SHANGHAI - CHINA Mobile Ltd, the world's biggest mobile operator, and state-run Xinhua News Agency have jointly launched an Internet search engine, the companies said on Tuesday.

The search engine, www.panguso.com, would be operated by a joint venture company set up by the two, and would also be available for mobile users, they said in a statement carried by Xinhua.

With more than 450 million users, China is the world's largest Internet market.

Its search market grew 67 per cent in the fourth quarter to 3.2 billion yuan (S$621 million), with Baidu Inc holding a dominant 73 per cent of the market by revenue compared with Google Inc's 24 per cent, according to data from iResearch.