Showing posts with label Robin Li. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robin Li. Show all posts

Monday, January 22, 2018

Censorship does not impede China's innovation - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo
Western observers wrongly assume that China's rigid censorship is stopping the country from being innovative. As China is becoming a leader in global innovation, that misunderstanding should be dealt with, says China veteran and former Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo to Time about Baidu's CEO Robin Li.

Time:
But in fact, business thrives inside the firewall’s confines–on its guardians’ terms, of course–and the restrictions have not appeared to stymie progress. “It turns out you don’t need to know the truth of what happened in Tiananmen Square to develop a great smartphone app,” says Kaiser Kuo, formerly Baidu’s head of international communications and a co-host of Sinica, an authoritative podcast on China. “There is a deep hubris in the West about this.” The central government in Beijing has a fearsome capacity to get things done and is willing to back its policy priorities with hard cash. The benefits for companies willing or able to go along with its whims are clear. The question for Baidu–and for Li–is how far it is willing to go.
More in Time.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on innovation at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Monday, September 18, 2017

The amazing shows by China's tycoons - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson
The world looked with awe when Alibaba's chairman Jack Ma performed as Michael Jackson during a massive show for employees and customers last week. But Chinese tycoons like to put up a show, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson to CNN. Western CEO's seldom let themselves go (perhaps with the exception of former ABN Amro CEO Gerrit Zalm).

CNN:
Robin Li, the founder and CEO of internet giant Baidu, likes to mix things up. 
He turned his performance at the company's summer party into a family affair this year. His daughter sang "Call Me Maybe" while accompanied by professional dancers. Proud papa, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, strolled on stage at the end of the song, strumming the last few bars of the song on an acoustic guitar while his daughter crooned along. 
That performance was understated compared with a 2015 extravaganza, when Li donned a studded gold lamé outfit to sing and play the drums in a dazzling routine -- complete with smoke machines and a laser show -- at the company's annual gala. 
Many other Chinese business leaders like to put on a show, according to Jeffrey Towson, a private equity investor and professor at Peking University. 
"You see these kinds of crazy events all the time," he said. The outlandish galas allow bosses to be playful and self deprecating while also demonstrating how successful the company has been, according to Towson.
More in CNN.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Jeffrey Towson? Do check out this list.  

Friday, October 21, 2016

IT-firms galore in wealth creation - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf
Rupert Hoogewerf
The Rupert Hoogewerf´s Hurun China IT List illustrated over the years where money in generated in China´s economy. IT-tycoons are super wealth creators, says Hoogewerf to the China Daily, not only for themselves, but for many others too.

The China Daily:
Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd topped the ranking of China's richest IT people for the third consecutive year, defending his position against rivals including Tencent Holdings Ltd founder Pony Ma. 
Jack Ma and his family's total wealth in IT industry was 195 billion yuan, followed by Pony Ma, whose wealth increased by 30 percent year-on-year to 134 billion yuan, according to the Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute. 
Due to the rapid growth of the online gaming sector, NetEase Inc founder Ding Lei doubled his wealth to 96 billion yuan, surpassing Baidu Inc Chairman Robin Li and ranking third in the IT rich list. 
Hurun Chairman Rupert Hoogewerf said: "Those entrepreneurs should be called 'super wealth creators' instead of simply 'rich people', which could highlight their contribution to China's society and economy. They've created such a lot of opportunities and jobs."


More in the China Daily.

Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

Are you looking for more stories by Rupert Hoogewerf? Do check out this list.  

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

How Baidu takes on Egypt, and the world - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Headshot
Kaiser Kuo
China's largest search engine Baidu, number two in the world, is expanding globally. Kaiser Kuo, director international communication, explains in Knowledge CKGSB its global strategy, and why Egypt is high on the list of countries it wants to conquer. 

