• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 20, 2011

Marin Software will announce Thursday support for global advertisers and agencies operating in Asia Pacific and Japan. The company plans to open offices in Singapore and Shanghai to partner with Baidu, China's No. 1 Internet search provider, to deliver reporting, management, and optimization of campaigns in the search software company's platform.

The partnership agreement means Marin can now support global search engines, as well as Asian languages and currencies. Most requests for the integration came from agencies such as Razorfish, Salesforce, Neo@Olgivy, Ayudante, and RedBricksMedia running large-scale multinational paid search programs, according to Matt Lawson, vice president of marketing at Marin. "We're seeing growth, not just domestically, but worldwide," he says. "We need to serve clients across the world."

The integration gives Marin clients access to more than 60% of Chinese searches, enabling them to expand marketing reach to the world's fastest growing online population. Research firm iSuppli pegs the local Chinese search market at about $1.6 billion in 2010, up about 60%.