This time, Shen Ji will be rotated to the ACG business unit, whether it is reused or called, the outside world does not know. In recent years, Baidu's personnel turmoil has led to the resignation of Estaff members such as Xiang Hailong, Liu Hui and Wang Lu. Competent and useful executives are not rich, and Baidu does not have many options in personnel appointments.
The author | slightly larger
Editor| Cheng Yi
WeChat public number: slightly larger reference (ID: hyzibenlun)
On May 5, Baidu Group announced a new round of cadre rotation.
Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li announced in an internal letter that Shen Jitter, executive vice president of the group, served as the head of Baidu's intelligent cloud business group (ACG); He Junjie (Jackson) was promoted to senior vice president of the group and rotated as the head of Baidu's mobile ecological business group (MEG); Wang Haifeng continued to serve as the group's executive vice president and CTO, and no longer concurrently served as the head of the ACG.
After this personnel adjustment, Baidu Executive Vice President Shen Jian took over Baidu's intelligent cloud business. Wang Haifeng, executive vice president and CTO of Baidu, is no longer the "number one person" of Baidu Intelligent Cloud, and returns to the field of technology research and development, serving as the head of the technology middle office group (TPG) and Baidu Research Institute. The vacancy of the "number one" of the mobile ecological business left by Shen Ji was filled by the promoted He Junjie.
Shen Ji is an executive of Baidu who can fight the war, from leading the transformation of the information flow of the hand hundred to promoting the expansion of the mobile ecological business group from search information to search service. Robin Li once described Shen Shu as "having a strategic vision, daring to fight a hard battle, and being able to win a battle."
As one of Baidu's most popular executives, Shen Ji's position transfer basically shows his career, connecting Baidu's basic disk - mobile search business, and the future - A I business executives. Take into account Baidu's main revenue streams and, most importantly, its future strategy.
Baidu's weight and experience for Shen Shu can be seen.
Li Yanhong said in an internal letter that he expects Shen Ji to lead the ACG team to accelerate the implementation of the cloud-intelligence integration strategy, achieve quantitative change to qualitative change in scale and health, and establish a new merit for the development of Baidu's second curve.
01 Contest
When Shen Ji was still the vice president of Baidu Search, he was publicly questioned.
It was January 2019, the day before the baijia creator event, an article "search engine Baidu is dead" was circulating on the Internet, and the author Could Cheng said that Baidu had become a diversion tool for baijia number, and the characteristics of baijia number were marketing numbers as the main body, the quantity was very large, and the quality was worrying. The spearhead is directed at the mobile business led by Shen Ji.
"A lot of people ask me, did I sleep well last night? I slept really well and was not ashamed. The next day, smiling and in a relaxed tone, no different from the usual image of being gentle and elegant to the outside world, but before speaking, he pushed his own glasses frame with his hand. Soon, he spent more of his speaking time promoting Baidu's information flow business.
In a few months, he will take over as Xiang Hailong and officially become the head of Baidu's mobile ecology. Compared to the verbal battle with a media person, that is his real battlefield.
Shen Shu was invited to the battlefield by the Sea Dragon.
Before Shen Jilu joined, the Baidu search team led by Xiang Hailong mainly sold ads on the PC side, and in the five years from 2006 to 2011, Baidu's total revenue climbed rapidly from $800 million to $14.5 billion, an increase of 17 times, of which the online advertising business accounted for the largest proportion. That was also the era when the author could become nostalgic and deplorable in the future.
However, with the advent of the mobile Internet era, the old model is no longer enough to support the future of the company, and Xiang Hailong has found Shen Shu. Shen Ji had explained the meaning of his name to the outside world, and he was always energetic, just like his future performance in the business world.
In 2007, after graduating from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with a Ph.D., Shen Ji first worked at Microsoft for three years, and then started a business for two years, his business was closely centered on information search and computing advertising, the public opinion monitoring platform founded, and was also acquired by the largest merchant content and advertising provider in the United States at that time.
In 2012, Shen Jiao returned to China as the director of Baidu's search business, and he was in the same position as Wu Haifeng, who had been here for six years. Also occurring in 2012, Zhang Yiming released the first version of today's headline APP.
Four years later, in 2016, Shen Ji and Wu Haifeng led the launch of the "Baijia" and "Bear Paw" respectively, and the Baijia won, and in May of the following year, they became the vice president of Baidu Search. This means that Baidu is going to enter the information flow business, and at this time, today's headlines have gathered 600 million activated users, in this information platform that has no social function, the average daily use time of users has been second only to WeChat, and in the future, it will also use a steady stream of traffic milk a large number of byte products, one of which is Douyin.
Shen Shu was placed more expectations and pressures.
Although Shen Ji was still subordinate to Xiang Hailong at this time, he could report directly to Lu Qi, the CEO of Baidu at the time and was regarded as Robin Li's successor at the time, and at the 2017 Baidu World Congress, Shen Ji's appearance was also personally introduced by Lu Qi. Robin Li also began to pay close attention to Shen Shu. Sometimes, he would call Shen Shu to inquire about business, and even moved his office into the office area of Shen Ji's team at one point.
