Baidu Establishes Payment System

Jan 6, 2006 Chinese search engine Baidu announced that it has established online payment system. It indicates that the "free" Baidu is trying to start paid services for some of the internet users.

Baidu announced that, in the past half of the year, Baidu has signed online payment agreements with 23 companies including Shanda, China Merchandize Bank, Beijing Netcom and others. Through the agreements, Baidu's virtual currency "Baidu Money" will be able to freely exchangeable with Shanda and others' virtual currencies.

The establishment of Baidu's payment platform signals the acceleration of Baidu paid services. Baidu said that with the plarform and the tremendous amount of users, more and more paid services will be rolled out naturally.

Jianyue Zhang from Jinghua Times