Baidu, China’s Google, is looking to making inroads in India, a country only second to China in population and the size of the market.
According to a report by ET, Baidu is eyeing making strategic investments in Indian big players like Zomato, Big Basket, and BookMyShow.
Baidu also plans to expand its app store, MoboMarket, in Hindi and vernacular languages in a bid to to tap the growing number of smartphone users in smaller cities and towns. The company, which opened its India office in Gurgaon in January, has launched four mobile products in the country.
Baidu, not only is looking to make strategic strides into a tempting big market like India through investments in other startups, but has been slowly trying to popularise itself in India through social media.
Baidu, Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings, collectively known as BAT, have been scouting in India for a year for startups to invest in, to take advantage of potential opportunities in the world’s third-largest smartphone market. Alibaba group is the biggest stakeholder (40%) in Indian ecommerce company PayTM, while Tencent Holdings’ Didi is the largest cab-hailing service in China, which recently came together in a strategic alliance with India Ola, to consolidate fight against Uber.
With a slowing economy, and saturated markets, looks like China, like the USA, has found its next big growth-goldmine in India.