Cover news reporter Meng Mei
At the end of 2015, Baidu Finance was officially established; in April 2018, Baidu Finance was officially split from Baidu, and baidu Finance launched a new brand - Du Xiaoman, to achieve independent operation. From Baidu Finance to Du Xiaoman, from Senior Vice President of Baidu to CEO of Du Xiaoman Finance, Zhu Guang spent three years to come up with cooperation with more than 50 banks and consumer finance companies, with a cumulative loan of 250 billion yuan, serving more than 7 million small and micro business owners, creating a total of more than 5 billion yuan in interest income without partners, and a bright report card with a non-performing rate lower than the industry average.
On November 1, in the gap of the Baidu World Forum, Zhu Guang accepted an exclusive interview with the cover reporter, from Du Xiaoman's business line, to Du Xiaoman's next financing plan, to the popular "management team collapse" and other hot questions to give detailed answers. Zhu Guang said that the financial track is very large, the scene between bats is not the same, the demand is not the same, and the data that everyone has is different. Finance is to solve the problem of data asymmetry, the difference in scenes, the difference in data, resulting in each doing finance is different. Although Baidu did not start too early in the financial field, it also has its own unique advantages, and there is no problem of falling behind, in terms of development, compared with Ali and Tencent, it has its own strengths.
Talk about business: Du Xiaoman is both tob and toc
In the publicly disclosed data, Du Xiaoman not only provided financial services for 7 million small and micro business owners, but also had in-depth expansion in the field of personal consumption services such as education loans, medical beauty loans, and decoration loans.
"We had a consumer finance department at the beginning, and Baidu search itself is a good scene application, not only e-commerce is the scene." Decoration, education, study abroad, and medical beauty are all scenes that Baidu is good at, so we transferred Baidu's very strong AI engineers and model engineers, did a lot of data research, and carried out deep mining in the field of consumer finance. Zhu Guang said that Du Xiaoman Finance currently has a research and development team of more than 1,000 people, and the total amount of loans has reached 250 billion yuan, and more than 30 million yuan are lent every day, especially at the education level. Loans in cooperation with banks basically reach 1 billion per day. "There are both good scenes and good risk control, business architecture, or relying on Baidu scenes, there are real needs, which helps to control risks." In Zhu Guang's view, Du Xiaoman collects the service fee of the bank, in fact, the service is the C-end customer, and Du Xiaoman must understand and understand the needs of financial institutions, but more importantly, understand the needs of the C-end. "Serve the C-side as the core, and at the same time do a good job of asset management for the B-side." It's a two-pronged approach, and it's hard to define whether it's a simple tob or a toc."
According to Zhu Guang, Du Xiaoman is currently basically flat in terms of income. "In the basic areas (research and development) or more investment. In our entire lending, 20% is its own funds, and the rest helps banks manage assets," Zhu Guang said, adding that there are especially many people in third- to fifth-tier cities among Du Xiaoman's customers, of which small and micro business owners account for 30%. "Du Xiaoman is very cautious about putting a lever, generally a loan of tens of thousands of yuan. Help these businesses to turn things around temporarily. Tentative development, the risk of small and micro enterprises themselves is more difficult to control. At present, Du Xiaoman is still based on personal credit in these cities. ”
Talking about financing: $1.9 billion in financing was mainly used to replenish capital without a listing timeline
In April 2018, Du Xiaoman completed a financing of $1.9 billion. Since the direction of the use of the funds has not been disclosed, there is a lot of speculation about the use of the $1.9 billion. In this regard, Zhu Guang also gave a detailed answer. "Du Xiaoman is a small loan license, and the $1.9 billion is now mainly used to supplement the capital, and the rest of the money is used for research and development investment." Zhu Guang revealed that Du Xiaoman's current annual investment in research and development is close to 19 billion yuan, which can basically reach 2 billion yuan in 2019, and the rest of the funds will also do some layout in the future in license investment. "Although the core of Du Xiaoman is financial technology, it also needs to try and innovate in the license, and we hope to cooperate with other financial institutions through participation." Zhu Guang believes that although Du Xiaoman has a fund sales license, as well as an investment in output capacity and output technology, the license investment is an ecology, and Du Xiaoman is definitely willing to participate and establish deeper cooperation with licensed institutions.
