Google Inc. has taken a minority stake in the Chinese-language Internet search company, Baidu.com Inc., the Chinese company said Tuesday.
Robin Li, CEO of Baidu's, confirmed earlier rumors that Google was among foreign investors included in a recent overseas fund-raising push, but he declined to say how much was raised or how many shares the investors hold. "Google does not have a controlling stake," Li said in Beijing.
Baidu is China's biggest independent Internet search engine and is one of Google's rivals in China. Its music search tool is considered one of the country's best. But it is facing competition both from other Chinese search engines, such as Sohu.com, and from foreign giants like Google and Yahoo (which has an alliance with Beijing 3721).