Tokyo-based Japanese reporter Shinya Enomoto doesn't read Chinese, but has been frequently using Chinese website Baidu.com to download his favorite songs. That's music to Baidu's ears as the company prepares to launch a Japanese website this year, an event eagerly awaited by Enomoto.

Meanwhile, Alibaba.com, China's largest business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company, will also reportedly start offering Japanese services in the second half of 2007.

Baidu and Alibaba aren't exactly blazing a trail. Chinese technology companies like Lenovo Group, Neusoft Group and Kingsoft have already made significant inroads into Japan.

As Chinese tech companies get bigger and look for more room to grow in overseas markets, Japan has become a must-tap. An enhanced capability and a competitive domestic market along with a similar language and culture are the main reasons for Chinese dotcoms' yen for Japan.

Since the Internet bubble burst in 2000, many Chinese companies have given up business models aping United States counterparts, and have developed their own, which have helped them beat global giants like Google, MSN, Yahoo! and eBay in the Chinese market. Companies like Baidu and Alibaba, with hundreds of millions of dollars in hand and pushed by investors to find new growth engines, are thus turning to Japan.

Japan is the world's second-largest economy and also the second-largest technology market more importantly, it's blissfully devoid of strong local players, dominated as it is by US conglomerates like Yahoo! and Microsoft. The growth of local leaders has also been hindered by the practice of outsourcing that many Japanese companies resort to.

Source:佚名