Reporter: Lu Yifu
Although there have been many reports of resignation before, and even there are rumors that Ali Yu Yongfu once again digs the corner, but Li Mingyuan, vice president of Baidu, has remained silent. In the eyes of the outside world, when he was 30, he became the vice president of Baidu. Li Mingyuan, who has a glorious history, is likely to become Li Yanhong's successor and even lead Baidu to create a new Internet myth.
However, with the disclosure of an internal mail, Li Mingyuan’s Baidu career was put on a pause. On the evening of November 4th, Baidu issued an internal mail saying that Li Mingyuan had a huge private economic exchange with the person in charge of the acquired company because he was involved in the acquisition of a certain project. Li Mingyuan resigned and was approved.
Judging from internal mail, Li Mingyuan’s alleged corruption has not been transferred to the judiciary, but he has resigned. Baidu confirmed the news to Times Jun, but did not comment on it.
This year is the year of Baidu's troubles. With the company's strategic adjustment, Baidu's series of problems have gradually surfaced, and the corruption incident is a large-scale exposure. So far, Baidu's Ethics Committee has announced three anti-corruption actions this year, including senior executives such as Vice President Wang Zhan and Li Mingyuan.
However, within Baidu, Li Mingyuan’s resignation was full of controversy, and many internal employees saw it as a victim of infighting. Different from other executives, Li Mingyuan is an employee cultivated by Baidu himself. He entered Baidu as an intern and he walked all the way. His growth trajectory is inseparable from Baidu. Li Yanhong especially favored this love, which once raised him to one of the Baidu Troikas, but Li Mingyuan did not produce a convincing report card.
Under Baidu's anti-corruption pressure, Li Mingyuan can't escape the fate of being cleaned, and may even trigger shareholder lawsuits. Professor Sun Yuanzhen of Peking University Law School said to Times Jun:
As a listed company, Baidu is obliged to make a detailed explanation and explanation to the shareholders on this matter. As for whether to prosecute Li Mingyuan, it needs to be decided by the procuratorate according to the specific investigation evidence.
——Shen Yuan, Professor of Peking University Law School
After a series of public opinion crises, Baidu and Li Yanhong are making changes: in the latest business map, artificial intelligence is promoted to the highest level, O2O, iQiyi and other packages that need to burn money are expected to be stripped or sold, and prepared The medical promotion business that was criticized was implemented in accordance with the regulations of the Internet Advertising New Deal, even if it paid the price of the decline in revenue.
"Baidu's good and bad, credit and guilty should be me." When Li Yanhong realized this, Baidu has already been on the road to change, but the success of marketing to Hailong is not correct. It is worth pondering whether Baidu under Li Yanhong has gone to the point where it is hard to return. In the short term, it is difficult for artificial intelligence to make a "meaningful" contribution. What does Baidu rely on to get out of the crisis of trust crisis?
Anti-corruption into deep water
On the evening of November 4th, Baidu issued an internal mail saying that Li Mingyuan, the vice president, had a huge amount of economic transactions with the person in charge of the acquired company because he was involved in the acquisition of a certain project. Li Mingyuan resigned and was approved.
According to Baidu’s internal mail, Li Mingyuan’s resignation has three reasons:
In the acquisition of a company's acquisition project, there is a huge amount of economic transactions with the person in charge of the acquired company;
Within the scope of the business it manages, there is a huge amount of economic transactions with the head of a game partner;
At the same time, Li Mingyuan's external investment company has a business relationship with Baidu and has not reported it according to the company system.
However, things have not ended yet. Li Mingyuan immediately voiced in a circle of friends, saying that he did not have any corruption, although there were economic exchanges but not improper economic exchanges. "Before I was in Baidu, you blacked me, I can't say anything because of personal emotions." Li Mingyuan's words seem to imply that someone has used this to discredit him.
Baidu is the company with the strongest anti-corruption in BAT this year. On the occasion of this year's "Wei Zexi incident" fermentation, "Zhan of Baidu promotion" Wang Zhan was expelled from Baidu for violating professional ethics, suspected to be related to Baidu game corruption incident; September 18, Baidu Professional Ethics Committee A notification email was sent to all employees, detailing 17 internal violations.
A total of 30 employees were expelled from the report, including one intern and two former employees. The business departments were Baidu Minmei, Baidu Direct Branch, Channel Department, Business Cooperation Promotion Department, Search Product Marketing Department, Baidu. Post bar, mobile distribution and other departments.
Coincidentally, this time, Li Mingyuan also took the initiative to resign due to economic problems involved in game cooperation.
