Baidu Joins Mobile Payment Fight

Baidu, a search engine provider dubbed China’s Google, is entering the mobile payments fray.

The Baidu Wallet will be integrated into a host of the company’s many services and mobile apps, and will serve as a payment endpoint, especially for prospective buyers searching for products or services using Baidu’s search engine.

It will allow for in-store payments to merchants that accept Baidu’s Baifubao third-party payment method.

Baidu Wallet can also be used for person-to-person payments, as well as bill payments.

Baidu will directly compete with Alibaba and Tencent, leading Chinese tech companies all vying to take control of third-party payments in China.

Alibaba has a stranglehold on the market thanks to its Alipay mobile and digital wallet offering, which compliments Alibaba’ online retail marketplace.

The company processed $150 billion in transactions in 2013, eclipsing all other major mobile payment platforms, and making it the largest in the world.

Tencent has enabled payments through its extremely popular WeChat messaging client, hoping to capture the payments space by capitalizing on its entrenched WeChat users on both the consumer and merchant sides.

Similarly, Baidu will need to utilize its strengths, which are its popularity as a search engine and its mobile map app to gain a foothold on third-party payments.