Ma Dongmin (English name: Melissa Ma), a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, a doctor of biology, Baidu CEO Robin Li, graduated from the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China, graduated at the age of 19 and went abroad, and was known as the "princess" in the circle of international students in New York. I met Robin Li when he was studying in the United States (Department of Biology, University of New Jersey, USA).
Meet and know Robin Li
Everyone's first impression of Ma Dongmin may come from the fact that she is Robin Li's wife. Indeed, Ma Dongmin's life trajectory and now from behind the scenes to the front of Baidu are inextricably linked to Robin Li.
As a student in the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China, Ma Dongmin studied abroad after graduating at the age of 19. One day in April 1995, I met Robin Li unexpectedly at a gathering of international students in New York. Regarding the scene at that time, Ma Dongmin once recalled in an article:
When I first met Robin Li, he was an obscure migrant worker on Wall Street, and soon after he stepped into Silicon Valley, working as a senior researcher at Infoseek. At that time, I was doing my Ph.D. in biology at the University of New Jersey. At a gathering of Chinese students, Robin Li and I met.
Robin Li really caught my attention because of his enthusiasm. Every time he finds a piece of useful information, he will post it to a newsgroup frequented by international students to share with netizens. One of them happened to be what I was looking for, so I emailed him to ask. Robin Li mentioned his impression of me in passing when he replied to the email, and used three words to describe me: charming, knowledgeable, and generous, which made me secretly happy in my heart for a long time.
Robin Li is the kind of man who has become a blockbuster if he doesn't speak, he doesn't like to talk, and he gets to the point when he says it, which makes people have to be convinced. He was also a very decisive man, and after we met twice, he launched a strong offensive against me. I was overwhelmed by Robin Li's passionate love, and I decided to get married six months later. Our wedding was scheduled for October 10, 1995, and it couldn't have been easier. On the one hand, I'm about to graduate and don't have time to plan my wedding; On the other hand, we feel that there are many details of personal happiness that cannot be shared by others. ”
The combination of Ma Dongmin and Robin Li, in the eyes of outsiders, is almost a young person's pursuit of love innocence, without too much exaggeration and banter. From the current point of view, the wedding held by Robin Li and Ma Dongmin on October 10, 1995 seems extremely simple. When the two parties got married, the only dress was "a pink gauze skirt suitable for summer" and "an old suit", and the wedding was so simple that there was no church, no wedding banquet, and "shabby" so that they just found a judge to confirm it.
Gave birth to Baidu
After getting married, Ma Dongmin followed Robin Li to Silicon Valley, where she found a job in a high-tech company, and at that time Robin Li was in Infoseek, a well-known search engine company in Silicon Valley, and soon became an outstanding expert in the field of information search, and then owned more than 700,000 options of a Wall Street Jones subsidiary, as well as luxury villas and famous cars, everything seemed to be almost happy.
In fact, during his eight years abroad, Robin Li saw first-hand the infinite success of Infoseek in the stock market and the subsequent bleakness, at a time when China's Internet industry was undergoing earth-shaking changes. Since 1995, Robin Li has returned to China every year for inspection, and decided to return to China to start a business in 1999. "On the road of life choices, I don't seem to have a very smooth process, but I am faced with some choices." Robin Li said. In this process, Ma Dongmin played an extremely important driving role.
Robin Li once said: "My wife has a great influence on me. She is an impatient person who will act immediately when she makes a decision, while I am a chronic person who thinks carefully before doing it. Our personalities are complementary. Before I returned to China to start my own business, I worked as an engineer in Silicon Valley, and I felt that I was very happy to grow flowers and plants. But my wife encouraged me to join the company. That's when I wanted to be bigger and take control of the direction. Therefore, returning to China to start a business is the most suitable choice. But this is a challenge for her, and girls who go abroad generally prefer a foreign environment. But for the sake of my career, she resolutely returned to China to support me, which was not easy. ”
Ma Dongmin has higher "requirements" for her husband. She believes that Robin Li is a top expert in the field of information technology and should start his own business. His wife's words stimulated Robin Li's inner passion for entrepreneurship, and Baidu was born.
Every node is fully engaged
From the determination of Baidu's early entrepreneurial direction to the gradual entry into the right track, Ma Dongmin's full participation is actually indispensable in the key links of each stage. In order to help her husband find a business goal, Ma Dongmin used the vacation to carefully study Google's search methods and technology platforms, and after the project was determined, when Robin Li was struggling to find a partner, Ma Dongmin recommended an important person to him - Xu Yong. Since then, with the collaboration of partners, Baidu has received its first $1.2 million financing.
In 1999, with the dream of "science and technology changing people's lives", Robin Li returned to China to found Baidu. At the beginning of the company, Baidu was pitifully small, and until the summer of 2001, Baidu's business did not make much progress, and instead of making a profit, it almost "burned" more than $3,000 a day.
On the National Day of 2001, Robin Li's career was at a low point, and he called his wife on the other side of the ocean, tentatively saying: "If you really live a life without a house and a car, can you afford it?" Ma Dongmin didn't say a word, and returned to Beijing the next day to accompany her husband through the difficulties.
Since then, Ma Dongmin has also encouraged Robin Li to engage in bidding rankings. It is said that one day, Robin Li accompanied Ma Dongmin to Wangfujing Street to shop, and saw a long queue at the door of a small shop, and the two walked forward curiously. This method has attracted the attention of many passers-by and has become a trick to attract customers. Ma Dongmin said: "I have an idea to adopt the method of user bidding ranking, which can not only increase the enthusiasm of users, but also increase the company's revenue. This trick made Baidu a profit of $10 million that year, and the number of users increased exponentially.
