<span style='font-size:8px;color:990000'>▀</span> <a target=_blank style='color:0066cc;font-weight:bolder;font-size:14px' href=http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20100804/atc103124_ENversion.shtml?source=blog>Baidu's CEO Pursues Long-Term Growth</a>
Google Inc.'s pullback in China earlier this year left homegrown giant Baidu Inc. more dominant than ever as China's biggest search engine.
Now, Robin Li, Baidu's chief executive, must figure out new ways to grow amid immense investor expectations.
Mr. Li, a soft-spoken 41-year-old engineer who co-founded Baidu in 2000 after a stint in Silicon Valley, dismisses concerns that growth in Baidu's core China search business will dry up anytime soon. With more than two-thirds of China's population not yet Internet users, Mr. Li says search advertising will remain Baidu's main growth driver for five to 15 years.
But he is looking to develop other revenue streams, including overseas and from ads on content pages created by Baidu or partners. He would also consider buying foreign Internet companies.
Baidu has played down its benefit from Google's moving its China search service to Hong Kong, but Baidu's share of revenue in China's search-advertising market grew six percentage points in the second quarter to 70%, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. Google's share fell by about the same amount -- to 24%.
Mr. Li shared his strategy at Baidu's Beijing headquarters.
Excerpts:
WSJ: How would you describe China's search market right now?
Mr. Li: The search [advertising] market in China is still relatively small -- smaller than the U.S., smaller than Japan, smaller than the U.K., but it is growing very fast.
WSJ: How did Google moving its China search service to Hong Kong in March open up new opportunities in China's search market?
Mr. Li: [By drawing attention to the search business] it helped educate the advertisers that search is one of the best ways for them to reach their targeted consumers. So in this sense I think it did benefit us a little bit, but because we already have such a large share, it's not obvious how much traffic we gained over this.
WSJ: Beyond search, what will be your middle- and long-term revenue drivers?
Mr. Li: The search market is in its early stage. We would be able to enjoy many years of high growth for our core search business.
And secondly, I think there are two types of growth drivers in the mid to long term. The first one is what we call the landing-page opportunity. We started to build our own content and integrate those kinds of content on our search result pages. Those kinds of content pages, we call it a landing page. We can also place sponsored links on the landing page.
One example is the Qiyi venture, [an online video-streaming site]. When people search this type of content on Baidu, we can direct users to Qiyi. And Qiyi itself can show advertising there, and make money.
There are many examples in other sectors that we would like to do going forward. So I think five years down the road, we should have a meaningful portion of our revenue from the landing-page strategy.
And the third [future revenue driver] is, of course, international.
WSJ: What are your plans for international expansion?
Mr. Li: We already started our international expansion. We launched our Japanese search [site] a couple years ago. But we realize that international expansion is a long-term investment.
I think that five to 10 years down the road we'll have a very meaningful part of our revenue come from international expansion.
WSJ: Any plans to expand to the U.S.?
Mr. Li: In the U.S. you already have very strong search-engine players -- Google, Microsoft, etc. I think we would be cautious entering that market. So for our international expansion we will probably avoid the U.S. for the time being.
WSJ: How do China's censorship regulations affect Baidu operations?
Mr. Li: We are used to it. We are based in China. We obviously need to abide by the Chinese law. What we found out is that our users are not very interested in those [censored terms]. They look for entertainment-oriented information, they look for business-oriented information, lifestyle, all kinds of things.
WSJ: Does it raise costs for Baidu?
Mr. Li: It does. It's a fairly comprehensive system that we need to ensure that we take necessary steps against some illegal content.
WSJ: Are you looking at M&A or investment opportunities overseas?
Mr. Li: We'll be open-minded. I think there are quite a few interesting companies outside of China. They provide good, innovative services. They're doing well, they're making money, but they're not in China. By partnering with those kinds of companies we can help promote and expand their businesses in China.
WSJ: So you're looking for partnerships rather than acquisitions?
Mr. Li: Not necessarily. Anything's possible. We'll deal with this on a case-by-case basis.
WSJ: Are you concerned that growth might not keep up with investor expectations?
Mr. Li: I'm not concerned. I don't run the company based on investor expectations. I run the company based on our own vision of the future of Internet computing and the future of the Chinese market.
I'm the founder. I will stay here for a very long time. I don't need to please those short-term investors for next quarter. I need to make sure the company is healthy and strong and will continue to grow for many, many years.
