Baidu: Sayonara to search in Japan

It shifts strategy to focus on development of mobile operations, 'but may return later'

Search giant Baidu Inc has announced that it has shut down its search engine unit in Japan to focus on its mobile business in the country.

"Baidu stopped updating its search index for Japan in 2013, and it finally exited the Japanese search market in mid-March of this year to focus on other parts of the business, like the mobile input method editor, Simeji", explained a company representative.