China's Baidu launches mobile payment app

China's Baidu launches mobile payment app

SHANGHAI - Baidu Inc, China's leading internet search provider, has launched a mobile payment and wealth management platform after its main domestic rivals launched similar products.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd IPO-ALIB.N , through its mobile payment arm, Alipay, launched Alipay Wallet in January 2013, which included a money-market investment product, Yu'e Bao, marketed as a high-yielding substitute for traditional bank deposits.

Tencent followed in August with WeChat Payment, a payment and investment platform linked to its popular WeChat mobile messaging app.

Baidu offers a variety of wealth management products, but the new Baidu Wallet app will add a mobile payment function, giving its investors more options for the use of funds.

Traditional banks, fearing the outflow of low-cost deposit funding into online money-market products, have also started rolling out their own money-market products in recent months.

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