Baidu to explore the e-commerce market

Baidu, China's largest search engine service provider, announced on Wednesday that it plans to enter the customer-to-customer (C2C) e-commerce market, Xinhua reported (in Chinese). Baidu has set up an independent department to handle the business and its C2C site will be launched in the next year. Baidu has 74.5% market share of online searches in China as well as the country's largest interactive social network, resources that are competitive advantages for Baidu in the e-business market, said a Baidu executive in charge of its e-commerce line.