20142014 AnnualAnnual ReportReport UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 Form 20-F (Mark One) REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR 12(g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 or ⌧ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. or TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 For the transition period from to or SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 Date of event requiring this shell company report Commission file number: 000-51469 Baidu, Inc. (Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter) N/A (Translation of Registrant’s name into English) Cayman Islands (Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization) Baidu Campus No. 10 Shangdi 10th Street Haidian District, Beijing 100085 The People’s Republic of China (Address of principal executive offices) Jennifer Xinzhe Li, Chief Financial Officer Telephone: +(86 10) 5992-8888 Email: [email protected] Facsimile: +(86 10) 5992-0000 Baidu Campus No. 10 Shangdi 10th Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100085 The People’s Republic of China (Name, Telephone, Email and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person) Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: Title of Each Class Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered American depositary shares (ten American depositary shares representing one Class A The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC ordinary share, par value US$0.00005 per share) (The NASDAQ Global Select Market) Class A ordinary shares, par value US$0.00005 per share* The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (The NASDAQ Global Select Market) * Not for trading, but only in connection with the listing on The NASDAQ Global Select Market of American depositary shares. Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None (Title of Class) Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act: None (Title of Class) Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the Issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report. 27,613,315 Class A ordinary shares and 7,492,921 Class B ordinary shares, par value US$0.00005 per share, as of December 31, 2014. Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ⌧ No If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yes No ⌧ Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ⌧ No Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ⌧ No Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one): Large accelerated filer ⌧ Accelerated filer Non-accelerated filer Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing: U.S. GAAP ⌧ International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Other Standards Board If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. Item 17 Item 18 If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes No ⌧ (APPLICABLE ONLY TO ISSUERS INVOLVED IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS) Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court. Yes No TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION 1 PART I 2 Item 1. Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisers 2 Item 2. Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable 2 Item 3. Key Information 2 Item 4. Information on the Company 40 Item 4A. Unresolved Staff Comments 75 Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects 75 Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees 100 Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions 109 Item 8. Financial Information 110 Item 9. The Offer and Listing 111 Item 10. Additional Information 113 Item 11. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 121 Item 12. Description of Securities Other than Equity Securities 122 PART II 124 Item 13. Defaults, Dividend Arrearages and Delinquencies 124 Item 14. Material Modifications to the Rights of Security Holders and Use of Proceeds 124 Item 15. Controls and Procedures 124 Item 16A. Audit Committee Financial Expert 124 Item 16B. Code of Ethics 125 Item 16C. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 125 Item 16D. Exemptions from the Listing Standards for Audit Committees 125 Item 16E. Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers 125 Item 16F. Change in Registrant’s Certifying Accountant 126 Item 16G. Corporate Governance 126 Item 16H. Mine Safety Disclosure 126 PART III 126 Item 17. Financial Statements 126 Item 18. Financial Statements 126 Item 19. Exhibits 126 SIGNATURES 134 i INTRODUCTION In this annual report, except where the context otherwise requires and for purposes of this annual report only: • “we,” “us,” “our company,” “our,” or “Baidu” refers to Baidu, Inc., its subsidiaries, and, in the context of describing our operations and consolidated financial information, our consolidated affiliated entities in China, including but not limited to Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co., Ltd., or Baidu Netcom; • “user traffic” or “traffic” refers generally to page views and the reach of a website, with “page views” measuring the number of web pages viewed by internet users over a specified period of time except that multiple page views of the same page viewed by the same user on the same day are counted only once, and “reach” measuring the number of internet users and typically expressed as the percentage of all internet users who visit a given website; • “China” or “PRC” refers to the People’s Republic of China, and solely for the purpose of this annual report, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau; • “shares” or “ordinary shares” refers to our ordinary shares, which include both Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares; • “ADSs” refers to our American depositary shares, and we effected a change of the ADS to Class A ordinary share ratio from 1 ADS representing 1 Class A ordinary share to 10 ADSs representing 1 Class A ordinary share on May 12, 2010, which has the same effect as a 10-for-1 ADS split; • “U.S. GAAP” refers to generally accepted accounting principles in the United States; • “RMB” or “Renminbi” refers to the legal currency of China; • “$,” “dollars,” “US$” or “U.S. dollars” refers to the legal currency of the United States; and • all discrepancies in any table between the amounts identified as total amounts and the sum of the amounts listed therein are due to rounding. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This annual report on Form 20-F contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “future,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: • our growth strategies; • our future business development, results of operations and financial condition; • our ability to attract and retain users and customers and generate revenue and profit from our customers; • our ability to retain key personnel and attract new talent; • competition in the internet search, online marketing and other businesses in which we engage; • the outcome of ongoing or any future litigation, including those relating to intellectual property rights; and 1 • PRC governmental regulations and policies relating to the internet and internet search providers and to the implementation of a corporate structure involving variable interest entities in China. We would like to caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and you should read these statements in conjunction with the risk factors disclosed in “Item 3D. Key Information—Risk Factors.” Those risks are not exhaustive. We operate in a rapidly evolving environment. New risks emerge from time to time and it is impossible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statement.