To boost adoption of Windows 10 software in China, Microsoft Corp. has entered into an agreement with Chinese Internet search provider Baidu Inc. to make Baidu.com as the default home page and search engine for the Windows Edge Web browser in the country, the two companies announced in Seattle on Wednesday.
Under the deal, Baidu.com will replace Microsoft's default Bing search engine and bring its search, video, cloud and map apps over to Windows 10. Both companies vowed to "make it easy" for Baidu users to upgrade to the latest Windows version through the so-called Windows 10 Express.
"We will deliver a custom experience for customers in China, providing local browsing and search experiences," Microsoft's Senior Vice President Yusuf Mehdi wrote in a blog post on the company's website.
Baidu President Zhang Yaqin said that Windows 10 shows great promise in China, adding that he was glad to enter a partnership with Microsoft to jointly make it easier and more effective for customers to obtain online content while using Windows 10.
Baidu and Microsoft have been working together since 2006, with Bing as Baidu's default search engine since 2011. But piracy has been a big issue for Microsoft in China, with many PC users using unauthorized versions of Windows operating systems, Stephanie Mlot wrote in PCMag Asia on Thursday.
By teaming up with Baidu, one of China's biggest companies, Microsoft will get more Chinese users become aware of the Windows 10 upgrade options, she added.
Microsoft announced in March that it will upgrade "all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine," to Windows 10, which was set to release globally four months later in July, although the specifics remain unclear.
With Bing's negligible market share in China, it makes sense for Microsoft to play it down to promote its more popular Windows software, Danny Sullivan, founding editor of website Search Engine Land, told the Wall Street Journal.
According to data from the China Internet Network Information Center, more than 92 percent of Internet users in China have used Baidu for searching, while less than 2 percent use Bing.
The agreement comes during Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to the U.S. this week, where he met tech industry bigwigs, including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook and Virginia Rometty of IBM.