Jan. 4, 2007 (China Knowledge) – Google Inc., the top search engine in the world, will be buying a stake in Chinese peer-to-peer file sharing network operator Xunlei Networking Tech, China Daily reported today. 

According to the report ,Google is partnering with Ceyuan Ventures, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm for the investment.

No financial details were announced.

Shenzhen-based Xunlei provides a peer-to-peer file sharing network and download accelerating services. More than 80 million users have installed its download accelerating software and its websites attract more than 50 million visitors a day.

Google has found it hard to dominate the Chinese search engine market due to heavy competition from domestic search engine Baidu.com, which has a market share of nearly 57%. Google’s deal with Xunlei is seen as the U.S. company’s way of increasing its online video services in the Chinese market, and to ride on Xunlei’s large user base.

Google bought over top online video-sharing site YouTube for US$1.65 billion last year while Baidu also launched its own Chinese-language video Web channel on a trial basis a few months ago.