Founded on January 1st, 2000, Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language
Internet search provider and the largest Chinese website globally. Robin Li,
co-founder of the company, initially developed the Rankdex site-scoring
algorithm for search engine page rankings and Li was awarded a U.S. patent for
the technology, making China one of the only four countries in the world with
the core technologies behind the independent search engine in addition to the
U.S, Russia and South Korea.
Each day, Baidu responds to billions of search requests from more than 100
countries and regions, and it has become a primary platform for internet users
to access Chinese information. With its mission to “make a complex world simpler
through technology”, Baidu promotes constant technological innovation and is
committed to providing products and services that better understand users.
Baidu keeps technological innovation at the heart of its business and has
been a global leader in terms of innovation investment, R&D and talent
acquisition. In 2018, the company recorded RMB 102.3 billion in revenue, a
year-on-year increase of 28%, with R&D expenditures reaching RMB 15.8
billion for the quarter, a year-on-year increase of 22%. Baidu is also a global
forerunner in fields including search, AI, big data and cloud services.
Since 2016, Baidu has set artificial intelligence (AI) as a strategic driver
for the development of its business. Under the strategy of “strengthening the
mobile foundation and leading in AI”, Baidu has steadily improved its AI
ecosystem, with accelerated productization and commercialization.
As integral components to its overall AI ecosystem, Baidu has developed two
open ecosystems for two important scenarios – intelligent driving and smart
homes – the Apollo open autonomous driving platform and the c conversational AI
system DuerOS. With its latest iteration – “Apollo 3.5” – Baidu’s autonomous
driving platform has brought together 135 partners and has been granted over 50
licenses for open-road testing in cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing,
Changsha and Baoding municipalities, as well as Fujian province. In the
conversational AI field, DuerOS voice assistant installed base surpassed 200
million by December 2018 and voice queries on DuerOS reached 1.6 billion in the
month. According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, Baidu ranked
fourth globally and second domestically in smart speaker shipment, with the
fastest growth rate.
Baidu Cloud is an intelligent cloud computing service platform for
enterprises and developers. Leveraging its technological capabilities, Baidu
introduced a three-in-one development strategy of “ABC” (AI, big data, cloud
computing), providing solutions for the technological upgrade and transition of
conventional industries and enabling digitization of China. In the fourth
quarter of 2018, Baidu Cloud generated 1.1 billion RMB revenue, up 100% year on
year.
Following its core strategy of “strengthening the mobile foundation and
leading in AI”, Baidu continued to invest in the mobile segment in 2018 and
achieved tremendous results. The number of users of Baidu’s flagship mobile apps
– Baidu App, Haokan and Quanmin, achieved robust growth while key metrics of
feed user time spent grew 112% year-over-year. The stellar performance of these
apps is enabling further growth of our mobile ecosystem. In December 2018,
Baijiahao, or BJH accounts, Baidu feed’s content network, grew to 1.9 million
publishers and Baidu Smart Mini Program MAU reached 147 million, up 30%
sequentially.
Powered by AI technology, Baidu has incubated two independent business units
– “Du Xiaoman Financial” and “iQIYI”. Du Xiaoman Financial is Baidu’s
recently-divested financial services group, which will expand and strengthen its
offerings by capitalizing on Baidu’s leadership in AI technologies. As a key
component to Baidu’s business ecosystem, iQIYI, the company’s online
video-streaming subsidiary, completed an initial public offering on the NASDAQ
in March 2018. Driven by high quality and popular video contents, iQIYI’s paid
subscription base reached 87.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, adding
36.6 million of new subscribers from the same quarter a year ago. iQIYI and
Baidu have powerful synergy in the areas of content, cloud services and
artificial intelligence.
After years of development, Baidu has built a comprehensive AI ecosystem and
is now at the forefront of the AI industry in terms of fundamental technological
capability, speed of productization and commercialization, and “open” strategy.
In the future, Baidu will continue to enhance user experience and accelerate the
development of AI applications through the strategy of “strengthening the mobile
foundation and leading in AI”. Our goal is to become a global leading technology
company that understands users and helps them succeed.
