رئيس مجلس الأدارة ورئيس التحرير / خالد حسن

Chinese search engine Baidu has agreed to invest $306 million in domestic travel website Qunar as it seeks to cash in on the booming tourism market in China. Baidu, which dominates the Chinese search market after Google retreated following a spat with Beijing over censorship and cyberattacks last year, will take a majority stake in the travel search engine, Baidu said late Sunday.  “Travel has long been one of the top categories on Baidu, and the number of travellers in China has been growing very rapidly, so this is a market of obvious strategic importance to us,” chief financial officer Jennifer Li said in a statement. “By working with Baidu, we can focus on enhancing our search technology and the quality of our products and services,” said Zhuang Chenchao, co-founder and chief executive of Qunar. China is the world’s biggest online market, with 477 million internet users, according to official data. Baidu had a 75.8 per cent share of the overall search market in the first quarter of 2011, dwarfing Google’s dwindling 19.2 per cent, according to figures from research firm Analysys International.