Shanghai - Google has acquired an undisclosed stake in Chinese social networking community Tianya Club, Reuters reported on Monday, adding that local media reports estimated the stake to be between under 10% and up to 60%.

Founded in 1999, Tianya Club is one of China's largest community sites, and holds an official Internet content provider license from the government there.

Google, which is the second most-popular search engine in China behind Baidu, also recently won its own Internet content provider license.

Google also announced the launch of Wenda, a joint venture with Tianya Club that will provide an online community of experts to answer users' questions.

Related Links:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070820/google_china_tianya.html (Reuters)

http://www.tianyaclub.com