China's Internet star Robin Li preaching the Baidu gospel at Stanford.
STANFORD, California, U.S.A. -- Most of the students, bicyclists and joggers at Stanford University didn't recognize him. But tech watchers and Chinese students knew that Robin Li (Li Yanhong), co-founder of Baidu.com and an entrepreneurial legend in Asia and Silicon Valley, was visiting the campus Wednesday afternoon. Several hundred filled a lecture hall at the William Hewlett Teaching Center to hear Li talk about Baidu's rise as the search engine dynasty of China. Afterwards, fanboys and young women surrounded the Internet king, snapping photos and squealing with glee. They were like devotees of Apple's Steve Jobs and super-investor Warren Buffett. Li smiled and listened patiently. The man must need security guards in Beijing and Shanghai.
Peering into Baidu's future, Li touted "box computing" -- integrating all of a user's online applications such as Yahoo! Finance, Facebook and Twitter, into one convenient Web page or "magic box." He said Baidu's "Post Bar" search offering for topics, rather than key words, makes up 10% of Baidu's traffic. Topics and questions that drew laughs from the crowd: "Where can I find a girlfriend in Beijing?" "How do I fix my hacked PC?" "What kind of college is good for a frail, introverted guy like myself?" Li also said Baidu has high hopes for the next generation of search on its Aladdin platform, which prowls the vast hidden Web and databases for info not found in simple searches. And like any politician or Western CEO, Li dodged answering a question on allegations that Baidu blocks controversial search subjects in China.
As part of a two-week visit to the U.S.A., Li spoke at the invitation of Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar, co-sponsored by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson and the Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. Highlights from his talk:
On Baidu's initial public offering in 2005: "It was great for us and many Baidu employees and investors. It was a very miserable thing for me, because when I decided to take the company public, I was only prepared to deliver financial results that matched the price of $27 or maybe a little higher. I was really shocked to see the price (go) to $122 the first day. That means I needed to deliver real results that matched expectations much, much higher than what I had prepared (for)."
On his early decision to change Baidu from a Web portal to a search-engine company: "Many people thought search was a done deal . . . Everyone had figured it out in terms of technology and products. But we thought we could do a better job. We resisted all kinds of temptations to become a portal (and) developing all kinds of things that could make in the short-term. We really focused on (the long-term promise) of Chinese search . . . When you decide to become a front-end, consumer-oriented service, you need to be significantly better than your competition . . . I'm really glad I took that risk."
On why U.S. Internet companies missed China's online market: "During the 1990s, the Chinese market was very very small, and nobody paid attention to it. But during the past decade, with the Internet coming to China . . . the market changed very quickly, very dramatically. American companies did not realize it . . . The second reason (is that) Chinese people are really enterprising, really hardworking (and) the Internet space in China has become very very competitive. The third reason is that . . . young companies do not plan for very long-term; sometimes they are not patient enough. They lose a lot of money, and five years later, they say 'Okay,I give up.' That happened to a lot of American Internet companies."
On Baidu growing globally: "Our approach is to do each market one by one, and design products according to the specific needs of that market. Right now, we're not ready to get into the U.S. or English search market. We understand Silicon Valley is the center of innovation, and we are willing to look at new technologies. But we do not believe in having separate research teams at separate locations. I think the efficiency does not justify the cost."
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ECorner: Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner, "Lessons from China: The Evolution of the Globe's Largest Search Engine."
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CNET, "Baidu CEO Touts Growth of China's Search Engine" by Tom Krazit.
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Reuters, "China Mobile Search: The Next Battle for Google, Baidu" by Melanie Lee.
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GigaOm, "The Future of the Web According to Baidu" by Jennifer Martinez.
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Stanford Daily, "Baidu Founder Talks Business" by Alan Guo.
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Marbridge Consulting, "Baidu Forms B2C Partnerships with 20 Major Brands."
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Forbes.com, "The Man Who's Beating Google" by Andy Greenberg.
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WSJ Blogs: Digits, "Talking Tech with Baidu's Robin Li" by Julia Anwin
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