According to the companies, the site will be ad-supported through third-party advertising sales teams, with both Baidu and Discovery sharing revenue.
Baidu executives said the partnership is in line with Baidu’s aim to facilitate information to Chinese audiences, while Tom Keaveny executive vice-president and managing director of Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, said Discover would benefit from “Baidu’s high traffic flow and large market share” and reach more netizens.
In 2008, Baidu claimed 246 million users in China, approximately 65 per cent of the country’s search market share.