Baidu.com, the Beijing based Chinese language Internet web search portal announced that it was purchasing the online video operations of PPS for the price of US$370 million. The move to purchase the eight year old online video provider by Baidu is to expand its content available online.
Once the acquisition has been completed as scheduled for the second quarter of the year, Baidu would become the biggest online video platform in China in terms of mobile users and viewing time. PPS's operations would be merged with iQiyi.com, Baidu's online video portal.
With the online video market becoming more and more crowded, Baidu is trying to keep its market share. Many more Chinese are opting to watch videos on mobile and/or smartphones. As such, advertisers prefer to purchase advertising space from online videos instead of other types of web content.
Amongst Baidu's competition include Sohu.com Inc, Youku Tudou, Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd. The first two are based in Beijing while the third is based out of Hong Kong.
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