Microsoft to continue with China Internet market

Beijing: Microsoft said that it will continue with its development strategy for the China Internet search market regardless of the outcome of Google's high-profile spat with Beijing. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said his company had no plans to pull out of China, indicating it was unlikely to follow Google's lead in challenging a Chinese system that forces Internet firms to self censor their sites on sensitive topics, reports Reuters.

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Microsoft has kept a relatively low profile in China since Google announced its decision to potentially withdraw from the market over censorship issues and following an attack on its systems that it believes originated in China.

"Regardless of whether or not Google stays, we will aggressively promote our search and cloud computing (in China)," Zhang Yaqin, Chairman of Microsoft's Asia-Pacific R&D Group, said on Friday on the sidelines of the opening of the National People's Congress in Beijing. Zhang added that Microsoft plans to spend about $500 million on research and development in China this year, and another $150 million on outsourced projects.