Both Baidu and Alibaba are soon to open up in Europe, according to Telegraph.co.uk. Sans sourcing, the paper says Baidu, China’s largest search engine and now the world’s fifth most popular, will announce expansion plans during a London conference later this month. Meanwhile, Alibaba Group, which operates both B2B and B2C auction sites and a PayPal clone, plans to start some kind of operation in the UK and has already opened a European office, the paper claims - it is expected to use funds from an IPO scheduled for later this year.

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Baidu may enjoy a commanding lead in its native China, but exporting that to English-speaking countries may be another matter altogether. In its favor - the site has already created a Japanese version and it does bring well-used music file search capabilities to the table. Alibaba, however, 40 percent owned by Yahoo, will note that eBay’s dominance last month forced even Yahoo to close its own auction site - it may be best placed to bring its B2B trade site overseas rather than try to rival eBay.