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In October 2010, Microsoft supplied general web results for Etao, Alibaba-owned Taobao’s new shopping-search site. The arrangement put Bing’s web-search technology alongside Taobao product discovery, giving Bing a route to reach online shoppers in China. It was a reported integration for Etao’s public beta—not a deal to replace Taobao’s product search.
What was the Bing–Taobao partnership?
PCWorld reported on October 13, 2010, that Microsoft worked with Taobao to power the general web-search results on Etao, a new shopping-search site then in public beta. Etao brought Taobao shopping results together with other search categories; Bing supplied the broader web-results layer. PCWorld’s report describes the arrangement as a way for Etao users to find web information as well as shopping results.
That distinction matters: Taobao was the shopping destination, while Bing contributed general web search. The partnership connected Bing to shoppers using Etao rather than positioning Bing as the owner of Taobao’s product-search experience.
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Why did Microsoft work with Taobao?
The deal fit Microsoft’s stated emphasis on local partnerships. A Microsoft spokeswoman told PCWorld: “This is a small part of our long term strategy. We are focused on local innovation, local partnerships.” For Microsoft, integration into a locally relevant shopping-search service offered exposure to users already looking for products online in China.
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The arrangement also echoed Bing’s original product framing. When Microsoft launched Bing in May 2009, it called the service a “Decision Engine” and highlighted shopping, travel, health research, and local-business tasks. CEO Steve Ballmer described the goal as helping people find information and use it to accomplish tasks and make decisions. Etao’s mix of product discovery and general web results was consistent with that task-oriented positioning, though the launch announcement does not itself describe the later Taobao arrangement. Microsoft’s Bing launch announcement said worldwide deployment was scheduled to finish on June 3, 2009.
What was the competitive context in China?
Bing was a small player in the Chinese search market when the Etao partnership was reported. PCWorld attributed these estimates to Analysys International in 2010:
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| Search provider | Estimated share in China | Attribution and date |
|---|---|---|
| Baidu | 70 percent | Analysys International, 2010, as reported by PCWorld |
| 24 percent | Analysys International, 2010, as reported by PCWorld | |
| Bing | Less than 1 percent | Analysys International, 2010, as reported by PCWorld |
These are historical estimates for 2010, not current market-share figures. They help explain why distribution through a local service such as Etao could matter to Microsoft, but they do not establish how many users the arrangement ultimately brought to Bing.
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The Etao search integration was one part of a broader relationship, but the later documented cooperation had a different purpose. In a January 8, 2015 announcement, Alibaba said its cooperation with Microsoft dated to an April 2007 memorandum with Alisoft. It also noted that Microsoft had opened a flagship store on Tmall in December 2013.
The 2015 memorandum focused on removing suspected counterfeit or unlicensed Microsoft listings from Taobao and Tmall—an intellectual-property and customer-protection effort, rather than a continuation of the search integration. Microsoft’s Greater China legal counsel, Tim Cranton, said the company was “very pleased to partner with Alibaba Group to improve the customer experience online.” Alibaba’s 2015 announcement describes the memorandum and the earlier milestones.
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What the deal does—and does not—show
- It shows: Microsoft’s Bing provided general web results within Etao’s shopping-search experience during the site’s public-beta launch period.
- It suggests: Microsoft saw a locally established shopping platform as a useful channel for reaching Chinese online shoppers while Bing had very limited reported search share.
- It does not establish: the deal’s duration, user numbers, revenue, or whether Etao continued to use Bing after the period covered by the 2010 report.
- It should not be confused with: the 2015 Microsoft–Alibaba memorandum, which addressed suspected counterfeit and unlicensed software listings on Taobao and Tmall.
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