After Baidu's rapid growth, Ma Dongmin and her husband found a Wall Street stock research expert and confirmed the timing and conditions of Baidu's listing, Baidu was listed on the NASDAQ on August 5, 2005, and Baidu's original stock rose by 353.85%.
The power that has never left and the return of today
Before 2008, Ma Dongmin was in charge of Baidu's government business, and after 2008, Ma Dongmin began to retreat into the background. Ma Dongmin's internal speech at Baidu's director meeting explained the reason for her departure: "After 07, I left Baidu due to physical and family reasons. Extra-party Bolsheviks. For 12 years, I started to invest in the establishment of Family Office for 4 years. It should be said that it was this special experience that made me know Baidu more deeply. ”
Although she has not been working on the front line for nearly a decade, she has still been involved in Baidu's important strategic decisions in recent years. As Ma Dongmin herself said, she has been Robin's life companion for 21 years and a business partner for 16 years. Baidu is one of the most important parts of her life.
Ma Dongmin's return to Baidu this time was recommended by Ren Xuyang, a veteran of Baidu's entrepreneurship. A sense of crisis and mission is the reason for her return, and she wants the opportunity to stand on the front line and work for Baidu. And her last time she joined Baidu, she was also recommended by others, and the recommender was Zhang Lei, who was a Baidu consultant at the time, because she was virtuous and did not avoid relatives. Zhang Lei thus became Ma Dongmin's first boss. After many years, Ma Dongmin still clearly remembers the time when he worked with Zhang Lei and the GR team.
Although Ma Dongmin has never appeared directly in front of Baidu, he has actually followed Baidu like a shadow, and subtly exerted his influence through the huge symbol of Robin Li. "Caijing" reported that an investor who is familiar with Ma Dongmin said that his personality and Robin just complement each other, and he used three special to express his good impression of Ma Dongmin - particularly capable, particularly eloquent, and particularly courageous. Another person involved in Ctrip's acquisition of Qunar said that Baidu's sale of Qunar to Ctrip "was ultimately made by Sister Ma."
In 2016, due to a series of events such as hemophilia and the Wei Zexi incident, Baidu's brand was greatly damaged, and there was news that Ma Dongmin would return to Baidu.
Now, Ma Dongmin has really come to the front of the stage, from the most important invisible person behind Baidu to the most important cadre under the spotlight of Baidu. The arrival of Ma Dongmin can be regarded as a key step in Robin's "decentralization". Husbands and wives jointly manage the company, which occasionally appears in start-up companies because of the lack of managers during the start-up period. But there is no precedent for a company of Baidu's size, because large companies often don't have a shortage of managers, and what is most needed is a clear strategic plan, and strategic planning is not always better when more people are involved.
"As Special Assistant to the Chairman, I hope to help the company's strategy be fully implemented in a timely manner from different aspects with my judgment, communication skills, execution skills and my hard working. I hope it's a good bridge between everyone and the company and Robin. Ma Dongmin's internal speech shows her determination, "Everyone still clearly remembers that we were once the No. 1 company in China's Internet market capitalization. In the past four and a half years, there is too much to reflect on what has happened. ”
We will see the more real impact of Ma Dongmin on Baidu, and the next step for Baidu.
Attached Ma Dongmin (Melissa) speaks inside Baidu's director meeting
Good morning, everyone! It is a great honor to participate in Baidu's director meeting again.
Yesterday, the president's office told me that the new VP needs to introduce himself. I was thinking, what should I say, what do people want to hear. I'm emotional. There are too many stories and too many moments, like movie shots flashing through my mind.
I, Ma Dongmin, everyone calls me Melissa, Robin's life companion for 21 years and business partner for 16 years. Baidu is one of the most important parts of my life, and returning to Baidu this time reminds me of my last joining. At that time, Zhang Lei was a consultant at Baidu, and he and Robin said that they would not shy away from relatives. In this way, Zhang Lei became my boss.
I still vividly remember the time when I worked with Zhang Lei and the GR team.
After '07, I left Baidu for health and family reasons. Extra-party Bolsheviks. For 12 years, I started to invest in the establishment of Family Office for 4 years. It should be said that it was this special experience that made me know Baidu more deeply.
This time, I am very grateful to Ren Xuyang for his strong recommendation, and thank Robin and Baidu for their trust, which gave me the opportunity to stand on the front line and work for Baidu. I've been asked why I'm coming back, and I'm going to say why now. I say a sense of crisis and a sense of mission. You still clearly remember that we were once the No. 1 company in China's Internet market capitalization. In the past four and a half years, there is too much to reflect on what has happened.
As Special Assistant to the Chairman, I hope to help the company's strategy be fully implemented in a timely manner from different aspects with my judgment, communication skills, execution skills and my hard working. I hope it's a good bridge between everyone and the company and Robin.
My work habits: I like to analyze and communicate directly and honestly, I like to establish process mechanisms, and I like timeline and deadline. I believe that people are a company's most valuable asset. Hope that talents can realize their dreams on Baidu's platform. In the past month, I have been fighting side by side with all of you, deeply affected and touched, hard and happy.
We have a great era deep in our backs. This era has given us so many opportunities. I believe that Baidu people will not admit defeat. Baidu is an excellent company, we are the pioneer of China's Internet, we have a solid foundation, we have the best talents of China's Internet, and Chinese netizens still have love and hope for Baidu. I hope we reflect on the past, precipitate excellence, and work together to make Baidu go from great to great!