Apple, Baidu to share mobile revenues

Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ) said it will share revenues from ad sales with Apple (AAPL.NASDAQ), following news earlier this week that the Chinese search engine will be pre-loaded onto iPhones in China, Bloomberg reported. Apple also plans to add Chinese-language support for its Siri voice technology. Baidu has similar revenue-sharing agreements with manufacturers of handsets that use Google Inc’s (GOOG.NASDAQ) Android operating system, Baidu Vice President Wang Jing said yesterday. Baidu will also offer services such as free music streaming to attract more smartphone users, Wang said. Eric Wen, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong, estimates that Baidu distributes less than 10% of the revenue it generates from smartphones to device makers. Baidu holds a roughly 80% share of China’s search engine market.