Baidu, Chinas leading internet search provider, will today launch its Japanese-language service in Japan, marking its first major overseas venture.

Baidu is set to compete against Yahoo Japan and Google Japan, which together have a near-duopoly on the search engine market. Yahoo Japan has about a 60 per cent market share, while Googles stands at about 40 per cent, according to analysts.

The high-profile entrance of a Chinese company into Japans web world has raised the prickly question of why the country has largely failed to produce successful home-grown internet services and content providers that can compete on a global level.

Yahoo Japan began as a joint venture between its US parent and Softbank, the Japanese mobile phone operator. Domestic search engines, such as Goo – a subsidiary of NTT, the telecoms operator – have failed to attract a strong following.

中国领先的互联网搜索服务供应商百度(Baidu)周三将在日本推出日语版服务。这是其首次大举进军海外市场。

百度将与雅虎日本(Yahoo Japan)和谷歌日本(Google Japan)展开竞争，后两家目前几乎垄断了日本的搜索引擎市场。有分析师表示，雅虎日本约占有60%的市场份额，谷歌日本的份额约为40%。

中国公司高调进入日本网络市场，引发了一个刺痛日本人神经的问题：为何日本基本上未能出现成功的、能参与国际竞争的本土互联网服务与内容供应商。

雅虎日本是其美国母公司雅虎与日本移动电话运营商软银(Softbank)的合资企业。日本国内的搜索引擎，如电信运用商NTT旗下的Goo等，均未能吸引到数量庞大的用户群。