BEIJING, Jan. 12 -- Chinese search engine Baidu.com Inc has teamed up with Symantec Inc to help the international Internet security giant market its antivirus software.

    The strategic partnership will put Symantec products on China's most popular search engine.

    The Symantec software will be integrated into Baidu's antivirus channel, where users can place orders for the Norton Antivirus series, Beijing-based Baidu said yesterday.

    "We believe we can offer our users a better experience by making the leading Internet security solution from Symantec available on our site," said Zhu Hongbo, Baidu's chief operating officer.

    Baidu launched its online antivirus service in November last year amid the company's efforts to complete its business portfolio and make money from individual consumers, rather than rely heavily on corporate payments for advertising services.

    The effort began in 2005 when Baidu began offering a movie page that provides both free and paid contents targeting individual Web users.

    Three overseas antivirus software companies including McAfee and domestic firms such as Kingsoft Corp have signed contracts with Baidu to free virus analysis, downloads and other services on its cyber platform.

    The antivirus product market grew 5.9 percent to 285 million yuan in the third quarter last year and was highly competitive. Symantec held a 15 percent share of the market during the period, trailed by Trend Micros Enterprise China, which took a 13 percent share.

    Beijing Rising Antivirus Software led with a 22 percent share, according to Analysys International, a Beijing-based research firm.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)