Owen Fletcher
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年早些时候谷歌(Google Inc.)从中国大陆退出，使中国本土巨头百度作为中国最大搜索引擎的霸主地位更加巩固。
如今，在投资者的殷切期望之下，百度首席执行长李彦宏必须找到新的增长方式。
现年41岁的李彦宏是工程师出身，说话声音柔和。他曾在美国硅谷短暂工作过，之后于2000年与人合伙成立了百度。他反驳了对百度的核心中国搜索业务增长将很快枯竭的担忧。中国仍有三分之二以上的人口尚未使用互联网，在这种情况下，李彦宏说，搜索广告仍将是未来五到15年百度的主要增长动力。
不过，他也在考虑发展其他收入来源，包括海外业务和在由百度或其合作伙伴创建的内容页面上发布广告。他还会考虑收购外国互联网公司。
百度一直在淡化谷歌将中国大陆搜索服务移至香港给其带来的好处，不过据位于北京的研究公司易观国际(Analysys International)的数据，二季度百度在中国搜索广告收入中的份额增长了六个百分点，至70%。谷歌的份额则下滑了类似的幅度，至24%。
李彦宏在百度北京总部接受了《华尔街日报》（以下简称WSJ）的专访，分享了他的战略。
采访节录如下：
WSJ：你如何描述目前中国的搜索市场？
李彦宏：中国搜索（广告）市场的规模仍相对较小，比美国、日本、英国的都要小，不过正在飞速地增长。
WSJ：3月份谷歌将中国大陆搜索服务移至香港，这如何为中国的搜索市场创造新的机遇？
李彦宏：（它将人们的注意力吸引到搜索业务上），帮助广告客户明白搜索是它们赢得目标客户的最佳途径之一。从这个意义上讲，我认为它确实让我们获得了一些好处，不过由于我们已经拥有了如此大的市场份额，我们由此获得的流量并不明显。
WSJ：除搜索业务外，中长期来看，推动你们收入的力量还有哪些？
李彦宏：搜索市场仍处于初期阶段。我们的核心搜索业务能享受多年的高增长。
其次，我认为中长期来说，有两类增长动力。一个是我们所说的“登录页机会”（landing-page opportunity）。我们已经开始构建自己的内容，并将这类内容整合到我们的搜索结果页面中。这类内容页面，我们称其为登录页。我们还可以在登录页上放置赞助商链接。
比如（在线视频网站）“奇艺”(Qiyi)。当人们在百度上搜索这类内容时，我们能将用户导向“奇艺”。“奇艺”本身可以显示广告赚钱。
其他领域还有很多例子是未来我们希望开展的业务。因此，我认为，未来五年我们应该有相当一部分收入来自登录页战略。
未来收入的第三个推动力当然是国际业务。
WSJ：你有什么样的国际扩张计划？
李彦宏：我们的国际扩张已经开始。我们几年前推出了日文搜索。但我们认识到，国际扩张是一种长期投资。
我认为在未来五到10年，我们将有非常大的一部分收入来自国际扩张。
WSJ：有没有进军美国的计划？
李彦宏：美国已经有了非常强大的搜索引擎，比如谷歌和微软(Microsoft)。我认为我们进军美国市场会慎重行事。所以我们的国际扩张可能会暂时避开美国。
WSJ：中国的审查制度对百度的运营有何影响？
李彦宏：我们习惯了。我们是以中国为大本营的，显然需要遵守中国的法律。我们发现用户对那些东西（受审查的条目）不是很感兴趣。他们寻找的是偏娱乐的信息，偏商务的信息，生活资讯，各种各样的东西。
WSJ：会增加百度的成本吗？
李彦宏：会的。这是一个相当全面的系统，我们需要用它来确保对一些非法内容采取了必要措施。
WSJ：你有没有关注海外的并购或投资机会？
李彦宏：我们会持开放心态。我觉得国外有很多有意思的公司，它们提供的服务很好，很新颍，做得不错，也在赚钱，但不在中国。跟这类公司合作，我们可以帮助它们在中国推广和扩大业务。
WSJ：所以你考虑的是合作而不是收购？
李彦宏：不一定吧。任何事情都有可能。我们会具体情况具体处理。
WSJ：你是否担心公司的成长达不到投资者的期望？
李彦宏：我不担心。我不是根据投资者的期望来运营公司的。我是根据我们自己对互联网计算的未来、对中国市场的未来进行的展望来运营公司的。
我是创始人，我会在这里呆上很久时间。我不需要在下一个季度取悦那些短线投资者。我需要确保公司是健康的、强壮的，还会继续成长很多很多年。
Owen Fletcher
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