An illustration shows a young man visiting online gambling site. [Illustration: daily.cnnb.com.cn]

Cyberspace Administration of China has ordered an investigation into complaints regarding Baidu, China's search engine giant.

Chinese netizens have recently complained about the Internet giant's late-night promotion of gambling sites.

The company previously responded to the complaints, claiming it was the gambling sites themselves that were breaking the rules and unilaterally initiating illegal marketing.

The Internet giant published a statement via its official weibo account saying that the gambling sites in question opened accounts on Baidu's subordinate online marketing service, e.baidu.com at the end of April.

Baidu also said it had reported the case to the police, and collection of evidence for an investigation was underway.