The venture brings search technology to one of the fastest growing broadband markets with predictions that usage will increase from a current 30 million homes to 100 million by 2007.
Blinkx, which will provide branding for the venture, is an integrated search specialist and can comb the desktop, internet, and TV for video and audio clips. Linking with Autonomy, which will provide its enterprise retrieval expertise and newly developed consumer technologies, presents little problem because it already licenses Autonomy technology and its co-founder Suranga Chandratillake is a former CTO at Autonomy.
Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch was wary about predicting an extension of the model to other markets, insisting it depends on partners. It is also wants to keep its focus on corporate markets, rather than the consumer space where different skills are needed. We make very good jet engines. What you need is someone that is good at running an airline, Lynch told ComputerWire.
Autonomy has been in China’s corporate market for the past five years and Lynch said it offers a technology capable of more accurately understanding the complexities of the Chinese language than the currently used legacy methods.
Though smaller than China Telecom Corp Ltd, which is based in the more prosperous south, China Netcom is close to Hong Kong-based Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd, and paid $1bn for a 20% stake in the company.
