In China, this is a term used to describe the many Chinese nationals who
leave their homeland and head to the US to study, and then return to their
homeland to build a career or start their own business.
Not many have been as successful in making this “sea turtle” experience work
for them as Li Yanhong, who is better known in the western media as Robin Li,
the cofounder and chief executive officer of Baidu.com, China’s leading
Internet search engine and the fifth most popular search engine in the world.
Robin Li was able to capitalize on the insurmountable growth of the Chinese
Internet market ? second to that of the US, building a website that serves the
over hundred million, and ever growing, Internet users. Such a large Internet
market drew major global search players, including Google and Yahoo, but still
neither could beat the much younger Chinese company Li created.
How Robin Li created Baidu and how it was able to capture a lion’s share in
the Chinese market carries lots of lessons, particularly for local companies
around the world, who are having to compete on their own turf with global giant
companies.
Li Yanhong was born in 1968 in an impoverished Chinese region in the Shanxi
province near Beijing. Although he grew up during difficult times, young Li was
able to pick up some enriching hobbies including opera, stamp collecting and
computers. His smarts got him into the elite University of Beijing where he
studied library science.
Indulging his interests in computer science, Li tried to apply for American
universities to pursue graduate studies. He sent out several applications,
however, only one college, the State university of New York at Buffalo,
accepted him into its computer science program.
While originally planning to earn a Ph. D, he left academia after he got his
masters degree in computer science in 1994 to begin his career in the
US. His first job was at a division of Dow Jones & Company. There he
started building his online experience by participating in the development of
software for the online version of the Wall Street Journal.
From the beginning of his career, Li was interested in Internet search
engines. In 1996, he developed a search program which ranked websites
according to the number of links pointing to them. As excited as he was
about his new invention, he did not get much interest from his managers. So, he
decided to showcase his idea at a Silicon Valley conference. That is
where he met the chief technology officer (CTO) at Infoseek, a well known
Internet search engine. The CTO recruited him to lead search engine development
at Infoseek.
In 2000, Li saw an opportunity to start a business venture in his homeland,
making use of his Internet experience, and specifically his knowledge and
enthusiasm for search engines.
He partnered up with Eric Xu, who had good contacts in Silicon Valley. The
two raised a bit over a million US dollars in seed money to start a new venture
called Baidu (pronounced BY-DOO). Within nine months, they were able to
secure another ten million dollars in funds for their new startup. Ironically,
this was taking place during the tough times of the Internet market collapse in
the US.
Baidu started out offering search services to other Chinese portals, until
Li felt it was time for Baidu to have its own search website. At the beginning,
many were sceptical that the move may hurt the young company as it will turn
its current customers into competitors.
Determined and sure of the viability of his plan, Li pushed his idea through
and in 2001, Baidu.com was launched. The site which resembled the Google
website with its simple design became popular and the company showed profit as
early as 2004.
The next step for Li was to turn again to the United States stock market for
Baidu’s IPO (Initial Public Offering), which was a hit for the company some
called “China’s Google.” It was actually one of the most successful IPO’s
in the post-dot-com collapse era. Last year was also a banner year for
Baidu which beat Google to the number one spot of Internet search sites in
China.
To make Baidu a success, Li did not try to just copy other Internet
sites from the Western world. Even the name Baidu has its roots in the
Chinese culture. According to the company’s website, Baidu’s name “…was
inspired from a poem written during the Song Dynasty. The poem compares the
search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one’s
dream while confronted by life’s many obstacles.” The literal meaning of Baidu
is “hundreds of times,” which represents persistent search for the ideal.
Not only the name was Chinese, but Li went further to give the search
website its own Chinese character. This made it hard for Internet
companies coming from outside China to beat him on his own turf. His site
specifically served Chinese Internet users. He was aware of the
difference in Internet users between the West and China, with the Chinese
user being the younger of the two and the more interested in gaming, music, and
entertainment. He built his site to cater for the needs of the young
Chinese Internet users. As a result, almost 90% of the over a 100-million-daily
Chinese users of the internet browse through Baidu’s billion plus web pages
directory.
The future looks bright for the Internet market in China and Li is keen on
capitalizing on the opportunity to further grow his company.
Sunday, February 18, 2007