Baidu opens third startup center in China
Baidu has opened a third startup development center in China, offering access to its infrastructure and technical resources as well as financial and legal services.
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The Chinese search engine company opened the facility in Tianjin, the country's fourth-largest city by population and biggest northern coastal city. Located in Hongqiao district, the new center spans more than 3,000 square meters and can house at least 20 startups. It will target startups in the online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce and hardware development industries.
Baidu has two other startup development sites in Chengdu and Xiamen, reported China Daily.
The new center offers free office space and startups will be offered finance and legal services, and can tap Baidu's cloud platform. They will also be able to tap technical support and mentorship provided by Baidu's headquarters in Beijing.
The Chinese company has further plans to set up more such facilities in other major cities in China such as Beijing and Shanghai.
In its recent second-quarter 2014 report, Baidu's revenue climbed 58.5 percent to 11.98 billion yuan (US$1.93 billion) over the same quarter last year, while profit also increased 22.5 percent to 3.55 billion yuan (US$573.6 million). Mobile revenue accounted for 30 percent of the company's total revenue.