Software giant Microsoft Corp plans a major launch on the mainland this year for the advanced, Chinese-language version of its Bing search engine as it aims for broad adoption in the domestic e-commerce and smartphone markets.
The internet search product, which has been in beta tests on the mainland since its worldwide release in June 2009, will be 'much-improved and very competitive', said Zhang Yaqin, a corporate vice-president at Microsoft and the chairman of its Asia-Pacific research and development group.
The domestic launch will form part of the United States-based company's increased focus this year on growing its underperforming internet services business on the mainland, which has the world's biggest internet population at 457 million users as of December.
The country also has the largest mobile phone services market, with 842 million subscribers as of the same month.
'We need to get a foothold in this market,' Zhang said. 'Are we realising the potential of 1.3 billion people? Absolutely not yet.'
Zhang said internet services on the mainland are dominated by local companies.