SHANGHAI ? Trying to gain ground in China, Google, the search engine company, said Monday that it had begun to offer links to free music downloads ? a service it does not offer anywhere else in the world.
Google executives said they were responding to the phenomenal popularity of free music downloads in China, one of the few markets where the company lags, by forming an alliance with the music industry, including Sony, Universal Music and Warner Music.
The search engine company hopes the demand for music downloads will raise Google?s profile in China, which has already overtaken the United States as the world?s biggest Internet market with nearly 300 million users, and also help the company gain market share against its chief rival here, Baidu, the nation?s dominant search engine.
?This is a huge leap of faith for us,? Kai-fu Lee, the president of Google Greater China, said in a telephone interview Monday. ?We hope this will move the landscape to a legal model.?
The deal, which was announced at a news conference in Beijing, is significant for Google and the global music industry because Chinese consumers are addicted to searching for music and downloading free music, often through illegal sites.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/te...ref=technology