By launching Adcenter advertising platform on Tuesday Microsoft could improve the prospects of its Bing search engine after Google pulled out of China’s mainland in March this year, said a China Daily report.

Microsoft’s Adcenter facilitates pay per click advertising like Google’s AdWords.

The launch is aimed at grabbing the online advertising market share in China where companies have become cautious over going with Google, as the internet giant started redirecting all its mainland traffic to Hong Kong site.

"It's the time to join the market and let Chinese advertisers have more choices," said the report quoting Anderson Liu, general manager, MSN China.

With 32.8 percent market share by the end of 2009, Google saw a continued decline in market share to 27.3 percent in the second quarter.

Feeling the impact from its woes in China, Google snapped commercial ties with two of its 25 advertising agents in the country in July.

To cash in on the Google’s woes, Microsoft mainly aims to grab the overseas advertising from Chinese exporters by the launch of new Adcenter services, the report said. It expects revenues from these new services to contribute to half of MSN China’s business.

Advertising activity from Chinese exporters forms a major part of China's online search engine market and occupied 40 percent share in Google’s revenues, said the report quoting Analysys International.

Currently Microsoft is partnering with Baidu to sell search engine advertising and the company clarifies that the new services will not hurt their tie-up. In the second quarter, Baidu held a search engine market share of more than 70 percent in China.

"Actually I think it's a very good opportunity for MSN China," said the report quoting Edward Yu, president of Analysys International.

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