Chinese search engine company Baidu and e-commerce website JD.com jointly established an innovative hardware open platform that provides resource support such as technology, data, and promotional marketing to selected innovative hardware products.

Investment and ownership apportions of the project were not revealed by Baidu or JD.com, which just submitted its prospectus for an initial public offering in the U.S.

Those hardware products that come from this project will bear the brand mark of "Baidu Inside" and "JD+".

Baidu considered the cooperation with JD as an important layout in the smart hardware industry. Zhang Dongchen, vice president of Baidu, said with their own technical capacities, Baidu will provide various support to selected hardware, including cloud storage, video playing and decoding, picture identification, intelligent voice, security, and LBS. In addition, the company will release more technical services in the future.

Apart from technical support, Baidu will also set up a Baidu Inside official website, aiming to promote and display cooperating products and offer marketing resources.

Before the cooperation, both Baidu and JD had already tapped the smart device sector. Baidu launched a Wi-Fi service and its own wearable device brand Dulife; while JD was the e-commerce channel for many popular smart hardware products. JD also invested in Broadlink smart home products.