Knowledge CKGSB:
Some time back, Baidu CEO Robin Li declared that he wanted Baidu to be a household name in 50% of the world’s markets. The company has already started taking baby steps to realize this goal. According to Kaiser Kuo, Director of International Communications at Baidu, “Today we are the number two search engine in the world. The core technology for searches in a way can be applied (elsewhere), so there’s some scale that you can leverage from existing platforms.” To go global, Baidu is looking at emerging markets which are underserved by the dominant players. These markets are still evolving from an internet user perspective. 
Baidu believes that having roots in China will help as it globalizes. “In China we really are in two markets at the same time,” says Kuo. “We have the developed world market in these first-tier cities and we are very much in the mainstream of technological developments globally. We also serve very much a developing world market already with a relatively unsophisticated user base with relatively unsophisticated consumers. So we’ve gotten really good at developing technologies and products that are appropriate for those sorts of markets.” 
So far Baidu has chosen to dip its toes in Japan, Egypt, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil (and has plans for other markets as well). So Baidu went in with Japanese language search in Japan, it took a Portugese language version of Hao123 (a directory of weblinks) to Brazil (and a similar local-language version of the same site in Thailand), and an Arabic version of Baidu Knows in Egypt. “These products were chosen in part because of their ability to help us understand the terrain and to connect us with other players,” says Kuo. 
The choice of countries is somewhat surprising. Take Egypt for instance, which doesn’t rate very high on many companies’ globalization plans. But Baidu has thought this through. “Egyptian Arabic has now become sort of standard from the Maghreb all the way through to Iraq, and Egypt is the culturally dominant country in the Middle East. It has the highest output of literature, film and so forth. There’s a huge group of very well trained engineers in Egypt,” says Kuo. “It makes the most sense from a lot of perspectives.” 
Baidu’s strategy is simple: go where English is not the dominant language, build capabilities in that market—and then expand.
More in Knowledge CKGSB.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in  our speakers' request form.

The China Weekly Hangout discussed the global aspirations of China's internet companies with Steven Millward of Tech in China on November 15, 2012.

This week, on Thursday 14 March, the China Weekly Hangout will focus on the media in Hong Kong. In the 1990s they were a beacon of hope, and Hong Kong one of few global news capitals. With Paul Fox of the HKU we will discuss the state of Hong Kong media. You can read our announcement here, or directly register at our event page. 
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Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Baidu: 2011 Best employer for students - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo
Internet search engine Baidu is now the most-wanted employer for graduates from Beijing's top universities, writes their director communication Kaiser Kuo on their weblog Baidu Beat. Job search engine Zhaopin listed the internet company as the 2011 Best Employer.

Kaiser Kuo:
Five years ago, if you had asked graduates of China’s top schools, Peking University and Tsinghua, where they most wanted to work when they graduated, they would have answered with a major multinational—P&G, Microsoft, or what have you. 
Things have changed. In 2011, Baidu—a Chinese company—tops the list, with 200 employees hired from those two schools, more than any other enterprise.
In a speech at Nankai University in Tianjin, Baidu CEO Robin Li summarized Baidu’s approach to talent thusly: We find the best people, we give them the most free personal space, we look at results, and the talent rises to the top... 
In February of this year, Zhaopin’s released its “2011 Annual Best Employers Students Research Report,” Baidu was top rated by an overwhelming majority of college students most concerned about the employer. In this regard, the Zhaopin human resources experts said that, as high-tech company in the Internet space, Baidu has opened up a world-class platform, earned a reputation for respectable technical innovation in an atmosphere and corporate culture strongly suggestive of Silicon Valley: Baidu’s culture is based on “simplicity and reliability.” The company has a special appeal to college students eager to innovate.
More on Baidu Beat.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

More on Kaiser Kuo and the internet in China on Storify.
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Saturday, October 23, 2010

Baidu's Robin Li tops IT-rich list - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert HoogewerfHurun by Fantake via Flickr
Apart from real estate and retail, China's IT industry is becoming a major money maker, notes Hurun rich list compiler Rupert Hoogewerf in the People's Daily. Robin Li of the largest search engine Baidu tops his IT-rich list this year.
Robin Li, founder of Baidu, one of the world’s leading search engine companies, topped the Rupert Hoogewerf 2010 IT rich list released yesterday with assets of 31.5 billion yuan. He was followed by Ma Huateng, CEO of the Tencent, China’s leading instant messaging company, and Ding Lei, CEO of Net Ease, who hold property with 29.3 billion yuan and 15.1 billion yuan, respectively.
This was the third time for Li to top the list after taking the No. 1 spot in 2007 and 2008. This time, Li set a record for the most assets held by anyone on the list since it was established.
The Hoogewerf group attributed the strong performance of Baidu to its tripled growth price in the U. S. stock market and the withdrawal of Google from mainland China.
In the People's Daily more details about Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei.

Commercial
Rupert Hoogewerf is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your conference or meeting? Do get in touch.