The development of Li Yanhong

Baidu CEO Li Yanhong's Road to Entrepreneurship

At 4 pm on August 12, 2004, it was drizzling, and Li Yanhong had just returned to the office from the golf course-he was taken to the location by a fashion magazine. This is certainly not the first time. If you use "Li Yanhong+Baidu" as the key word, you can get 199 search results through the portal Sina News, and if you use "Baidu", you can get 15900 results. Even a rough impression, since the beginning of the year, from serious news and financial media to fashionable life magazines, Mr. Li Yanhong and his "Baidu" can be said to have "formed a landscape": Li Yanhong held a microphone in the pulpIT and frowned, Li Yanhong laughed heartily at the award ceremony, Li Yanhong stood in the sunset silhouette and erected a trench coat neckline, and Li Yanhong gazed for a moment beside Phalaenopsis .. Next to the bright cross-page color photos, it was a serious IT business motto. Li Yanhong launched the third revolution ... there is a fascinating fashion legend-the story of "He": the snow in Buffalo (where he studied abroad) fell in love at first sight, stuffed a small note for the female students in primary school, walked arm in arm with his wife to see the clouds, and missed a new good man who loved his family, flying in the sky like a meditation fish ... how mysterious, urgent, disgusting and sweet. However, this description has nothing to do with Li Yanhong now. In front of him, Mr. Li Yanhong is calm, ordinary and simple-even his widely praised handsomeness is also the rule of straight nose and straight mouth, and the tunnel with thick eyebrows. Appearance is anti-myth, and speech is deconstructed. Li Yanhong's clarification of the rumors that have not disappeared is simple and clear: the acquisition does not exist. In June, Baidu raised a new round of funds, and Google became the new shareholder of Baidu, which is still an independent company. As for the relationship between cooperation and competition, "this is the world trend": cooperation needs each other; Competition, the same demand, urges both sides to provide better and faster technology and services, such as education market, so that more small and medium-sized business owners know how to use search to promote their products. As for "anti-encirclement and suppression", "Baidu's strategy never targets competitors, but focuses on developing and cultivating more mature markets. "For more and more frequent exposures, Li Yanhong's attitude is equally calm and does not avoid suspicion." Baidu directly faces the end customers, and naturally more people will be interested in you, and then the media will come-this is the need of work. "Turn a leap. Before opening the door, I started the static inspection from 1996. I use the opportunity of returning to China every year to wander around and see what high-tech companies are doing, what universities are learning, and what other people's computers are doing. Until 1999 national day, people began to print their e-mail addresses on business cards, and some people in the street put on T-shirts with ""printed on them. com”。 Li Yanhong concluded that the Internet has matured in China and the environment is OK; As for Li Yanhong personally, the money in the passbook is almost the same-even if you can't earn a penny in two or three years, you can ensure that the whole family can live a normal life. Therefore, it is time to resign and start a business. Then I went back to America to look for money. Li Yanhong didn't like driving at first, but he drove around the Dune Venture Capital Center in San Francisco all day. The moment I got the money, there was nothing to be excited about: the biggest check I got was $654.38+200,000! The excitement is more like an investor. The beautiful story-"China market+Li Yanhong's strong technical background+Li Yanhong's determination to give up generous treatment and start a business" makes Li Yanhong, who was originally only 65,438 US dollars+00,000 yuan, add 200,000 yuan. Buy a plane ticket immediately and land in Beijing on Christmas Day. Then, when it opened, there was no HongLing, no red scarf, and even the time when the brand was hung was unclear-in the early morning of June 65438+1 October/October/October, 2000, Li Yanhong called 1 accounting technician to the room of Peking University Resources Hotel that he shared with his partner Xu Yong and said, here we are. There are two disciplines in the office, one is no smoking, and the other is no pets. From the beginning, in this three-star hotel, there are two rooms, 14 14, 14 17, both of which are not very optimistic. Work during the day and sleep at night. A yard: get up in the morning and go to the office, and go to bed when you come out of the office at night. Then, in the first spring when the Internet bubble burst, Li Yanhong began to look for a second fund. The pressure is there, but I'm not afraid of going broke-Li Yanhong focused on the money he got in six months, and/kloc-spent it in 0/2 months. Persuading investors is more difficult than it was years ago, but it is not too difficult-honestly speaking about the current situation and more honestly predicting the future-100000 USD was successfully put in place in September. Don't worry about money, customers are increasing day by day-almost all portals are using Baidu search service. However, Li Yanhong began to worry about "irrelevance": the market share has accounted for 80%, and he still can't make money. The business model is definitely wrong. Referring to the experience of American colleague overture, Li Yanhong proposed to shift the direction of power and make his own website to introduce bidding ranking. Then, in August of 20001year, Li Yanhong "stubbornly persuaded the board of directors". The conference call of the board of directors, because Li Yanhong changed his usual gentleness, democracy and quietness, suddenly became fierce, decisive and loud-outside the general manager's office in Shenzhen, Baidu employees only heard one person talking all the time-the directors finally surrendered with reservations: Li Yanhong, it was not your reason that convinced us, but your attitude-since you are so determined and so confident. Then Baidu turned. After a turn, Baidu began to make logical progress again. " No repetition, no commotion. " Until the end of 2003, Li Yanhong gave a speech in Peking University. It is no longer necessary to start with "Who used Baidu here". In the midfield, someone will always stand up and express their love or explore specific search skills. "Only then did I know that' Baidu' was basically successful. "Almost, this is the story of Baidu so far. This "gradual process", according to the past years, Li Yanhong's summary and expectation are: 2002, the year of technology, "Baidu" search technology really matured; In 2003, the traffic increased by 7 times over the previous year (in 2002, it was on an equal footing with the mainstream portal search traffic); 2004 is the brand year, and "Baidu" is recognized-"Next year, 2005 is the revenue year". As for going further, Li Yanhong said that he "can't see that far". How do knowledgeable people get rich? If we start a business from Baidu and trace back to Li Yanhong's own growth, we will also see the gradual progress of "one step at a time": practical idealism or ideal pragmatism, with sensitivity and reference to the environment, careful self-design, and confidence step by step; Moreover, each stage has a fully conscious purpose, "there is sowing and there is harvest." "1987, Li Yanhong, aged 19 in Yangquan, a small town in Shanxi, reported his college entrance examination wish: he participated in the national youth programming competition in high school, and he undoubtedly loved computers, but his first wish was not the computer department of Peking University, but the information management department, because he considered that computers would definitely be widely used in the future. If he simply studied computers, he might as well combine computers with an application. Read Peking University and learn to think independently. Facing graduation, it was a dull year of 199 1. Li Yanhong, who decided to "go out and see the world", received the admission notice from new york State University in Buffalo as scheduled. During studying abroad. Occasionally, my tutor said, "Search engine technology is one of the most basic functions of the Internet, and it should be promising. "At this time, 1992, the Internet has not been popularized in the United States, but Li Yanhong has already started to act-he turned back from specializing in computers and began to study information retrieval technology. From then on, look for search. Then he worked as an intern at Matsushita Research Institute. The excitement of the industry made Li Yanhong decide to give up his doctorate, enter Wall Street and start to do financial information retrieval technology. The boss, Dr. Yale, came out of Bell Laboratories to set up a company and sold it to doug jones. From here, Li Yanhong saw that "a knowledgeable person, besides being a professor to study for master's and doctor's degrees, has a bright road to get rich by using knowledge". Next, I realized that the most promising financier on Wall Street was not a computer genius, and my love and strength were only in computers, so I came to Infoseek, the most successful search technology company in Silicon Valley at that time. In Infoseek, Li Yanhong saw how a large industrial information system that supports tens of millions of traffic every day works, and wrote the second generation search engine program. In addition, he is also good at listening, knowing in detail the hardships behind Infoseek's vigorous listing two years after its establishment, as well as the caution and diligence that must be experienced before its success. This was first written by Li Yanhong as the best-selling book "Silicon Valley Business War", and then this awareness made him "satisfied" in the early days of Baidu, not renting Kerry Center, not taking business warehouse and not staying in five-star hotels. Correcting one's position and recalling the skills of striving for investment in difficult times, Li Yanhong believes that the key is to correct one's position and be self-aware. For example, 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 the 30-year-old young man had been talking about not how powerful he was, but how to find technicians and managers who were "better than himself" and how to form the best team. This optimistic "entrepreneur's rare mentality" continues to the management of the company. Li Yanhong believes that his core idea is to "put the right position". Managers only 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 company's daily management, 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 boiled eggs with rice porridge, young people who get up to work in the morning will not be hungry all morning. At the beginning of this year, I moved into the Ideal International Building and was not allowed to cook. Baidu put a coffee machine in the lobby and began to provide free coffee. For others, it is plain and considerate; Li Yanhong's attitude towards himself and his dreams is nothing high-profile, but those two words are not very new: focus and persistence-"to find, to do, not to follow the trend, not to waver. "Find a search engine, find a bidding ranking, find your own interests, and find future interests. There is no time to wander and be confused in the next implementation. " I am a person with good psychological quality and strong self-regulation ability, and I can get out of the low tide relatively quickly. "As for childhood, love, children and amateur life, Li Yanhong's expression to the outside world is completely without gimmicks, stable and dull, without sentimentality to sympathize with, narcissism and self-pity to watch. Childhood, happiness, free growth without pressure and too many constraints-but nothing deviant. Fall in love and get married after half a year of acquaintance. "So far, on the whole, I am still very happy. "Son, I just want him to be an honest man. In my spare time, I accompany my wife to go shopping, take my daughter to climb mountains and swim. Finally, the definition of a free, happy and valuable life, "Ah, I really haven't thought about it seriously. They are all beautiful words and worth pursuing-however, I am busy, happy and full every day. "

