Report: Baidu Eyes Indian Market, Looking To Acquire 'Strategic Stakes'

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is eyeing the Indian market to acquire "strategic stakes" in local startups. The Times Of India noted that the Chinese Ecommerce giant has its sights set on Zomato, a restaurant search provider, Bookmyshow, an online movie and event tickets seller, and Big Basket, a food retailer. The report added that Baidu also intends on expanding its app store, MoboMarket, to include Bengali, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Urdu languages as part of a plan to expand its total addressable market to include smaller cities and towns. "India has a large base of internet users and this is moving up rapidly. Baidu sees the country as a strategic market, and we will have a big focus here," Tim Yang, head of Baidu in India, told The Times Of India. Shares of Baidu were trading lower by nearly 1 percent at $171.21 early Wednesday afternoon.