Jul 4, 2011 12:33 GMT  ·  By

Bing has gained a small foothold in the exclusive Chinese market where Google is not only not synonymous with search but largely irrelevant instead and Baidu king.

Microsoft China has confirmed officially that Bing will power Baidu’s English-language search services, following a partnership between the two companies which give the software giant a chance to drastically increase its market share.

Baidu will continue to provide search services for Chinese queries, which Microsoft’s decision engine will be responsible to offering results to searches containing English terms.

We "will be providing high-quality search results by allowing users to make faster decisions based on evidence. This will be the cooperation with Baidu, Baidu users will be more general good English search experience and search results, while making more and more Chinese customers will be able to get 'Happy searching, there will be asked' experience," revealed Microsoft's senior vice president, Harry Shum. (via Google Translate)

Baidu will enable users to enter searches using English text, detect the language automatically, and use Bing to return results.

According to various statistics, Baidu accounts for approximately 75% to 80% of the Chine search market, and the deal has the potential to give Microsoft’s Bing a boost in usage, especially considering the Chinese search engine’s over 450 million users.

“At present, Baidu English daily search volume in the million or so, mostly from first-tier cities in search needs of professionals, college students,” added Baidu CEO Assistant Zhang Dongchen (also via Google Translate).

“Will be in the English search advanced technology and deep product accumulation, the cooperation with Baidu will play will be the technical advantages of each of the parties together to meet the needs of search users search in English to provide the best search experience, while the search terms in English to explore, Baidu will actively help expand the international search market.”