新华社和中移动将组建移动搜索公司 Xinhua and China Mobile to join forces with online search venturehttp://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034086/ce

Xinhua, China's official news agency, and China Mobile, China's largest mobile telecoms operator, are setting up a mobile search company together, the two state groups said yesterday.

中国官方通讯社新华社和中国最大的移动电信运营商中国移动(China Mobile)昨日宣布，双方将合作成立一家移动搜索公司。

The move comes amid upheaval in the Chinese online search market as other players attempt to grab market share following Google's partial exit from the market this year in a dispute with the government over censorship.

此举正值中国互联网搜索市场出现动荡之际：在谷歌(Google)今年与中国政府就审查问题发生争议、部分撤出中国市场后，各方正试图抢占市场份额。

However, the joint venture's political significance is expected to far outweigh its commercial impact. Xinhua was unavailable for comment but the news agency described the deal as a propaganda manoeuvre.

不过，人们预计上述合资公司的政治意义，将远远超出其商业影响。记者无法获取新华社的置评。但新华社将此笔交易形容为一项宣传策略。

The venture comes as the Chinese government tries to have its largest media groups drown out dissenting voices on the internet by building new media platforms themselves.

中国政府正试图发动国有大型媒体集团积极建设新媒体平台，以此淹没互联网上的异议声音。

Leading state media are also in a forceful overseas push. Xinhua launched an English- language television network this year and a state media-backed fund agreed this week to acquire a majority stake in three television channels owned by News Corp.

主要国有媒体也正大力向海外拓展。新华社今年开通了一个英语电视网；一只有官方媒体背景的基金本周同意收购新闻集团(News Corp)旗下三家电视频道的多数股权。

Beijing's policy of allowing telecoms operators and broadcasters to enter each others' markets has been an incentive for many state-owned companies to branch out. CCTV, China's main state broadcaster, has teamed up with China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile operator, to develop a search engine. People's Net, the website of the Communist party's mouthpiece, is also working on a search engine.

允许电信运营商和广播公司相互进入对方市场的政策，鼓励了许多国有公司扩大业务范围。中国主要国有电视台中央电视台(CCTV)与中国第二大移动运营商中国联通(China Unicom)携手合作，将开发一个搜索引擎。作为“党的喉舌”的人民网，也在运作一个搜索引擎。

China's internet population of 420m is the world's largest but search companies say its search market, with revenues of Rmb2.67bn ($393m) in the second quarter, has years of growth ahead.

中国网民多达4.2亿，位居全球首位。但各搜索公司表示，未来许多年内，中国搜索市场将进一步增长。今年第二季度，中国搜索市场规模达到了26.7亿元人民币（合3.93亿美元）。

Analysts said the tie-up's impact on search groups such as Google and Chinese market leader Baidu would be limited.

分析师表示，新华社和中移动的此项合作，对谷歌和百度(Baidu)等搜索公司的影响将较为有限。百度是中国市场上最大的搜索公司。

“I see little or no impact in internet search, but there might be a certain impact in mobile search,” said Li Zhi, search expert at Beijing internet research group Analysys.

“我看（这项合作）对互联网搜索影响甚微，或是没有什么影响，但在移动搜索领域，可能会有一定影响。”北京互联网研究机构易观国际(Analysys)搜索专家李智表示。