Baidu and BMW to jointly research onboard search services

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 9) - Chinese search engine giant Baidu has made its first foray into the automobile industry by signing an agreement with BMW to jointly develop onboard search engine systems, tech.qq.com reported today. Baidu hopes to build on the success it has seen in the mobile phone and television industries.

Baidu and BMW will be researching how to use Internet services to allow car owners to gain access to the information they need, including maps, e-mail, news and music, in any place and at any time. With the number of vehicles in China having surpassed 80 million this year and number of owners exceeding 400 million, Baidu hopes that it will be able to see big gains by making inroads in the automobile market.

"We hope that whatever method [used], people will always be able to access Baidu to find the information they need," Baidu's Assistant President Zhang Dongchen said. The company has reportedly received cooperation requests from other automobile manufacturers as well. The number of Baidu-equipped vehicles looks to be high in the future.