Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and CEO / Photo credit: Baidu
Google’s rumored return to China is stirring up a lot of discussion – and now search giant Baidu, China’s answer to Google, is joining the chatter.
Baidu’s founder and CEO Robin Li today penned a long message, posted to his WeChat, saying that Baidu is on standby for its counterpart’s return – and ready to trump it again.
Here’s a translation of Li’s missive:
The People’s Daily says on the foreign social media [Twitter] today that it welcomes Google’s return on the precondition that Google complies with Chinese laws. Some friends ask what I think. This is what I want to say: Chinese tech firms today are capable and confident enough to grow stronger in their healthy competition with global businesses, and jointly share the dividends brought by globalization. If Google decides to return to China, we are very confident of fighting and winning the duel again.
Baidu has become a hugely influential company in the global artificial intelligence space today, counting over 300 partners in our global ecosystem. Google is also a partner in our overseas market. In the next episode of AI, Baidu is well-prepared to extend technological boundaries and share innovation rewards with the world.
As for the China market, the circumstance and scale of our industry have been through radical changes in recent years. Chinese tech companies are edging ahead the rest of the world in discovering new problems and filling new demands. The whole world is copying from China. This is a condition that all global businesses looking to enter China must seriously consider and face.
Over the years, people think that Baidu has taken advantage of Google’s China exit. We can’t disprove something that didn’t happen. The truth is, Google ran ahead of Baidu to launch its search engine for China in 2000 and further doubled down on it in 2005. Baidu was a latecomer but overtook Google through technological and product innovations. By 2010, around the time of Google’s retreat amid its plummeting market share, Baidu stood at over 70 percent share of the industry. Google’s return would come just in time, letting us fight that battle once again and win again.
Editing by Steven Millward
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