We wrote about Baidu would set up a LBS (location-based service) business unit to ride on the O2O (online to offline) trend in China couple days ago, well the Chinese search giant just officially announced to establish the new BU with an accordingly plan dubbed “Smart Living”, via which Baidu will tie up with a wide range of partners including hardware vendor, carriers, websites and of course most importantly, the local businesses.
Baidu reorganized its former map business to form the new LBS division, which will be headed by Shen Li, the former market director of its Business Application Product Marketing arm.
According to the Beijing-based company, as of this year Baidu Map has more than 77 million users and is serving as a brand new marketing channel for north of 4000 local businesses. The new initiative would focus and strengthen its effort on that front, targeting at over 10 million users and 1 million 3rd party developers to tap into its infrastructure.
One of Baidu’s VP said that LBS sector has now developed into a “profitable stage” in China as powerful platforms (like the one Baidu is working on) are emerging, data of local businesses are being better tracked and analyzed. Baidu is building up a LBS industry ecosystem to integrate and benefit value chain players, said the VP.
Baidu promoting its “Smart Living” plan