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In a joint venture with a Chinese government firm, Microsoft adds to its existing Hotmail and Messenger services today.

The launch of MSN China, on the heels of search engine company Google's expansion onto the country's mainland, shows how competition for mindshare has increased. With a population of over a billion people, portals, search engines, and high-tech devices all have the potential to become very profitable ventures.

"Relative to the broad user base, mobile user base and Internet user base, the instant messaging market is still under-developed. We think that is an opportunity to explode," Michael Rawding, Microsoft corporate vice president of MSN global sales and marketing, said in a Reuters item.

The MSN portal will offer more information and services than it currently has available in China through current offerings.

MSN Messenger has 7 million users in China today. Google and its top search competitor, Yahoo, both have presences in China, and will compete with MSN for the 100 million Internet users in the country today.

Both Yahoo and Google have made alliances and acquisitions to enhance their positions in China. Microsoft as a relative newcomer to the Chinese market has some ground to make up.

But its alliance announced today, coupled with its agreement with mobile phone software provider TSSX to offer MSN services to 340 million mobile users, could help the company attract more users in China.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.