Baidu Looks To Acquire UCWeb To Dominate Chinese Mobile Space

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Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) of China, is apparently in talks to acquire an equity stake in UCWeb, one of the most popular Chinese mobile web browsers. There are two rumors floating around right now: one is that UCWeb is planning to go public soon and, second, Baidu is trying to acquire the entire company. However, this new report suggests that Baidu may instead be contemplating a tie-up with UCWeb. [1]

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UCWeb has more than 160 million active users in China and another 40 million active users outside the country. It drives a huge amount of mobile traffic in China and could be valued as high as $1 billion. If Baidu’s services are integrated with UCWeb, it has a great shot at completely dominating the mobile Internet space in China and generate a significant amount of revenue from mobile advertising, going forward.

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UCWeb is also making inroads into the Indian market and aims to have more than 100 million active Indian users by the end of 2015.

Parallels can be drawn between Baidu’s rumored interest in UCWeb and speculation of Facebook‘s (NASDAQ:FB) interest in buying Opera. Both Baidu and Facebook are Internet giants trying to make it big in the mobile space before it’s too late. Facebook has already acquired Instagram while Baidu has launched its own smartphone platform.

We currently have a $127 Trefis price estimate for Baidu, which stands just above the market price. Online search and display advertising accounts for most of its value.

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Notes:
  1. Baidu reportedly in talks to invest in browser maker UC, giving China its own Facebook-Opera rumor, TNW []