When Apple announced iOS 6 during Monday’s WWDC 2012 keynote, they introduced a whole slew of new features. In fact, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system will include more than 200 new features, including an all-new Maps app, Facebook integration, improvements to Siri, and much more.
Since the announcement, there has been one feature of iOS 6 that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention in the American press: Baidu. During the keynote, Apple announced that iOS (and OS X Mountain Lion), would be getting Baidu as an option for the default search engine in China. Baidu, in case you’re not familiar with it, is basically China’s answer to Google (after all, Google and China have a relationship that is… less than friendly). While Google rules the world of search throughout most of the world, Baidu’s share of the Chinese search market is around 80%.
Today, some of the terms of Apple’s deal with Baidu have become public. In an interview with Bloomberg, Baidu vice president Wang Jing said that Apple would be receiving a percentage of the revenues generated by Baidu searches on iOS and Mountain Lion devices. Though Wang declined to disclose the actual amount, he did say that the deal is similar to those Baidu has with other smartphone manufacturers. Thanks to such deals Baidu is, ironically, the default search engine on many Android phones in China.