Baidu & China bank collaborate on payment

We're back from Moscow and catching up on the news. The Marbridge Weekly newsletter picks up on an interesting deal between stock market darling (at least for those who sold early enough) baidu.com and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China regarding on-line payment solutions.

Says the e-newsletter:

Under the agreement, Baidu's customers can log on to ICBC's online payment platform to pay for Baidu services, such as movie downloads and web-based message sending

It continues:

Alibaba PR director Wang Shuai noted that with the establishment of the online payment platform, its possible Baidu could move to more fully enter the e-commerce market. In fact Baidu is only one step away from becoming a real e-commerce provider, lacking only operation of a dedicated shopping website. In response Baidu spokesman Liang Dong claimed Baidu has no plan for the development of B2B or C2C services, and will continue to focus on Chinese online search services.

Whatever the trust about Baidu's, the issue of online payment solutions will be at the heart of the development of e-commerce in both the B2B and B2C arena in China. We have written about this several times, most recently in relation to Global Payments.