Baidu, the No.1 search engine in the Chinese market will release its own instant messenger (IM) software. At the moment, the baidu.im was redirect to Google home page, and I wonder what will be the subdomain of Baidu going to use for this new IM software. From the recent buzz on the Web, Baidu will release this IM software together with its email application as their major product plan of this 2007. In particular, Baidu IM can be downloaded as a client version, its size of beta release is about 4MB, features such as voicemail, online chat are available in this client.

Though QQ IM services is well-known in the China market, that hasn’t stopped Baidu from offering its own “IM” services. But I think it will be an interested application for the Chinese people in China, Baidu brand name is there, and search engine, email system, and this IM are the products that China people want. If Baidu bundle these IM and email application with their search engine, they will build a solid empire in a long, long time. Then, we should forget about Google and Yahoo! in China.

I will report back on this Baidu IM when it officially launched in the market. Stay tuned.