BEIJING, Apr. 27 (AP) -- Google Inc., No. 2 in China's Web search market, is expanding its investment and technology in an effort to make up for its late entry and become the industry leader, CEO Eric Schmidt said Friday.

"We are catching up, our investment is working and we will eventually be the leader," Schmidt told reporters.

He declined to provide any investment figures.

Baidu.com Inc. has about 55 percent of China's search engine market, ahead of Google with 21.7 percent, according to market data company iResearch Inc.

Schmidt said Google was gaining market share but he declined to give figures. He expressed confidence that the company's greater financial and technical resources would help close the gap.

Schmidt said Google plans to give its China operation greater autonomy to develop new products and respond to local needs.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users, with 137 million people online, and is on track to surpass the United States as the largest online population in two years.