Google may never win the war for search in China, but Microsoft has better plans. The Redmond-based software company has just forged a partnership with Baidu, the dominant search engine in China, to deliver Windows 10 to its users.
Baidu is often considered the Google of China, not just because it is the most popular search engine in the country but because of its own self-driving car moonshot project it is working on with BMW. More than 600 million people in China use Baidu, which accounts for 92 percent of all Internet users in the country. Meanwhile, Google has reached only 27 percent of the online Chinese population, while Microsoft's own Bing has penetrated less than 2 percent.
Why is this significant? Microsoft plans to push Windows 10 and its Edge browser to China with the help of Baidu. The company says in a blog post that the partnership will entail a new distribution channel called Windows 10 Express, where Baidu will make it easier for Chinese users to download Windows 10. Baidu will also offer Windows Universal Apps, including those for search, video, cloud and maps.
In return, Microsoft promises to use Baidu as the default search engine for Edge in China in lieu of Bing. However, Bing remains an important part of Windows 10. As Microsoft's Corporate Vice President of its Windows and Devices Group Yusuf Mehdi says, the company remains "deeply committed" to Bing, which will continue to power the local search function in Windows 10 and, of course, Cortana.
With more than 67 million computers reportedly running Windows 10, Microsoft's new software-as-a-service operating system offered for free is doing great. However, that is still a long way to go before it reaches its goal of 1 billion Windows 10 devices in 2018. And with China having the biggest number of Internet users in the world, Microsoft appears to be solidifying its claim to the world's second largest economy, and the new market for the technology industry.
Microsoft also announced a number of partnerships with state-owned and state-backed Chinese entities, including chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup, which will sell cloud services from 21Vianet Group, Microsoft's cloud partner in China. The company also says it has struck a deal with the China Electronics Technology Group to provide localized Windows 10 versions to government-owned organizations and enterprises.