From the information disclosed in this internal mail, the acquisition project involving Li Mingyuan is likely to refer to the holding of 91 wireless. In July 2013, Baidu announced that it would acquire 91 Wireless, a subsidiary of NetDragon Holdings, for a total of US$1.9 billion. Since Baidu was in the midst of a lost period of mobile transformation, it was urgent to obtain a mobile internet ticket, so 19 The high price of billions of dollars, but this price has always exceeded a reasonable level, so it was reported that Baidu acquired 91 wireless or there is a kickback.
It turns out that the distribution channel is not the real entrance to mobile internet. This acquisition does not help Baidu's mobile transformation.
However, the original 91 wireless CEO Hu Zemin has responded that Baidu was informed after the acquisition of 91. Hu Zemin said that the leader of the acquisition was Tang Hesong, who was in charge of Baidu’s investment department, and Ali also gave a high price of $1.86 billion.
According to the Industrial and Commercial Information System, Li Mingyuan is currently the legal representative of 12 companies and invests in 9 companies. There are 19 companies in total, mainly in the technology promotion and application service industries. It is understood that Li Mingyuan does have a lot of personal investment outside Baidu, and there is a conflict of interest with Baidu. His explanation is too weak.
What is even more interesting now is whether Li Mingyuan will be transferred to the judiciary. Sun Yuanzhang, a professor at Peking University Law School, told Time Jun that as a listed company, Baidu is obliged to make a detailed explanation and account of the matter to shareholders. As for whether Li Mingyuan is prosecuted, it needs to be decided by the procuratorate according to the specific investigation evidence.
Infant victim
Li Mingyuan’s resignation triggered a shock in the industry because he was always regarded as the successor of Li Yanhong, and the outside world even dubbed him “Li Taiziâ€. Within Baidu, Li Mingyuan, who has a good ability, has received a lot of high praise. Many employees are still willing to defend him after he resigns. He believes that Li Mingyuan is unlikely to do this kind of thing.
Li Yanhong’s favor with this love is not without reason. In 2004, Li Mingyuan entered Baidu as an intern and served as the first product manager of Baidu Post Bar. Under the leadership of Yu Jun, the father of Post Bar, he gained unprecedented growth. In just one year, the amount of traffic posted in Baidu increased from 1% to 11%. Later, he also participated in Baidu’s knowledge, Baidu Encyclopedia, etc. Projects, these projects are still the key products of Baidu. In the eyes of Yu Jun, Li Mingyuan is a person who can do anything successfully.
In 2009, Li Mingyuan left Baidu and announced that he joined UCWeb as vice president of products. However, under the tide of mobile internet, Baidu did not need to complete the mobile transformation. Li Yanhong recalled this love again and gave him maximum power.
In 2013, 30-year-old Li Mingyuan was promoted to vice president of Baidu and became the youngest vice president in Baidu history. In July of the following year, he was promoted to E-staff and entered Baidu's power center.
However, Li Mingyuan of "Second Palace" does not seem to have a good prescription for Baidu's illness. In addition to the above-mentioned 91 wireless acquisition case, the mobile business group under the leadership of Li Mingyuan did not hand over a beautiful transcript. After returning to Baidu, he cut off the mobile project that is similar to the chicken ribs, while focusing on the development of mobile search and mobile browser. Forward-looking products such as Baidu Cloud, but these have not contributed much to Baidu's mobileization.
In addition, Li Mingyuan also launched a wave of "light application", hoping to aggregate all application developers to create Baidu's mobile Internet ecosystem, but did not achieve the explosion as expected, and finally ended badly.
It is worth noting that Li Mingyuan is also responsible for the commercialization of Baidu maps, of which O2O is the top priority. After Li Yanhong put forward the concept of "connecting people and services", Baidu's glutinous rice and take-out have been exerted, and they have received a blessing of 20 billion yuan. However, it is well known that with the adjustment of Baidu's business strategy, O2O has gradually been marginalized, and the news about Baidu's glutinous rice and take-away package sales is endless.
Some insiders told Times Jun that the development of Baidu maps has lagged behind the development of the times. Under the era of mobile Internet, which emphasizes the deep learning of artificial intelligence, Baidu maps still use the old methods of panoramic collection vehicles and riding collection vehicles. Does not meet the trend of online maps. According to Times Jun, Gaode Maps began collecting data in crowdsourced ways a few years ago, and completed the collection task in the form of big data mining.
In April of this year, Li Mingyuan began to slip from the peak of power. In Baidu's new round of business restructuring, he originally reported to Li Yanhong directly, and turned to report to Hailong. Although he retained the position of vice president, the signal of power reduction was very clear.
Li Yanhong also did not forget to settle Li Mingyuan in his internal letter, calling him "a young manager trained by Baidu himself" and leading MSG (Mobile Services Group) to make a great contribution on the road of mobile transformation.
