Baidu obtains fund payment license

Baidu Inc has won a third-party fund payment license from regulators, which will help the country's No. 1 online search giant to expand its share in the booming online personal wealth management market in China, the Nasdaq-listed firm said yesterday.

"With its huge user base and dominant market share in online search category, Baidu has strong competitive ability in the online fund sales market," said Guan Qingyou, vice director of Minsheng Securities' research institute.

Baidu will initially have Huawei Securities, Guangfa Securities, Harvest Fund and Fullgoal Fund as fund partners.