Li Yanhong and 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. After graduation, Li Yanhong served as senior consultant of Dow Jones Company, designer of online real-time financial information system of Wall Street Journal and senior engineer of INFOSEEK. 1996 was patented in the United States for inventing the core technology "hyperlink analysis" of the second generation search engine in the world. From 65438 to 0998, based on the working and living experience in Silicon Valley, the book Commercial Wars in Silicon Valley was published. At the beginning of 2000, he returned to China with venture capital and founded Baidu Network Technology Co., Ltd. with his friend 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, he was elected as the second "Top Ten Outstanding Youth of China Software". "Baidu", founded in early 2000, began to provide search technology services for domestic websites; 200 1 introducing a new business model-search engine ranking (for enterprises, charging fees to make them prioritize on possible search pages, thus improving the possibility of winning new customers), the company began to make profits gradually; According to the recent statistics of Alexa, an American research institution, "Baidu" has become the second largest independent search engine manufacturer in the world, ranking first among Chinese search engines.

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New Fortune Rolls-Royce 500 Rich List in 2004156;

Li Yanhong/KLOC-Baidu Company male, 36 years old, was born in Peking University, Yangquan, Shanxi, with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Company headquarters: Beijing

Industry: search engine

Industry status: the world's largest Chinese search engine

From 65438 to 0999, Li Yanhong and Xu Yong returned to China and founded Baidu. A year later, Baidu became the world's largest Chinese search engine technology company. In the second quarter of 2003, "Baidu" announced full profit. At present, Baidu has more than 30,000 bidding customers.

Source: Taiyuan News Network