Shen Ji did not disappoint internally, in the quarter of his appointment, Baidu's revenue increased by 14.3% year-on-year, and net profit increased by 82.9% year-on-year; of which mobile revenue accounted for 72%, higher than 62% in the same period last year; as of June of that year, Baidu Information Flow daily active users had exceeded 100 million, resulting in an increase in advertising revenue of up to 200%.
In contrast to the shivering heat, Xiang Hailong was cold.
Since 2017, the rumors of Xiang Hailong's departure have begun to ferment internally, and insiders have revealed that Xiang Hailong has been emptied of personnel and financial rights, and Baidu's top level believes that Baidu has not been able to maintain the advantage of search in the mobile ecology, and is mainly responsible for Xiang Hailong, whose position is precarious, and even at an internal meeting, the first sentence after Xiang Hailong sat down was: First tell everyone a message, I will not leave.
Xiang Hailong's last victory left for Baidu was the Spring Festival Gala in 2019. At the Spring Festival Gala that year, he vigorously sponsored the Spring Festival Gala, pulled the Daily Activity of Baidu APP from 160 million to 300 million, and led the team to win the internal "Major Breakthrough Award", but a few months later, Baidu's first quarter financial report showed that its first quarter loss was 327 million yuan, which meant that Baidu achieved its first loss in ten years of listing.
Xiang Hailong eventually left, and Shen Shu became his successor. In his internal letter, Robin Li constantly emphasized Shen Shu's ability and future, and thanked Xiang Hailong, a veteran who has followed him for more than ten years.
02 Top
A week before Xiang Hailong 'left's posting', he was also looking forward to the future at the Baidu Alliance Ecological Partner Conference. Xiang Hailong has made significant contributions to the sales of businesses such as managing bidding rankings, but in the era of "content looking for people", Baidu needs talents like Shen Ji more who understand the mobile Internet.
At that time, Baidu was worried about internal and external troubles. ByteDance and information flow content strongly impacted Baidu's ancient search model, Baidu's cash cow advertising industry declined, and data released by CTR showed that in the first quarter of 2019, the domestic advertising industry fell by 15% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2019, Baidu suffered losses for the first time in 14 years since its listing. The pillar business's online marketing revenue increased by only 3%, and the advertising industry was not in a recession at that time, but in the same quarter, Alibaba, Tencent, and Weibo's advertising revenue all maintained double-digit growth.
Shen Shu, who was promoted, came to fight a hard battle. When he took over, Baidu pursued the strategy of "investment for growth", spending 1.9 billion yuan to sponsor the Spring Festival Gala red envelope, and the annual traffic acquisition cost reached 3.2 billion, an increase of 40% year-on-year. Robin Li said in an internal letter: "To win victory in every battlefield that must be won", showing Baidu's determination to "revive".
Today, the daily active activity of today's headlines has exceeded 120 million, with a monthly active of 260 million, and the daily active of Baidu APP is 195 million. What was left to tremble was a formidable enemy and increasingly expensive traffic.
The mobile business group under the leadership of Shen Ji is constantly changing the old model, from the past "people looking for content" search to the "content looking for people" information flow, Baidu APP is also more and more like today's headlines. At the same time, Baidu Mobile also integrates its own business, opens up its business, and around the core of search, Shen Ji has proposed a 2+2+1 ecosystem, which is two platforms (information distribution, large cultural entertainment), two vertical categories (knowledge vertical category, industry vertical category) and a set of monetization.
At the 2020 Mobile Ecology Conference, Shen Jian handed over a first-year anniversary report card: the monthly active activity of Baidu APP reached 536 million, an increase of 80% year-on-year. The per capita usage time increased by 30%, the number of services increased by more than 30%, and the number of monthly active users of smart Mini Programs reached 500 million.
After a year at the helm of Baidu's mobile ecosystem, Shen Ji put the live broadcast business as a priority.
In March 2020, Baidu launched a live broadcast function in the Baijia platform and recruited a large number of live broadcast related positions. Two months later, at the 2020 Baidu Mobile Ecology Conference, Shen Ji said that in the second half of the year, Baidu will take live broadcasting as the key development direction. A few days later, Robin Li personally stood on the platform and staged his live broadcast debut on Baidu Live. Prior to this, Robin Li's own platform AI, driverless and other businesses were Baidu's key bet business, and personally station live broadcast showed that Baidu attaches great importance to live broadcast business.
Since then, Baidu Live has continuously launched various initiatives to promote the development of live broadcasting business, including self-made programs, traffic support, cash subsidies, etc. In June of the same year, Gu Feng, the founder of Huya, joined Baidu as the head of live broadcasting. Baidu also built a live broadcast middle platform.
While betting on live broadcasting, Baidu also optimized the short video ecology. In September 2020, Baidu completed its strategic investment in Chongqing Muyun Culture, an MCN institution, and in November 2020, Baidu integrated Good Looking Video with National Small Video to establish a short video business department.
