A court in Shanghai on Thursday ordered search engine Baidu to pay 3.23 million yuan (490,000 U.S. dollars) to a Shanghai company for unfair competition.

In April, Shanghai Hantao Information Consultancy Co. Ltd, operator of Dianping.com, sued Baidu and another online company Jietusoft, for copying comments and business information from Dianping.com onto Baidu's online applications and Jietusoft's online map service, which caused huge losses to Dianping.com. Hantao demanded more than 90 million yuan in compensation.

The Pudong District People's Court ruled that Baidu's action has decreased the number of Dianping.com's users and directed the flow to its apps, which has not only caused losses to Dianping.com, but also violated the principles of business ethics and honesty.

But the court believes that Jietusoft only used Baidu's online map service and did not infringe the rights of Dianping.com.

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