Yahoo-backed internet giant readies funds for battle against Baidu and Google
Mainland internet giant Alibaba will commit all of its considerable resources to take on search engines Google and Baidu in the China market, chairman and chief executive Jack Ma said yesterday.
Alibaba completed its takeover of Yahoo's China operations two weeks ago in a deal that gave Yahoo a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba, valued at US$1 billion. Alibaba used US$750 million to buy out venture capital investors such as Japanese firm Softbank, and other small shareholders.
Mr Ma said the other US$250 million, plus an extra US$100 million of Alibaba's own capital, would be used to rebuild Yahoo's brand as a search engine in China.
'I've told my staff: 'If a problem can be solved by money, then it's a good problem for us right now',' he said.
According to iResearch, Yahoo China's search engine services had a 32 per cent market share in China in the first quarter, as measured by search queries. Baidu had a 37 per cent share while Google lagged behind on 19 per cent.
Yahoo's share included searches made using dedicated search site Yisou.com and a previously acquired portal, 3721.com. Alibaba has shut down Yisou.com and is redirecting traffic to the new search-dedicated Yahoo site. 3721.com will be phased out.