Beijing: Google Inc will close down its online music download service in China next month because of pressure from its rivals like Baidu Inc and Tencent's QQ.
The service will close Oct 19, Google said.
"This is part of an ongoing effort across Google to bring greater focus to our portfolio of products," the Shanghai Daily Saturday quoted the company as saying.
"Our goal is to simplify and improve the Google experience for our users and to devote more resources to high impact products that improve the lives of billions of people."
In its Chinese-language company blog, the US-based search giant admitted that the music website's impact had been "less than expected".
As with Google's core online search business, the music service found it difficult to compete with its domestic rivals, according to the newspaper.
By the end of second quarter, Google had 15.7 percent of the online search market in China, the world's biggest internet market with 538 million computer users.
That was far behind market leader Baidu, which had a 78.6 percent market share.
Google's market share declined from more than 30 percent to 15 percent after it moved its China servers to Hong Kong in 2010.
Google's music website made its debut three years ago.
IANS
First Published: Saturday, September 22, 2012, 19:25