Topic: Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2009
Xinhuanet Boao (Hainan) April 17th The annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia 2009 was held from April 17th to 19th, 2009. More than 1,600 representatives from all over the world gathered in Hainan. It will discuss hot topics such as the evolution of the current financial crisis, whether the Asian economy can take the lead in getting out of the haze, the adjusting real estate market and capital market. "Xinhuanet enters Boao" will conduct a series of interviews and invite guests to communicate with netizens on related issues. The guest who walked into the interview room of Xinhuanet today is Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu.
On the 17th, Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, was a guest of Xinhua News Agency’s high-end interview and the live broadcast room in front of Xinhuanet Boao Forum. Photo by Xinhuanet Qiu Xiaomin.
On the 17th, Li Yanhong, Chairman and CEO of Baidu, was a guest of Xinhua News Agency’s high-end interview and the live broadcast room in front of Xinhuanet Boao Forum. Photo by Xinhuanet Qiu Xiaomin.
Why did you come to Boao? Understand the changes that have taken place in the worldRemind people to seize Internet opportunities.
Moderator: First of all, I would like to congratulate Mr. Li on becoming the co-chairman of the Young Leaders Forum of the Boao Forum for Asia. The first question I want to ask Mr. Li is, what kind of views do you want to express most when you attend the Boao Forum?
Li Yanhong: I think this is a very special period, that is, the global financial crisis or economic recession. Now it is very obvious. At such a moment, many people have stronger communication needs than before. I came here mainly because I want to have a better communication with more people, whether they are people in the same industry or people outside the industry, or people in China, Asia or even other countries, and learn more about what is happening in the world. At the same time, it is also a process of learning from each other. I think everyone who comes to Boao should seize this good opportunity, communicate more and understand what others are thinking, so as to enhance their confidence and do things better.
The crisis has also affected Baidu, but it is not particularly big. Of course, Baidu probably has more than 200,000 active enterprises as our customers, including large enterprises and more small and medium-sized enterprises, so in a sense, Baidu’s customers can represent the cross-section of China’s economy. So we felt the impact of the crisis from the fourth quarter of last year, especially in November and December, and many customers became more cautious in consumption than before. By January, it can be said that it has become more obvious. But after the Spring Festival, there was a very obvious rebound. We felt that when the economy turned around a little bit, these customers came back quickly, because they found that Baidu was a very good platform to promote their products and services.
When customers are faced with crisis, they will usually become more rational after a period of digestion, and the choices made after rationality will use more advanced methods and means for marketing. In this sense, Baidu is a beneficiary. To be exact, there was an obvious rebound after the Spring Festival, and this rebound has continued until now. I don’t think I dare to predict the future, saying that there will be and there will be no crisis in the future. Or will it only develop in a good direction, not in a bad direction? I dare not say this. As an entrepreneur, we should conscientiously do our own thing well, try our best to have a better positive effect on society and economy, and hope that the overall market situation will get better and better.
At the Youth Leaders’ Forum this afternoon, we talked about one thing, that is, the economic crisis is coming, and many enterprises have taken some measures, whether it is to lay off employees, control costs, or change direction, etc. In fact, one common feature of these measures is to improve efficiency, because the efficiency is improved, and the ability to cope with the crisis is enhanced. And the internet, I think its biggest advantage is to improve efficiency. Therefore, I remind people to grasp the opportunities brought by the Internet. For example, people’s ability and speed of obtaining information is unprecedented. Never before has it been so easy to obtain information. No matter where you are, whether you are a civilian or have a high position, everyone can easily obtain information from the Internet. This is because the Internet has played a very positive role in society, economy and culture at all levels.
How to look at the development of Internet? Coping with changes in the market is like changing the tires of a speeding car.
Moderator: Baidu is a very successful Internet company. What kind of experience do you have to share with you?
