Android Wear is useless in China, so Baidu just created its own smartwatch OS

Baidu, China’s top search engine company, has just taken the wraps off of its own smartwatch OS. It’s called DuWear.

Because pretty much every single Google service is blocked in China, Android Wear with its baked-in Google services is useless in China. That seems to have prompted Baidu to take a stab at it making its own.

Kaiser Kuo, Baidu’s director of international communications, tells Tech in Asia that a “major manufacturer” is going to make a smartwatch that uses DuWear and it’ll be available to buy in June.

Prior to that, DuWear will sometime this month be available to flash onto other smartwatches, such as the Moto 360 and Sony Smartwatch 3.

Baidu has adapted its voice search app for DuWear, allowing users to say “Hi, Baidu” in order to initiate a voice-based search query. It comes with other things, Kuo says, “like weather, stock information, map navigation, search for nearby services, and a bunch of other basic functions like health status/exercise/heart rate tracking.” It pairs with an Android phone over Bluetooth.

Here’s a quick demo that he just made:

The company says DuWear is based on Android and is compatible with some third-party apps for Android Wear, so long as they’re not dependent on the Google Mobile Service framework. DuWear will be an open platform, and there’s an SDK for app developers and hardware makers. Once the first made-for-DuWear watch comes out, it’ll go for sale on the Baidu Future Store, which stocks Baidu-branded and third-party smart hardware.

Baidu is on a tear with its smart gadgets and software at the moment. It’s working on a car-based system, an OS for bikes (yes, bikes), and don’t forget those crazy chopsticks that look out for food safety scares.