China Telecom to use Microsoft search
20 September 2006
Microsoft will provide its Live Search service to China Telecom's 25 million broadband customers and more than 80 million Internet users, Bloomberg reported. China Telecom, already the country's biggest Internet service provider, wants to use the partnership to secure a larger share of the online market. It will also use Microsoft technology to make improvements to Best Tone, its voice search service. The US software developer has invested a huge amount of money into its search engine in a bid to make up ground on Google. In China, the search engine has less than 3.7% of the market, behind Baidu on 50.3%, Google on 16.2% and Yahoo on 15.7%, according to research firm Analysys International. Microsoft's Windows Live technology will be used in China Telecom's 114 Web search network, providing voice, Internet, IPTV and mobile searches, the companies said.