Baidu to expand

BEIJING: Baidu Inc is in talks to invest in Indian e-commerce start-ups, including Zomato, BookMyShow and BigBasket, a spokesman for China’s top online search provider said on Wednesday. “The Indian market represents an enormous opportunity for us to connect more people with services, and we plan to put more resources there in the future,” the spokesman said by e-mail. Baidu declined to comment on possible investment amounts or time frames. India’s technology start-up market is booming as more and more people shop online, in a country where about 20 per cent of a population of 1.3 billion are connected to the internet. The e-commerce market could grow in terms of the value of goods sold to $220 billion by 2025 from $11 billion in 2015, Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimated.