AsiaPundit has been tied up with year-end activities, meetings and company events, so he has been a touch remiss in his coverage of Asian Internet issues. Thankfully state-news agency Xinhua has been keeping up with things. Google has just launched a special service for China.

China already has more than 100 million Web surfers and the audience is expected to swell substantially — an alluring prospect for Google as it tries to boost its already rapidly rising profits.

Baidu.com Inc., a Beijing-based company in which Google owns a 2.6 percent stake, currently runs China’s most popular search engine. But a recent Keynote Systems survey of China’s Internet preferences concluded that Baidu remains vulnerable to challenges from Google and Yahoo Inc.

"We firmly believe, with our culture of innovation, Google can make meaningful and positive contributions to the already impressive pace of development in China," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google’s senior policy counsel.

Initially, Google’s Chinese service will be limited to searching Web pages and images. The company also will provide local search results and a special edition of its news service.

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