Baidu and Rakuten to Form Joint Venture to Build China's Largest Online B2B2C Mall
2010年1月27日 - 4:00PM
PRニュース・ワイアー (英語)
Partnership with Japan's leading B2B2C e-commerce company to offer
high-quality, branded products to Chinese consumers BEIJING, Jan.
27 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU), the leading
Chinese language Internet search provider, and Rakuten, Inc., the
largest e-commerce website in Japan, today announced an agreement
to jointly invest US$50 million over three years in a joint venture
to build a B2B2C online shopping mall for Chinese Internet users.
B2B2C refers to an online marketplace that links and provides
value-added services to both business to business and business to
consumer. (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081103/BAIDULOGO ) The online
mall will provide customers with high-quality merchandise from
well-known Chinese and foreign brands as well as small and medium
sized enterprises at competitive prices. Expected to go live in the
second half of 2010, the mall is anticipated to be the largest
online B2B2C shopping mall in China. According to the agreement,
Rakuten will own 51% and Baidu will own 49% of the new joint
venture. Founded in 1997, and currently ranked 2nd in the global
B2C e-commerce market, Rakuten is a pioneer in the B2C industry.
The company operates Rakuten Ichiba, Japan's leading Internet
shopping mall with over 30,000 participating merchants and over 47
million items registered on its e-commerce platform. Baidu, founded
in 2000, is the world's largest Chinese language search engine. In
addition to its web search platform, Baidu also hosts a range of
popular community-oriented products and services, including Baidu
Knows, Baidu Post-Bar, Baidu Encyclopedia, and many others. "This
is a very exciting development for Baidu," said Ren Xuyang, Baidu's
vice president of marketing and business development. "As the
Chinese Internet space continues its rapid development, an
increasing number of businesses and consumers are engaging in
e-commerce. I believe the platform that Rakuten and Baidu build
will provide users with a diversified, satisfying shopping
experience while driving the broader development of China's
e-commerce space." "Baidu, with its vast reach and deep user
loyalty, is the perfect compliment to Rakuten's extensive
experience in the online B2C sector," commented Kentaro Hyakuno,
senior executive officer of Rakuten, Inc. "Through this joint
venture, we not only are committed to providing users with the best
possible online shopping environment, but also aim to create a
superior platform that will grow alongside small and medium sized
enterprises as well as the leading Chinese and global brands."
About Baidu Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet
search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to
provide the best way for people to find information. In addition to
serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an
effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers.
Baidu's ADSs, each of which represents one Class A ordinary share,
are currently trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the
symbol "BIDU." About Rakuten, Inc. In Japan, Rakuten has
approximately 60 million registered members and sales in 2008
totaled US$2.7 billion. Its core business "Rakuten Ichiba" is
Japan's largest Internet shopping mall and offers more than 47
million products by over 30,000 merchants, some of which have
turnover of more than US$1 million per month. As well as its
Internet shopping mall, Rakuten, which has more than 7,000
employees, is engaged in other Internet businesses such as travel
agency and financial services. Safe Harbor Statement This
announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements
are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements can be identified by terminology such as "will,"
"expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes,"
"estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Statements that
are not historical facts, including statements about Baidu's
beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Among
other things, quotations from management in this announcement
contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements
involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-
looking statements. A number of factors could cause actual results
to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking
statement, including but not limited to the following: our growth
strategies; our future business development, including development
of new products and services; our ability to attract and retain
users and customers; competition in the Chinese and Japanese
language Internet search markets; competition for online marketing
customers; changes in our revenues and certain cost or expense
items as a percentage of our revenues; the outcome of ongoing, or
any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to
intellectual property rights; the expected growth of the Chinese
language Internet search market and the number of Internet and
broadband users in China; Chinese governmental policies relating to
the Internet and Internet search providers and general economic
conditions in China, Japan and elsewhere. Further information
regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on
Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release
is as of January [XX], 2010, and Baidu undertakes no duty to update
such information, except as required under applicable law. For
investor and media inquiries please contact: BAIDU: In China: Mr.
Victor Tseng Baidu, Inc. Tel: +86-10-5992-7244 Email: Ms. Cynthia
He Brunswick Group LLC Tel: +86-10-6566-9504 Email: In the U.S.:
Ms. Kate Tellier Brunswick Group LLC Tel: +1-212-333-3810 Email:
RAKUTEN: For Media: Public Relations Rakuten, Inc. Tel:
+81-3-6387-1104 Email: For Investors: Investor Relations Rakuten,
Inc. Tel: +81-3-6387-0555 Web: http://corp.rakuten.co.jp/en/ir/
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081103/BAIDULOGODATASOURCE:
Baidu, Inc. CONTACT: For Baidu in China -- Mr. Victor Tseng of
Baidu, Inc., +86-10-5992-7244, or , or Ms. Cynthia He of Brunswick
Group LLC, +86-10-6566-9504, or ; or in the U.S. -- Ms. Kate
Tellier of Brunswick Group LLC, +1-212-333-3810, or ; or for
RAKUTEN, For Media, Public Relations at Rakuten, Inc.,
+81-3-6387-1104, or , or For Investors, Investor Relations at
Rakuten, Inc., +81-3-6387-0555 Web site: http://www.baidu.com/
http://corp.rakuten.co.jp/en/ir
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