There are a number of reasons that Baidu has beaten Google (in terms of Chinese market share), but one of them involves entertainment-related queries; the Chinese company’s MP3 search function is wildly popular. And that function will soon get better, as Baidu has announced a partnership with Rock Music Group.
“[A] selection of Chinese language music from RMG’s repertoire will be made legally available for streaming at no charge to all users of Baidu,” according to a press release. In return, “Internet advertising will be displayed while users listen to music licensed under the agreement.”
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Chinese searchers will like these legal tunes; many of the MP3 files that can be found through Baidu are pirated, and will presumably remain available and advertising-free. That’s good (sort of) for Google – at least Baidu isn’t guaranteed an added edge.
Yet what’s bad (for Google) is that the deal represents a sort of peace accord between Baidu and a part of the music industry. After all, the release states that “[t]he two companies will share revenue generated from the advertising and will continue to work together to explore new opportunities in advertising-supported online music distribution.”
It’s also worth noting that we’ve seen similar deals happen before, such as when Baidu partnered with EMI.
This new announcement with Rock Music Group may not amount to a deathblow, but Google’s chances in China aren’t getting any better.