Li Yanhong: In fact, with the development of Baidu for so many years, we are still very concerned about the changes in the market. In the past ten years, in fact, Baidu has not done much, but has completely focused on doing Chinese search. Because on the one hand, this piece of technology is still improving, and there are many things to do. On the other hand, there are three factors that jointly promote the development of Chinese search. One is the number of users, that is, the number of netizens is constantly and rapidly increasing. The more people surf the Internet, the more people naturally use Baidu. Second, everyone’s online time is getting longer and longer. The longer it takes, the greater the probability of using Baidu. Third, there is more and more information on the Internet. The greater the amount of information, the greater the probability that a person will find the information he needs on Baidu. These three are promoting the development of the search industry at the same time, so it has been in the process of rapid development. It can be said that we have resisted many other temptations, whether it is portals, text messages or games, and we have not done anything, so we have focused on doing search. I think in the next few years, we will still be like this, but we will focus on Chinese search and gradually expand to the surrounding areas. For example, the Japanese search released last year, as well as a commodity search platform like "Baidu You", will gradually increase these things.
Moderator: That is, the scope and categories of search are more, and you insist that search is not relaxed?
Li Yanhong: Yes.
Moderator: So have you ever thought about what is the biggest obstacle and difficulty that may exist in the development of Baidu now?
Li Yanhong: On the one hand, we feel that the market is still very immature, and most enterprises in China are not aware of the benefits that search has brought them. At the same time, the rapid growth of the market has also made Baidu in a state of rapid development. For example, the number of people increases a lot every year, which is almost multiplied by 2 every year; On the other hand, the rapid changes in the market require you to constantly make adjustments to this organization. Such a difficulty is likened to changing the tires of a speeding car on the expressway, which is still very difficult.
As a manager of a company, we have to face many such problems every day. On the one hand, the rapid changes in the market require you to look at the direction very accurately and not miss any opportunity that belongs to you; On the other hand, it is actually very difficult to maintain a good and healthy company culture, make everyone confident every day, have a good and happy working relationship with each other, and maintain a strong executive power under the condition of increasing number of people. Especially as an entrepreneur, I didn’t manage anyone before Baidu. Now, from 20 to 40 people, to 160 people, to the scale of nearly 7,000 people, every day is new to me, and there are many new challenges.
What innovations are there in the next step? A new business model codenamed "Fengchao" will be released.
Moderator: In what aspects will Baidu consider introducing new technological achievements and innovative models in the future?
Li Yanhong: Baidu is a company that is very focused on Chinese search. For search engines, the profit model is similar all over the world. Everyone makes profits by promoting products for enterprises, which is called paid search, and it is said that it is paid according to the effect. We have been doing this for seven or eight years, but the more we do it, the more interesting it is. There are many things that can be improved, and we have invested considerable energy in this respect. This quarter, we will release a new product, the internal code name is "Fengchao", which is actually a revolutionary upgrade of the business model, which will greatly improve the user experience and customer experience.
Moderator: Last year, you recruited Huawei’s former vice president to Baidu as CTO. Do you plan to seek a breakthrough in the field of wireless search?
Li Yanhong: It should be said that in the past many years, probably since 2002, people have been telling me that I must do wireless search. I didn’t invest too much energy in wireless search in the past. Because before the 3G era, wireless search was a situation. After 3G, it may become unrecognizable and completely different. We don’t know what will happen in the future, so we haven’t invested much in this aspect in the past few years. Starting from this year, it should be said that the market situation will change greatly, because the three major operators have been gearing up to launch 3G services, so it is also an opportunity for Baidu, so in the next year or two, we will invest more in 3G and wireless search.
Moderator: It can be understood that 3G is a watershed for wireless search?
Li Yanhong: It’s a potential opportunity for us. It’s hard to say what it will turn into in the end. Whether it can become a watershed depends on how much users in China can accept such a service, such as whether its service is stable enough, whether its service is cheap enough and whether its speed is fast enough. All kinds of factors are not completely clear now.
Editor: Gao Song
