Baidu Launches Third-Party Payment Offering to Compete with Tenpay, Alipay

(Beijing) – Search engine giant Baidu Inc. has thrown its hat in the third-party payment arena with the launch on April 15 of Baidu Wallet.

Baidu Wallet will compete against Alipay, which is run by Zhejiang Alibaba E-commerce Co., and Tenpay, Tencent Holdings' offering.

Baidu Wallet will focus on payments made with mobile devices, the company said. The mobile payment market will require at least three to five years to mature so it is not too late for Baidu to enter the field, said Zhang Zhenghua, the general manager of Baidu's payment branch.