Docomo Completes Investment In Baidu Mobile JV

Tokyo, (JCN Newswire via COMTEX) -- NTT DOCOMO, INC., Japan's leading mobile operator and provider of integrated services centered on mobility, announced today that it has completed its investment of 22.5 million USD* (1.78 billion yen) - equivalent to 20 percent ownership - in Baidu Yi Xin Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., its joint venture with the leading Chinese language Internet search provider Baidu, Inc.

DOCOMO and Baidu agreed on January 31, 2011, to jointly provide value-added services and digital content for mobile phones in mainland China. The companies are pursuing this initiative through Baidu Yi Xin.

Baidu Yi Xin is a content platform provider for mobile phones. Moving forward, the company will enhance its services and content by leveraging DOCOMO's extensive experience in providing value-added services with Baidu's strong brand image and user base.

Starting in August, Baidu Yi Xin plans to provide content from Japan on its platform. For the first batch, the company will collaborate with DeNA Co., Ltd., a major Japanese provider of social games, e-commerce and other Web services, and its Chinese subsidiary to distribute Japan-made content localized for the Chinese market.

Through this joint venture and other initiatives, DOCOMO is actively expanding Chinese market access for Japanese service and content providers.

*exchange rate of 1 USD to 79.31 JPY (as of June 30, 2012).

Company Information
1) Baidu Yi Xin Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd
Head office: Beijing, China
CEO: Guofeng Yue
Employees: 73 (as of July 2012)
Business: Mobile content platform

2) Baidu, Inc.
Head office: Beijing, China
CEO: Robin Lee
Employees: 13,000 (as of July 2012)
Business: Internet portal business, mobile portal business, EC business, community business

3) DeNA Co., Ltd.
Head office: Tokyo, Japan
CEO: Isao Moriyasu
Employees: 1,810 (Consolidated, as of March 31, 2012)
Business: Social gaming platform, social games, e-commerce and other Web services