Microsoft has made a deal with search giant Baidu to make them the default search provider for their new Edge browser in China. Microsoft, like Google and Apple, are trying to get their foot into China to tap the second largest economy in the world. Of course this means cooperating with the Chinese government and their many regulations and restrictions on content and services in the country. In exchange for search preference on Windows 10 and Edge, Baidu is also running a banner advertisement for Windows 10 for Chinese user who search for Windows 10. The banner will be clickable taking the user to a special Windows 10 download site. Microsoft hopes this will grow the number of installs of Windows 10 in China.
Microsoft isn’t dumping Bing completely but they feel promoting Windows 10 in China is more important as Baidu already has a sizable advantage in search engine popularity. Baidu holds a 92% grip on search in the country followed by Google and Bing is barely relevant there. While there are millions of users already running Windows in China a majority of those are pirated versions. Microsoft hopes that with the Baidu deal they will be able to monetize their software in China and piracy will drop, that remains to be seen. Piracy in general is pretty widespread in China mostly due to the tight restrictions the government puts on its populace.
What do you think of Microsoft’s deal with Baidu? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.
[button link=”http://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-signs-search-pact-with-baidu-in-china-1443045343″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Wall Street Journal[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
