Go 'glocal,' says Baidu, but in a smart way

Zhang Yaqin, president of Baidu Inc, speaks at the global business forum during Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2016 held in Beijing, on Sept 2, 2016. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc seems to be dazzling the world nonstop.

Robin Li, its chairman and chief executive, announced "Baidu Brain" on Thursday during Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2016 held in Beijing, the core of the tech company's plans on artificial intelligence, which consists of three parts - artificial intelligence algorithms, computing power and big data.

The next day, at the global business forum during the same event, Baidu's President Zhang Yaqin said the company's revenue coming from its global business has more than quintupled by September from a year earlier, but did not disclose the exact number.

Baidu's globalization, along with "Baidu Brain", is the next big vision for the company, said Zhang. "During the process, we will choose the right country, the right products and technologies, and the right business model."

"We prefer populous emerging markets where the prospect of mobile internet is huge. There we will recruit local talent, cooperate with local enterprises, respect local culture, and abide by local laws and regulations," he added. "That's what we call 'Global Technology, Local Partnership'."

Zhang said that in the next five years, AI technologies, including machine learning, will be more deeply embedded in all products to better utilize Baidu's know-how and show the world a smarter global drive.

According to Hu Yong, general manager of Baidu's global business unit, the company's mobile internet products have taken foothold in more than 200 countries and regions, with 1.6 billion overseas users, of which 300 million are active monthly.

Hu Yong, general manager of Baidu's global business unit, speaks at the global business forum during Baidu Technology Innovation Conference 2016 held in Beijing, on Sept 2. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Meanwhile, DU Ad Platform, or DAP, the company's global mobile advertising platform, has connected more than 1,400 developers, with 1.5 billion daily ad requests, which has facilitated tech startups go global.

"Currently, our main battlefield is Southeast Asia and Latin America, like Indonesia and Brazil. And we are also tapping into developed nations such as Japan and the United States," said Hu.

He said creating real value is the only way to attract users and retain them. "With users, we can capitalize and continue to grow."

The number of Chinese internet companies going overseas has been surging since 2015, with a year-on-year growth of 214 percent by September this year, according to Baidu, which did not reveal this number. However, a report jointly released by iResearch and baijingapp.com shows that domestic tech firms going global reached more than 6000 with over 11,000 mobile apps by August.

"Tooling products would be the easiest, thus the first choice, for a Chinese tech company to tap overseas markets," said Tang Cailin, product director of Baidu's global business unit. "The next is content-based or social-networking products, which involve more efforts on localization."

"The best time has come for Chinese internet companies to go global, and there are lots of opportunities out there," Hu noted. "But the first step is to survive. For that, we need to have really sharp eyes."