Chinese search engine company Baidu Inc. announced the establishment of a new location-based service business department and launched a new scheme named "smart life".

Based on the "smart life" plan, Baidu's LBS business department will implement cooperation with hardware makers, operators, websites, and vendors in China.

The newly established department will be commanded by Shen Li, director for Baidu's business application product and marketing department. In the future, the LBS business department will use its platform advantages to gain over 100 million users and recruit one million developers.

Baidu's map service has reportedly gained over 77 million users, realized data cooperation with over 40 vendors, and established a new marketing platform for more than 4,000 vendors. Baidu said that the establishment of the new LBS business department is based on the development of the industry and its own products.

According to remarks made to local media by Sun Yunfeng, Baidu's chief product architect, the LBS business department will improve the company's LBS cloud platform construction and deliver consumer information to a full range of services, covering food, movies, KTV outlets, shopping malls, hotels, buses, supermarkets, and parks. The company will design special applications to meet the varied demands of users.