Baidu, China’s biggest internet company and Google’s biggest search rival, which started operations in India via offices in Gurgaon, New Delhi from January this year, claims to have more than 45 million monthly active users in India across its products.
The company has launched four of its mobile products in India. It’s products includes ES File Explorer, a file manager app for Android which Baidu says 10 Million users; MoboMarket, an alternate app store for Android, claimed to have 4.5 million users.
It has also launched DU Battery Saver and DU Speed Booster apps which have 8 million monthly actives in India. Globally, the company claims to have more than 250 million monthly active users for its mobile products.
The company currently employs 10 people in India. The India team will focus on business development, sales, marketing and product operations and explore local partnerships for e-commerce, online travel agent and online to offline (O2O) businesses.
As per the company, it already has local partners like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, Quikr, Jabong and Newshunt but there is no specific information on these local partnerships.
According to a report from ET, Baidu and the private conglomerate Fosun Group are scouting for investment opportunities in Indian startups. It is said that investment managers from the companies are in talks with Indian venture capitalists and startups for potential funding deals.
Founded in 1999 by Robin Li and Eric Xu, Baidu is China’s biggest search engine and the fourth most popular website after Google, Facebook and YouTube globally. It is currently listed on Nasdaq and has a market capitalisation of $52 billion.
