Baidu Strikes Search Deal With Apple, Will Share iOS Revenue

Chinese web search company Baidu has agreed to share part of its advertising revenue with Apple whenever the program is used on iOS powered devices, specifically iPad and iPhone systems. The announcement was made by Baidu VP Wang Jing.

While Baidu will now be offered for search, Apple will continue to feature Google as the default search engine on its iOS platform. Baidu is a big player in the Chinese internet market where it currently controls 80% of all Chinese web searches.

In the meantime Wang and his team at Baidu are spending big to attract new mobile users, for example the company offers free music streaming, a service that requires them to pay royalties to musical artists from around the world.

Exact terms of the deal are not being discussed, however analysts in China claim that Baidu would likely do whatever it takes to secure its future on mobile devices, especially as more users skip over traditional computing for mobile and tablet based access.

Wang also announced that Baidu has put the same type of deal in place with several Google Android phone manufacturers, a move that Google probably doesn’t appreciate since they offer the Android OS at no cost to users.

The new Baidu supported iOS platform will become available in China when iOS 6 rolls out sometime this fall. Apple’s new iOS is expected to offer better support for the Chinese market while also providing new handwriting recognition, Siri support for Cantonese and Mandarin and access to local Chinese video sites Youku and Tudou.