China's Baidu says to enter e-commerce market

SHANGHAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - China's Web search leader Baidu.com Inc (BIDU.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said it plans to enter the country's e-commerce market by setting up a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) service.

Baidu has set up a new department to focus on developing e-commerce technology, and plans to launch a C2C service next year, it said in a statement.

"Baidu's extensive user base and rich experience in Chinese language search makes e-commerce a natural step for expansion," Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive officer, said in the statement.

China's C2C market was dominated by e-commerce firm Alibaba's [ALI.UL] consumer unit, Taobao, with a near-83 percent share in the second quarter, said research firm Analysys International.

China's C2C market size reached 10.56 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) in the first quarter, according to Analysys. China is the world's second-largest Internet market after the United States, with more than 162 million Web users. ($1=7.515 Yuan)