Baidu brings new mobile browser to Africa and Middle East

Baidu, China's biggest internet search services provider, is jump-starting its international expansion by delivering a new mobile browser this year for fast-growing smartphone-user markets in Africa and the Middle East.

The Beijing-based company announced yesterday it had signed an exclusive partnership with France Telecom to develop a co-branded mobile browser for the smartphone subscribers of its Orange mobile network in Africa and the Middle East.

It is Baidu's first international network operator deal and is designed to make its mobile internet search services widely available to emerging markets. Commercial terms of the alliance were not given.

"Baidu's success has been built on developing technologies, products and services appropriate for China, the world's largest emerging market," said Hu Yong, the general manager of Baidu's international business unit. "We're now bringing that experience to bear in other markets now enjoying rapid growth."

A JP Morgan report forecast that Baidu "can capture additional earnings from higher total search queries" this year. It expected "mobile search to generate incremental traffic and revenue" for the company.

The Arabic and English-language versions of the new Baidu-Orange browser are available for download by subscribers of Mobinil, which is the France Telecom-owned mobile service in Egypt. A French version of the browser is under development.