China's Baidu,the world's No. 2 Internet search engine, has taken control of Brazilian online-discount company Peixe Urbano, the latest step in a push to expand its business in Latin America. Baidu will let Peixe Urbano's management team operate autonomously within Baidu's corporate structure. Both firms declined to give the size of Baidu's stake in Peixe Urbano. The Chinese company started operations in Brazil in November, but its shares fell 1.2 per cent to $214.69 in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq. The purchase of Peixe Urbano's controlling stake will help Baidu expand in a country where the e-commerce market is expected to grow an average 18 per cent annually by 2016. According to Johnson Hu (Baidu's head of global business), the “international expansion is a priority for Baidu and, as part of that strategy, Brazil stands out as a key market”. Peixe Urbano has more than 20 million customers in Brazil, with more than 30,000 companies as merchant partners. Since the establishment of the company, in 2010, more than 30 million discount vouchers were sold; generating about 3 billion has risen in estimated savings for Peixe Urbano users. Yet several issues linger for online retailers in Brazil, which are grappling with intense competition. At this regard, Baidu is actively investing in rival technology firms to upgrade its services and grow market share in segments such as e-commerce and mobile social network companies. The company expects that the entirety of its product and service portfolio will be used by half the world's population by 2019. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Thursday, 9 October 2014 (Source: Reuters) This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.