Baidu Hopes Subsidizing E-Investments Opens Door to Mobile Payment Payday

(Beijing) – Search engine giant Baidu Inc. wants to do some catching up in the online-to-offline (O2O) arena, where Internet giants Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have been battling for supremacy.

O2O – activity that links the Internet to traditional businesses, for example using a smartphone to pay for a taxi ride – is seen as the next big thing for Net firms.