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Who is the founder of Baidu?
Li Yanhong, 199 1 graduated from Peking University majoring in information management, and then went to new york State University in Buffalo to complete his master's degree in computer science. During his eight years in the United States, Mr. Li Yanhong successively served as a senior consultant of Dow Jones Company, a designer of the online real-time financial information system of The Wall Street Journal, and a senior engineer of -INFOSEEK, an internationally renowned Internet company. He is an authoritative expert in the field of new generation Internet technology. The real-time financial system he designed for Dow Jones is still widely used in the websites of major Wall Street companies, including the online version of The Wall Street Journal.

Li Yanhong first created ESP technology and successfully applied it to the search engine of Infoseek/go.com.go. COM's image search engine is another technological innovation with great application value.

In 1996, he first solved the problem of how to perfectly combine the ranking based on web page quality with the ranking based on relevance, and thus obtained an American patent;

From 65438 to 0998, based on his work and life experience in Silicon Valley, Mr. Li Yanhong published the book "Commercial Wars in Silicon Valley" in Chinese mainland, which was well received by all circles.

1At the end of 999, he returned to China with venture capital and founded Baidu with his good friend Mr. Xu Yong.

200 1, selected as "Top Ten Pioneers in China";

In 2002, he won the title of "Top Ten IT Man of the Year".

In 2003, IT won the title of "Top Ten IT Man of the Year" again.

In 2004, 65438+1October, 65438+May was elected as the second "Thirteen New Talents in Beijing";

In April, 2004, Robin Li, president of Baidu, was elected as the second "Top Ten Outstanding Youth of China Software".

The Miracle Maker

/kloc-at the age of 0/9, he left Yangquan, Shanxi Province with his luggage to study at his dream Peking University. At the age of 23, he traveled across the ocean to study computer science at new york State University in Buffalo, USA. At the age of 3 1, Baidu, the largest search engine company in China, was founded. Obviously, the 36-year-old founder and CEO of Baidu, Li Yanhong, is taking the road of knowledge changing fate.

From the rice porridge and tea eggs in the office to the wafting coffee fragrance, from trying to save money to trying to make money, the story of this online hero is still fascinating today.

Baidu is one of the many miracles in China's Internet industry, and its magic in China's search engine market is almost unparalleled. When Google, the leader of foreign search engines, went public and became the most powerful and expensive Internet company in the world, people couldn't help thinking: Will Baidu become the most expensive Internet company in the future?

No miracle is a miracle, which is the law of the Internet. All dreams are possible, which is the characteristic of Baidu.

Free breakfast and coffee.

Baidu is an emotional Internet company. Walking into the office of Baidu, Zhongguancun Ideal International Building, you will first feel the warm sunshine and rich coffee fragrance. Although sunshine and coffee are not elements of corporate culture, even an outsider can vaguely distinguish the outline of Baidu corporate culture from these two signs.

Baidu implements flexible working system, and CEO Li Yanhong takes a rigid and flexible approach to enterprise management. At the beginning of Baidu's business, there were only eight employees. At that time, no one worked in a regular company except Li Yanhong and Xu Yong. Later, they all grew up quickly and became backbones, which played a key role in the development of the company.

In 2000, Li Yanhong announced a discipline to eight employees: no smoking and no pets in the office. Li Yanhong said that the discipline of "no smoking" does not need to be specified in American companies, but it needs to be specified in China companies. "No pets" was made for western civilization, because some American companies allow pets to go to work.

From the initial corporate principles of combining Chinese and Western, we can see two management principles of Baidu: First, adapt to the big environment, that is, learn the way of doing things according to the actual situation in China. The second is to create a small environment and operate the company according to the modern enterprise system within the company.

It is said that when IDG invested in Baidu, investors finally made up their minds not because Robin Li made them realize that "search has a bright future in China", but because they found that what this 30-year-old young man has been talking about is not how powerful he is, but how to find technicians and managers who are "better than himself" and how to form the best team.

This optimistic "entrepreneur's rare mentality" continued to the management of the company. Li Yanhong believes that his core idea is to "put the right position". "Managers just provide a good working environment and atmosphere for everyone, so that talented people can play their potential creation happily." This kind of low-key, specific to the daily management of the company, has Xiao Nuan's consideration.

For example, when the company first opened in 2000, Baidu's office began to provide free breakfast. Although it is only rice porridge and tea eggs, young people who get up to work in the morning will not be hungry in the morning. At the beginning of 2004, Baidu moved into the ideal international building where it now works. Cooking is not allowed in the building, so Baidu put a coffee machine in the lobby and began to provide free coffee.

