According to rumors from China, the domestic game developer Perfect World has reached some sort of a conclusion in its talks with Baidu to acquire the former’s literature oriented website, Zongheng.com. Baidu is hailed as the Chinese equivalent of Google and its attempt to acquire Zongheng can be seen as a move towards emerging as a viable player who offers content services as well.
Zongheng plays host to more than 100,000 works of literature and has its own set of permanent authors. This make up just one among the scores of other sectors where Perfect World is reported to have poured millions of RMB into the site, though the returns from the investment have not yet been to the satisfaction of Perfect World. This has prompted the parent company to restructure their operations, culminating in seeking a new buyer for Zongheng.
Baidu has emerged to acquire the literature site with the deal said to be worth anywhere between CNY300 million and CNY400 million. Zongheng has some impressive statistics as well, including more than 60 million page views on a daily basis, drawing in visitors from over 2.6 million individual IP addresses every day. The site records about a third of its traffic from mobile devices such as tablets or smartphones, and has seen its mobile traffic jump by about 50 percent during 2012-2013.
Maybe next in line will be an ebook reading device from Baidu that will cement its position as a viable Google alternative in China.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.