Google Inc, the most-used Internet search engine, ruled out taking on a Chinese mainland partner as the United States company continues to lose market share to rival Baidu.com Inc.

"We have confidence in our current approach" in the mainland, Lee Kai-fu, California-based Google's vice president of China operations said. 

Overseas Internet companies have struggled to operate in the mainland because of rising competition from local operators.

Online auction provider EBay Inc and portal Yahoo! Inc both turned to agreements with Chinese companies to retain a presence in the mainland. Google may lose market share to Baidu in the next year.

Google has a 16 percent share of the China search-engine market, compared with Beijing-based Baidu's 50 percent and Yahoo's 16 percent. Baidu's market share could rise to 56 percent next year, nearly triple Google's projected 19 percent.

Yahoo last year agreed to pay 1 billion U.S. dollars for 40 percent of Internet retailer Alibaba.com Corp in a deal that handed control of Yahoo's local unit to China's largest online shopping site.

EBay, the world's largest online auction site, on Wednesday said it would close its China unit and form a venture with Beijing-based Tom Online Inc.

Source:佚名