Yahoo to Ramp Up Search in China

Alibaba.com, the company that now controls Yahoo's Chinese offerings, announced Wednesday that it was relaunching the Yahoo site to focus on search. The site currently holds second place in the country with a 32 percent search share, five points behind market leader Baidu.com.

The Chinese company took control of Yahoo! China in August, as part of a deal in which the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company purchased a 40 percent share in Alibaba.

"This is the first big step we are taking to reshape the Yahoo brand in China since taking over its operations," Alibaba CEO Jack Ma said in a statement.

Yahoo! China is also basing teams in both China and at Yahoo's U.S. headquarters to facilitate the faster transfer of new search technologies to the Chinese arm. John Wu, Alibaba chief technology officer, says this will ensure search results stay relevant for Chinese users.

"To get it right locally, you have to have the right team globally," he said. Yahoo has also moved the Chinese search servers to the country since the acquisition.

But don't expect the new company to go lax on Chinese Internet laws. Ma told reporters that Yahoo will still follow all laws regarding the dissemination of what the Chinese government calls "politically sensitive information," and will cooperate with authorities if they request information on the site's users.

"I'm not a political group. I'm a businessman," Ma said.

Alibaba.com is most known for its e-commerce site that operates much like eBay. The site even includes a PayPal-like system, called AliPay. The company hopes that operating Yahoo! China will help direct traffic and revenue to its e-commerce offerings.

However, Ma said that the company only has a short window -- maybe eight to ten months -- before market leading Baidu completes its planned expansion made possible through an influx of American investment. After that, he said, "we don't have a chance."