On January 23, Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, announced that his company's Japanese branch, after 10-months of preparation, has officially started operations.

According to Baidu's financial statistics, the company has invested about US$7 million in its Japan-based business during the first three quarters in 2007. This has created a solid foundation for their Japanese branch. Furthermore, Idei Nobuyuki, the ex-chairman of the Sony Group, was appointed as the company's independent director, thus showcasing their great ambitions regarding the Japanese market.

Speaking of future developments, Robin Li said that Baidu's Japanese branch would focus on developing local customer-targeted search products and would make preliminary probes into business modes for Japanese-language search engines.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/mainland/channel/37437.shtml)

(China.org.cn January 24, 2008)