on smartphones, Li Mingyuan, a vice-president, said on Thursday in Beijing. Baidu is also offering mobile payment services for developers to commercialise their applications, he said.

Baidu is trying to navigate a shift from desktop computing, where it manages 82 per cent of the nation's searches, to mobile devices. The company last month agreed to pay $1.85 billion for the 91 Wireless third-party app store in its biggest announced acquisition to capture the nation's more than 464 million users who access the Internet from mobile devices. "We are pushing the development of China's Internet ecosystem," said Li Mingyuan. "We hope by promoting 'lite' apps to help developers integrate mobile and cloud systems."

The company's app store has had 69 million downloads every day as its open platform attracts 700,000 developers, Chairman Robin Li said at the conference.

Baidu's mobile revenue was about 700 million yuan to 800 million yuan in the second quarter, Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Li said in an interview on Bloomberg TV in July. The company has a market share "well above" 50 percent in searches from mobile devices, she said at the time.

"Baidu has been relatively fast in commercialising its mobile services," said Lucy Zhang, a Beijing-based analyst at internet consulting group IResearch. "It's trying to build a mobile cloud ecosystem to help developers build its more mobile services on its platform."