Two months too long? Try two days!

The talk about Baidu's online gaming service is heating up.

After Netease Tech reported yesterday that Baidu will roll out online gaming service in two months, Sohu Tech's report has gone further. It said that Baidu will formally launch the service in two days!

There were rumors that Baidu has hired away the founder of online gaming portal 17173.com. Sohu IT cited reliable source that Baidu has set up ambitious goal as early as begining of the year.

The positioning of the service is now the focus among analysts. Some indicated that Baidu could choose from a variety of options such as content aggregator, vertical search or community information services. In any of cases, it will mark Baidu's further march into the "new media" era.

Online gaming(video games, not gambling) has been the largest revenue generator for China's web companies with huge population of players. It is still the main source of revenue for several of China's largest internet companies such as Shanda, Netease, The9, as well as recent IPO winner Perfect World.

To build a springboard for many different gaming services will certainly be welcomed by many internet users. In doing so, Baidu is hoping to generate revenue by both getting a small cut of the rich margins that online game operators now enjoy and by attracting gamers to many other Baidu services.