HANGZHOU - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has partnered with US-based search engine Quixey to power app searches for its mobile operating system YunOS, it announced at a developers forum on Saturday.

Unlike typical web search engines, Quixey focuses on helping users find the most appropriate mobile apps they need. It can also locate content and functions stored on mobile apps, such as blogs and social media platforms.

Quixey will become the sole provider of app-related searches on YunOS. Roughly one year ago, Alibaba invested 50 million US dollars in Quixey.

Alibaba first unveiled YunOS in 2011, but it is not popular in the smartphone market. Its mobile phone sales lag far behind domestic competitors such as Huawei, ZTE and Xiaomi.

Alibaba, known for its record 25-billion-US-dollar initial public offering in New York last month, is scheduled to make new announcements on YunOS next Monday, according to the YunOS website.