However, this adjustment triggered the internal drama of Baidu. Baidu established Baidu search company in this restructuring, and appointed senior vice president of the company to Hailong as the president of the new company. At the same time, he also served as general manager of the search business group (SSG) and vice president of the company, which inspired Li Mingyuan and Xiang Hailong. Contradictions.
Although the surface is calm, the two have been familiar with internal employees for many years in Baidu's infighting. Many Baidu employees have told Yuan Jun that Li Mingyuan is undoubtedly the victim of this infighting.
Between Li Mingyuan and Xiang Hailong, Li Yanhong chose the latter. This is unexpected, but it is reasonable. From the perspective of revenue, the mobile search business led by Hailong has brought ample cash flow to Baidu, while Li Mingyuan’s mobile Internet transformation and O2O business have not seen results, and the status of the two is high, especially in recent years. Baidu tends to stagnate in business innovation, and revenue indicators even overwhelm the “simple and dependable†values, which led to the outbreak of the “Weize Xixi†incident.
Pragmatist
Li Ming will stay away from it and will not end Baidu’s anti-corruption drama. On the contrary, as the crisis deepens, Baidu’s internal problems will be further amplified.
Interestingly, Baidu always publishes anti-corruption news every time before and after the financial report, this time is no exception. On October 28, Baidu announced its third-quarter earnings report. Baidu's total revenue was RMB 18.253 billion, down 0.7% from the same period of last year. This is the first time in Baidu history that “negative growth†has occurred.
In front of Li Yanhong, Baidu’s 90% revenue comes from online advertising promotion, and new businesses such as artificial intelligence cannot change this situation in the short term. In the analyst conference call, Li Yanhong also admitted that artificial intelligence-related technologies may not be able to contribute "meaningful" revenue in a few years, which means Baidu still needs to rely on advertising business to transfuse new business in the short term.
At present, Baidu's main source of income is advertising revenue. The industries that contribute the most to revenue are medical, local services, education, retail, real estate and home improvement. Due to the impact of the new Internet advertising policy, Baidu's user qualifications will increase, which has caused a lot of blows to revenue. In the third quarter, Baidu’s active online marketing customers were 524,000, a decrease of 70,000 from the previous quarter. This also led Baidu to lower its revenue forecast for the fourth quarter to 4.6%.
Although policy regulation has changed, it is still the area that contributes the most to the company's revenue. He expects that the advertising revenue of Baidu's medical industry will increase in the fourth quarter, and the impact of the search business will bottom out.
—— Baidu Chief Financial Officer Li Wei
It is worth noting that Baidu’s R&D expenditure in the third quarter was RMB 2.614 billion, down 2.8% year-on-year. This is definitely not good news for Baidu, which is making artificial intelligence. In terms of horizontal comparison, Internet companies such as Ali, Tencent, and Huawei have increased their R&D investment in recent years, accounting for no less than 10% of total revenue. Baidu has not explained this issue. It is foreseeable that new businesses such as artificial intelligence will consume a lot of Baidu's cash, and Baidu's painful period has just begun.
From the outside world, Li Yanhong is a good husband, but his personality weakness determines that he is difficult to cope with Baidu, which is currently hard to return. In recent years, the development of Baidu has been smooth, especially after Google has withdrawn from the mainland market. Baidu has hardly encountered too much resistance. The revenue and market value have risen all the way. This makes Li Yanhong, who grew up in the greenhouse environment, lack crisis awareness. Even after the "post bar incident" broke out at the beginning of this year, Li Yanhong insisted that "our values ​​are the best and noble" and we can't see a little reflection.
In the face of questioning the voice, Li Yanhong often has the urge to express, but he is even more afraid that his expression is misunderstood, and even become a weapon to attack Baidu, so he chooses silence, then numbness, and finally becomes lonely.
Ma Yun has Cai Chongxin, Ma Huateng has Zhang Xiaolong, but Li Yanhong lacks such a powerful helper. More often, he is alone. Even if Baidu is suffering from prehistoric trust crisis, no one around him can give correct opinions and has been praised. Surrounded by supported sounds.
Under the guidance of pragmatism, Baidu did not catch up with the development trend of the Internet, missed the best opportunity for cloud computing and O2O, but unwittingly distorted Baidu's values.
Li Yanhong once said in an interview this year that Baidu is very similar to Google. Both of them started as a searcher and also attached great importance to technology. At present, artificial intelligence is also the core strategy of the company, but "more importantly, we are Pragmatists, not idealists."
Li Ming stayed away and went to Hailong, which is also a manifestation of pragmatism. Baidu has made changes, but whether this change can really solve the current problems can only be answered by Li Yanhong himself.
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