Baidu to be buying, doing more mobile applications

Nation's largest search engine ready to shift toward new platforms

Baidu Inc, China's largest online search company, is working to develop new products that can replace the search engine to become its most recognized gateway in the mobile Internet era, said Robin Li, the company's chief executive officer.

Li didn't elaborate on the new products but said that last year Baidu spent about 4 billion yuan on research and development. Most of it, he said, was used to develop products that will be as vital to the mobile era as the search engine has been in the personal computer-based one.