Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine, will shut its online e-commerce store, Youa, and migrate its users to other platforms.

The shutdown will take effect in May and Youa's existing merchants will be migrated to Rakuten China and Yaodian100, Baidu said in a statement yesterday.

Youa failed to gain traction with the majority of online users who preferred to use Alibaba's Taobao.com to buy and sell goods online. Based on gross merchandise value, Taobao commands more than 70 percent of China's e-commerce market.

Rakuten China is a joint venture between Baidu and Japan's largest online retailer Rakuten Inc.

China is the world's largest internet market with more than 450 million users.