Baidu Live's initial positioning was knowledge live broadcasting, but many of Baidu's actions were towards live streaming and show live broadcasting. In November 2020, Baidu spent its biggest fortune since its inception for live streaming: the acquisition of YY Live, with a total transaction value of about $3.1 billion. In April 2021, Baidu invited the famous host Li Weijia to open a live broadcast on Baidu Live, with a live broadcast of 5 hours and a GMV of 130 million.
But the hugely funded video content ecology has come bad news in less than two years. In December 2021, according to pulse users and a number of media broke the news, Baidu's MEG department launched layoffs, of which the live broadcast business is the hardest hit area of layoffs, the number of layoffs is as high as 90%, and Cao Xiaodong, who is responsible for the live broadcast business, will also leave.
With market and regulatory headwinds, the entire live streaming industry is facing a cold winter. Douyu lost money for five consecutive quarters, and the live broadcast department of Station B was exposed to layoffs, but it was the Huanju Group that dumped YY to achieve annual profitability for the first time. Baidu live broadcasts and videos are also getting less and less action and news.
However, the Baidu mobile ecosystem under the leadership of Shen Ji have achieved good growth, and the latest financial report shows that in December 2021, Baidu APP monthly active reached 622 million, an increase of 350% compared with 174 million before Shen Jidder took over the mobile business group. The online marketing revenue with the largest business relationship managed by Shen Jidun was 74 billion yuan, an increase of 12% year-on-year, temporarily out of the downward trend for many consecutive years.
03
Baidu's transfer of Shen Ji to the head of the Intelligent Cloud Business Group (ACG) is not yet known whether it is dissatisfaction with the failure of the old business to meet the standards, or to build a second growth curve.
Just a month and a half ago, Shen Ji just preached to Tencent's "Deep Web" and other media, the great reform of Baidu's sales system, and emphasized the importance of this change for diversified commercialization. Now, the results of the adjustment are not yet known, and Shen Ji has been transferred to the cloud business.
Li Yanhong said in an internal letter that he expects Shen Ji to lead the ACG team to accelerate the implementation of the cloud-intelligence integration strategy, achieve quantitative change to qualitative change in scale and health, and establish a new merit for the development of Baidu's second curve.
The growth story of the mobile Internet is nearing the end, and Baidu's life is not good. In the fourth quarter of last year, Baidu's advertising business recorded the slowest growth rate, an increase of only 1% year-on-year. The full-year performance is also not optimistic, with revenue of 124.5 billion yuan and net profit of about 10.2 billion yuan, less than half of 2020.
Traffic peaked, advertising business growth slowed down, and Baidu's growth pressure was great, which can be seen.
In fact, at the beginning of last year, Shen Ji led Baidu's mobile life business group to transform and put forward the mobile ecological X+Y strategy, that is, "horizontally expand the scale of users, vertically deepen the industry vertically".
In some key industries, Baidu should go deep into the closed loop of industrial construction services through self-construction, such as big health, live broadcast, short video, education and other fields. Baidu App announced the upgrade of slogan, from "there is something to search, nothing to see", to a new "Baidu, life is better".
Baidu from search information to search services, to the local life field march, Shen Ji said that search is not only connected to information, but also connected to services, Baidu App has changed from a tool to obtain information, into a mobile ecology with service capabilities, the needs behind every search behavior of users, Baidu must try to meet.
In 2016, Baidu's advertising revenue accounted for 94% of total revenue. Over the past few years, baidu's advertising business has been declining, and by 2021, the proportion of advertising revenue in total revenue will drop to 58%. The diversification strategy has paid off, and artificial intelligence and autonomous driving have begun to pay off.
But obviously, Baidu All in AI strategy, want to exchange for much more than that. Robin Li set a goal last year: with the growth of artificial intelligence business, Baidu's non-advertising revenue will exceed advertising revenue in the next three years.
The reality of Baidu's ambition is that Baidu's cloud business has always been in the second echelon.
According to the data released by Zhiyan Consulting, Alibaba Cloud remains ahead, ranking first in the cloud market in 2021, HUAWEI CLOUD and Tencent Cloud ranked second and third, and Baidu AI Cloud ranked fourth.
But this fourth place, the gap with the top three is not small. According to the IDC report, Alibaba Cloud's market share in the third quarter of 2021 was 38.24%, ranking first; Tencent Cloud's market share was 10.92%, ranking second; HUAWEI CLOUD's market share was 10.74%, ranking third, and Baidu Intelligent Cloud was in the second echelon of the cloud market with a market share of 3.97%.
This time, Shen Ji will be rotated to the ACG business unit, whether it is reused or called, the outside world does not know. In recent years, Baidu's personnel turmoil has led to the resignation of Estaff members such as Xiang Hailong, Liu Hui and Wang Lu. Competent, good-working executives aren't lucrative.
Compared with the past Baidu lightspeed to promote Li Mingyuan, arrange airborne soldier Li called the beast, the cultivation and training of Shen Shu is still restrained. Shen Shu's road to promotion needs more proof of achievements.