In the internet enterprises that create benefits by knowledge, humanized management can undoubtedly stimulate everyone's creativity. Some analysts believe that its unique management mode should be an important factor when the industry discusses how Baidu grows from a small company to an internationally renowned enterprise in the future.

Save money and find ways to make money.

A technology company with simple web page and search function can sweep the army, gain a foothold in the highly competitive industry and dare to "challenge" the world's number one search engine company. What is the reason for Baidu's success? Two things in the history of Baidu's development may provide reference for other enterprises.

One is about spending money. At the beginning of the venture, CEO Li Yanhong took $65,438+$2,000 as the company, and made a one-year plan with the money originally planned to be spent in six months, and waited until the second financing in September of the following year. If you burn a lot of money like other internet companies, there may not be Baidu today. From this point, we can see Li See Hong Yan's cautious and long-term style.

Li Yanhong said that at that time, someone proposed to rent an office address in luxury areas such as the International Trade Center and Kerry Center, but in order to save money, he chose the relatively simple Peking University Resource Building. As early as the beginning of 2000, Li Yanhong said that "these American venture capital will suffer", because from the experience of foreign countries, he saw that successful IT companies in Silicon Valley in the United States did not burn money like this. "If the money was spent at that time, some investors came and said, I don't have100000 dollars, but I have100000 dollars, and I want to take 30% of your shares, then Baidu will be finished. If you have to exchange such conditions because you have no money, the growth of the company will be seriously frustrated. "

Even now, Baidu, which has grown and developed, is not at all unassuming. Li Yanhong believes that this is related to the industry characteristics of classified search technology. Search engines have two characteristics: first, they are free; Second, there is no switching cost. Because of these two characteristics, it is decided that search engines mainly rely on word-of-mouth communication, and users will tell others when they feel good after using them. In other words, once people often use a search engine, they will start to spread from one person to another. In this way, only a little money is needed, and good results can be achieved. For example, Google didn't spend a penny in the China market, but some people agree that this is also the reason.

The second is about making money. Baidu is the first in China to launch a bidding method to make money. In 2000, when the Internet bubble burst and the portal environment cooled down, investors asked the portal administrators to start cutting costs. The portal website has no more funds to buy Baidu search service, and Li Yanhong knows that Baidu must find new ways to make profits. Li Yanhong believes that Baidu must carry out revolution, and the way of revolution is to open up its own new business.

Li Yanhong found a way out for search engines. In the face of changes in the market, Li Yanhong, who has experienced numerous commercial wars in Silicon Valley, is also seeking development through changes. Now Baidu takes bidding ranking as its main business growth point and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in China as its main customers. This is quite different from what he and Xu Yong wrote in the business plan submitted to investors in order to get the first bucket of gold.

Want to be the most expensive internet company

I found a way to make money. However, search engine is not an area that everyone can do, and the threshold for entry is relatively high, because its technical barriers are not easy to break through. Some other search companies developed very well at first, and then they did what they saw when the market was hot. After deciding to be a portal, the company's development slowed down, and then the search engine stopped. Therefore, Li Yanhong believes that search engine is a very high-tech business, and it can't be done well if it is not very focused. "Focus" finally paid off handsomely: Internet research company I

The research report shows that in China search market in 2003, Baidu held 48.2% market share, surpassing Google.

The market they face is a huge gold mine. According to me,

The research predicts that the search engine market in China will grow by 60%-70% every year in the next three years, and the search engine market in China will reach 840 million yuan in 2004 and 2.3 billion yuan in 2006. Although facing more fierce market competition, Li Yanhong believes that Baidu can still laugh at this huge cake:

Reason 1: Years of accumulation is an insurmountable barrier.

Baidu's "bidding ranking" model is easily imitated by many manufacturers. After long-term market cultivation, bidding ranking has become the best promotion method and marketing weapon for small and medium-sized enterprises. More and more small and medium-sized enterprises also benefit from Baidu's bidding ranking, and gradually have a sense of dependence on bidding ranking. Baidu's great success in bidding ranking and the universal recognition of bidding ranking business model in the international capital market, now, more and more Internet companies are aware of the power of search services and begin to grab food in the search service market.

When its original model becomes a universal service in the industry, Baidu's accumulation for many years will become a big advantage.

Reason 2: lead the industry to develop in depth.

The deep development of search engine industry puts forward higher requirements for its business ability. mutually