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RECRUIT ClassifiedClassified JobsJobs 1801800-289-99880-289-99888 www.cats.com.sg/recruitww w.cats.com.sg/recruiit Executive Appointments 1800-289-8822 The search for success Necessity is the mother of all invention. nine million Internet users – and the rest, as “I like this technology of allowing people to No one knows this better than Robin Li, as his they say, is history. get more information. This thing happens to hunger for information has not only enabled The reason behind the name be in great demand and I am just lucky it is often starts with him to create something wonderful, it has also so profitable.” changed the lifestyle and behaviour of an Baidu offers a Chinese-language search engine entire generation of people in China. for websites, audio files and images, and Ask him what his secret of success is and he 57 search and community services. These would say that one must work for love and not Mr Li is the man behind Baidu – China’s include Baidu Baike, an online encyclopedia money. “The goal of my career is not to make foremost search engine. As someone who collaboratively built by users, and a discussion money. I just work from the heart.” was born into a working class family, he knew forum that is searchable by keywords. first-hand how trying it could be to gain But few know what “Baidu” (pronounced as And indeed, it is true that behind every access to information. Indeed, he even “By-Doo”) means. The term was derived from successful man is a woman. Mr Li first met resorted to an unorthodox way just to satisfy a line in Xin Qiji’s classical poem “Green Jade his wife Melissa Ma Dongmin in 1995 at a his thirst for knowledge. Table in The Lantern Festival”. get-together arranged for Chinese students in the States. The two hit it off instantly and got By Belinda Wan During middle school, Mr Li spent much of Mr Li shared: “Many people have asked about married in just six months. They have four [email protected] his time at the library. As it was only open to the meaning of our name. ‘Baidu’ was inspired factory workers like his parents then, he had to by a poem written more than 800 years ago children together. He said it was his wife who borrow his dad’s identity card every time, during the Song Dynasty. The poem compares inspired him to be a successful Chinese Internet and pretend to be him. In an interview with the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic entrepreneur. He often tells people that he is who Bloomberg West, Mr Li said: “In the early days, glamour with the search for one’s dream while he is today because he is “pushed by Melissa”. I really felt the pain of not being able to find confronted by life’s many obstacles.” information easily. I guess that helped me Mr Li knows Baidu is threatened by increasing to develop an urge to write things like a The poem goes something like this: “Hundreds competition, especially from foreign companies, search engine.” and thousands of times, for her I searched in and even welcomes it: “It is good to have chaos, suddenly, I turned by chance, to where competition because the market grows very Baidu hardly needs any introduction in China. the lights were waning, and there she stood.” rapidly. If there is competition, everyone will It is to the country what Google is to the world. One can therefore surmise that Baidu, which become more competitive. We will be of a Born on 17 November, 1968 in the city of literally means hundreds of times, represents higher standard.” Yangquan in Shanxi Province, the second- a persistent search for the ideal. To date, it has youngest out of five children and the only male, lived up to it and more. He also stated: “If you are a big company, a big Mr Li came from a poor family. His parents website, and lots of users come to your website, worked at a local factory in an underdeveloped In 2007, it became the first Chinese company you will have attacks, and you have to deal to be included in the NASDAQ-100 Index. As of locality. But his mother never stopped with that. It just cannot be a reason to take 2014, Baidu dominates a whopping 80 per cent encouraging him to aim for a better life and actions to exit certain markets.” to get there, he had to be well educated. of the search market in China, churning out US$500 million in the third quarter of 2013. “When we compete with US internet After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree With an estimated net worth of $11.8 billion, companies, we will be able to achieve more in Information Management from Peking Mr Li is number three on among mainland innovation. But our path is not that we are University, and getting a Master of Science Chinese on the 2014 billionaire’s list. degree from the University at Buffalo, The State going to attack the US market. In the US market University of New York, Mr Li started working Loves his work there are very strong Internet companies. But as an engineer at Infoseek, a search-engine An article on The Australian quotes him saying: there are other countries without a very strong company in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. “When I decided to set up the business, I knew market – Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia have our if I was successful I would make a lot of money. presence,” he said to The Australian. Despite the lack of opportunities amid the But I sleep late not because I want to make a dot-com bubble, Mr Li decided to set up Baidu lot of money. I really enjoy the work. I enjoy it. “In the years to come we will surely go out back in China, at a time when there were only I don’t really enjoy doing business.” and operate in other countries.” Photo: Bloomberg.

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