Google teams up with Top100 to launch music search service

Google, operator of the world's largest internet search engine, and Top100.cn, a mainland music website co-founded by basketball star Yao Ming, jointly launched a music search service to give users access to free downloads of licensed songs.

'It is time to set up a business model which allows China's internet users to download music and videos for free while music producers can share the advertising revenue,' said Chen Ge, the chief executive of Top100.

The service poses a challenge to Baidu.com, which dominates the mainland's internet search market but has, along with other local search providers, faced lawsuits accusing it of facilitating copyright violations through downloads of unlicensed music.

'We very much support the practice of Top100, which encourages users to download licensed songs,' Google China president Lee Kai-fu (below) said in a statement. 'The internet industry should by no means stand in the opposite camp to the music industry.

'Google believes profoundly that mutual interest, rather than monopoly, is the key to sustainable growth.'

Despite having a more than 60 per cent share of the global search engine market, Google only has a 25.9 per cent market share on the mainland while Baidu has 60.1 per cent, according to research firm Analysys.