First-line | Baidu Trembles: The Next Wave of Internet Dividends is "Interconnection"

Tencent News "Frontline" Zhang Yudian

On December 16, at the 2021 Baidu Alliance Summit with the theme of "Open Ecology, Everything Has AI", Shen Ji, executive vice president of Baidu Group, said that the next wave of dividends of China's Internet is interconnection, Baidu firmly supports and embraces interconnection, and advocates demolishing the "walled garden" and rebuilding the open Internet.

Shen Jidek said in reviewing the development of China's mobile Internet that the past 10 years are both 10 years of gain and 10 years of loss. With 10 years of rapid development, China's mobile Internet user scale and industrial scale are leading the world. But at the same time, the originally open Internet has been completely closed in the mobile era, and "walled gardens" are lined up. At present, the opportunity for China's Internet to restart the vitality engine is interconnection. Connectivity is not about picking up the pieces, but about reopening a game in the technology dividend.

In September 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a meeting to rectify the behavior of blocking external links. Shen Jitter believes that this is a historical moment when the Internet is once again moving towards interconnection. Promoting interconnection not only conforms to social conditions and public opinion, but also defends the public interest, and also conforms to the general trend of Internet development. Interconnection is an inevitable choice for the high-quality development of the Internet industry and the only way for the construction of national information infrastructure.

Shen Jitter believes that interconnection is not only traffic interconnection, but also technical and ecological interconnection. In the era of interconnection, three levels of changes will occur: First, the traffic level, users can freely access the third-party information and services they need on any platform, and the content and services of the whole network can be more easily indexed and reached, and the shielding and fragmentation will no longer exist. Traffic will become fairer, and good content and services will be easier to spot. The second is the system and ecological level, and the interconnection between various systems and ecology should be achieved. The interconnection in the era of artificial intelligence is not limited to mobile phone systems, for example, Baidu's dialogue-based voice operating system Xiaodu Assistant has been running on different smart terminals such as mobile phones, smart speakers, smart watches, smart headphones, smart cars, etc. Third, at the power level, in the era of interconnection, the underlying driving force of Internet development will no longer be the king of user operation and traffic, but technological innovation. Under the opportunity of interconnection, promoting technological inclusion and better helping traditional enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve digital and intelligent transformation and upgrading is where the greater value of interconnection lies.

Shen Ji said at the meeting that openness is Baidu's innate gene, "Baidu firmly supports and embraces interconnection, and our proposition is to tear down the 'walled garden' and rebuild the open Internet." "Specifically, the first is the open empowerment of infrastructure. By adhering to the openness of Mini Programs, the Baidu Intelligent Mini Program Open Source Alliance already has 84 partners. That is, developing a smart mini program can serve users on at least 84 platforms. The second is the open empowerment of technical capabilities to promote the integration and innovation of the industrial chain. At present, Baidu Brain has opened 335 capabilities to the outside world, and Baidu Flying Propeller has more than 4.06 million developers. The third is the opening and empowerment of the service ecosystem. Baidu mobile ecology has been promoting the strategy of servitization and personalization, and has precipitated a large number of services provided by mini program developers, as well as Baidu self-built services such as Baidu Q&A, Baidu Health Q&A Doctor, as well as a large number of high-quality personalized content. These are currently open to all types of partners through the Baidu Alliance.

Under the empowerment of the three major openings, Baidu's interconnection has also ushered in important progress. Baidu announced the launch of the "Superconductivity Plan", that is, Baidu and a number of leading mobile phone manufacturers jointly explore a new model of Mini Program interconnection. At present, the self-contained browsers of these mobile phone manufacturers can already support the operation of Baidu intelligent mini programs and achieve true interconnection. According to reports, in 2021, the number of Baidu alliance partners increased by 11%, baiqing vine covered more than 1 billion MAU, and the average daily advertising request volume exceeded 58 billion. Baidu Alliance partner revenue will reach a new high, estimated at 21.8 billion.

Baidu Alliance was founded in 2002. Shen Jitter said that Baidu, as the initiator of this alliance, will continue to promote the interconnection of the Internet, take open empowerment as its responsibility and mission, empower technology, services and content with all-round value, and work with industry partners to create a new situation in industrial development.