China to Build State-Run Search Engine

SHANGHAI — In an apparent bid to extend its control over the Internet and cash in on the rapid growth of mobile devices, Chinaplans to create its own government-controlled search engine.

The new venture would be fresh competition for Baidu.com, a private company that runs China’s dominant search engine. Baidu has seen its market share grow since Google retreated from the mainland earlier this year.

State-owned China Mobile — the world’s biggest cellphone carrier — and Xinhua, China’s official state-run news agency, signed an agreement Thursday to create a joint venture called the Search Engine New Media International Communications Co.

China already has the world’s largest number of Internet users, more than 420 million, and also the largest number of mobile phone subscribers, more than 800 million.

Private startup companies play a big role on the Web in China, but the government maintains tight control over Internet firms and censors what it deems to be dangerous or sensitive content.

Now, though, analysts say Beijing is pushing state-run companies to take a more active role online. China Central Television, the nation’s dominant broadcaster, is trying to develop its own online video site. Xinhua News Agency is trying to build a global platform of news providers using television and the Internet.

At the announcement of the joint venture in Beijing on Thursday, Zhou Xisheng, vice president of Xinhua, said the new company would build a leading search engine platform. But he also said the move was “part of the country’s broader efforts to safeguard its information security and push forward the robust, healthy and orderly development of China’s new media industry.”

Representatives of Baidu could not be reached for comment.

For years, Baidu has dominated Internet search in China holding a sizable lead over Google, which entered the market late. Earlier this year, Google pulled its search engine out of Beijing after complaining about censorship and online attacks that appeared to be coming from hackers in China.

Google now operates its Chinese-language search engine from Hong Kong; it is accessible from China but some results are censored by the government.

Most of China’s other big, private Internet companies are involved in online games and entertainment. But on Monday, Alibaba.com, one of the country’s biggest e-commerce sites, said the company and a fund co-founded by its chairman would acquire a 16 percent stake in the search engine Sogou, which is owned by the Chinese portal Sohu.com.

Yahoo, the U.S. portal, holds a 40 percent stake in the Alibaba Group.