Baidu offers glimpse of new mobile OS (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese search engine Baidu offers a glimpse of its upcoming mobile operating system and has launched a new platform of mobile applications on Friday aimed at strengthening its presence in the increasingly competitive mobile web.

The platform, called Baidu Yi, allow application developers to create third party applications such as games, maps and other tools that can be distributed in a manner similar to the App Store.

Yi Baidu was inspired by Google's Android operating system will be extended to mobile devices and laptops in the future.

The company also launched its new website which will have four functions, which include social networking features.

However, Baidu CEO Robin Li was quoted by the new home page could have a negative impact on revenue by requiring users to register for an account of Baidu, reducing traffic on the site.The new page with more links and content, could also affect the loading speed.

"We do not know how it will be negative," Li said in an interview with the website SohuIT.

"No matter the size of the loss would be, this is the future of the industry if we do not, others can;. If not now, you may be required to do so in the future, but rather wait for others to pushes, it is preferred to take the initiative. "

Baidu currently has some 200 million registered users, said Li.

Growth, diversification

Baidu has built on its dominance of the search market in China in the significantly higher profile since Google launched last year citing problems of piracy and censorship, and now has a market share of over 80 percent.

Part Baidu Nasdaq rose nearly 50 percent so far this year, giving it a market capitalization of approximately $ 50 billion.

The company has also been aggressively diversifying into e-commerce, online video and online travel to enhance growth and increase competitiveness.

An array of Chinese Internet users, companies and manufacturers of trains Telco launched the self-developed smart phones in order to locate in a market still dominated by traditional mobile phones and lower than the second generation of phones.

Alibaba Group, the largest of China's e-commerce has launched a smartphone that runs its own mobile operating system at the end of July which will show the cloud-based applications and Internet research.

Huawei Technologies has launched its cloud computing smartphones in August, and Sina Corp. recently deployed a range of smart phones catering to users of the microblogging service Weibos.

(Additional Reporting by Soo Ai Peng; Written by Kazunori Takada and Jason Subler, editing Lincoln Feast)