Google and China Mobile announced a joint venture in setting up Internet search functions in China.
Why China? It has the second largest Internet market: 120 million Internet users. Google is especially interested in China"s 300 million mobile customers. This collaboration has been in a test period since December and is said to be in full launch by early 2007. The partnership extends to news, ringtones, videos and games.
Google"s main search engine rival will be the Chinese company Baidu which launched its own mobile search over a year ago.