• CNNMoney, Friday, November 23, 2007 11:45 AM

Late last week, media mogul Barry Diller announced that his Internet conglomerate IAC/InterActiveCorp--which is splitting up into five separate companies--is putting $100 million into expanding into China. Among other things, Diller told reporters that he plans to launch Ask.com, the company's search engine, into the country within the next two years. IAC is also looking to acquire new assets with local services geared toward Chinese users, hoping to avoid the pitfall of bringing U.S.-based products and services into a country that has its own rules about censorship--which has caused trouble for the likes of MSN and Yahoo.

"I think what we're going to try and do is completely different than any of the other processes," Diller said. "I know that we have learned a methodology of starting Internet businesses and relating Internet ideas one to the other and having a different kind of discipline."

China has the world's second-largest Web user base, with 162 million people. However, foreign companies like Google, Yahoo and eBay have all struggled to succeed in China. The latter two eventually turned to local partners to run their China operations, while Google had to set up offices inside the country. Diller's IAC has 30 Web brands, including dating site Match.com, CitySearch and Excite. The company plans to break off into five parts next year: IAC, HSN the Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, mortgage lender LendingTree, and Interval International, a time-share business.

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