For future financing, Zhu Guang clearly stated that there will definitely be financing needs in the future. Now that preparations have begun to prepare for the next round, fintech companies also need more funds to lay out in the future, with a far-reaching layout in the whole value chain of finance, but there are no plans to go public at present. Zhu Guang is very concerned about the implementation of the "Measures for the Administration of Wealth Management Subsidiaries of Commercial Banks", and he believes that a series of new regulations such as the threshold for no sales starting point; the expansion of sales channels; and the need for individuals to purchase wealth management for the first time do not need to force bank branches to face-to-face visas are good for companies like Du Xiaoman. "For Du Xiaoman, we want to be deeply involved and consider investment and joint venture." Zhu Guang's goal is clear.
Talk about the team: from an Internet company to an Internet financial company The iteration of talents is normal
From its establishment at the end of 2015 to 2016, Baidu Finance has welcomed a group of senior executives from traditional financial institutions to join the team. But three years later, some executives left. For the rumors of the "earthquake of the entire executive team", Zhu Guang directly denied it.
"Du Xiaoman's technical risk control is from Baidu's first-line technical masters, and also invited some professionals from financial institutions." Some have also been walked, but there is no earthquake. "In Zhu Guang's view, from financial institutions to Internet financial companies, the gap is still very obvious, and some people in financial institutions do not understand, which is very normal." Culture is constantly iterating, the whole team's cognition of finance has gradually matured, today's architecture from Internet companies to Internet financial companies, culture is changing, mentality is changing, and it is developing in a very good direction. The iteration of talent is normal. Zhu Guang said that the asset management in Du Xiaoman is from Zhang Xuyang, who has been doing financial management in Everbright Bank for 19 years; Xu Dongliang, a senior person from Baidu in technology; the person in charge of legal compliance is from Lu Jinsho; risk control is mainly based on talents of China Merchants Bank; the person in charge of the business side is a senior expert who has been doing risk control for Guangfa Credit Card for 8 years............ With more than 200 fresh graduates joining next year, the entire talent structure is still very reasonable.
Zhu Guang revealed that some of the management from traditional financial institutions left due to the spin-off of Baidu Finance from Baidu as a whole. "Because they think, I joined Baidu, how to split it out, I became an entrepreneur?" Zhu Guang understood the feelings of the departers: "At the beginning of the split, I did not want to split. By August 2017, Xiaoman basically accounted for 20% of the company's assets, which is abnormal in the eyes of investors, because the proportion of finance is too large. Therefore, finance is definitely going to be spun off. Zhu Guang said that in the whole development process of Du Xiaoman, Li Yanhong has always given him a lot of encouragement, and has not formulated specific KPIs for Du Xiaoman. Zhu Guang also frankly said that he often consulted Robin Li on strategic issues, especially in strategic direction. "What Robin gave me was experience and guidance, not a lot of pressure.
Talk about competition: the track of finance is very wide, and there are opportunities
In the industry, when it comes to Baidu Finance, it will involuntarily compare with Ant Financial and Tencent Finance, and there are many sayings that "Baidu Finance started late and has no opportunities". But Zhu Guang does not see it this way - "Compared with Tencent and Ant, we do move late." But the financial track is very large, and one or two companies can't finish it. The scenarios between bats are different, the requirements are different, resulting in different data. Finance is to solve the problem of data asymmetry, the difference in scenes, the difference in data, but also make each company do finance differently. There is no baidu that can't keep up. "Zhu Guang believes that Du Xiaoman is native to Baidu, and there is a great win-win situation with Baidu." At present, good linkage and synergy have been formed. Unleash the power of the entire Baidu ecosystem, Du Xiaoman provides some solutions at the application layer, and the best cooperation is to create value with Baidu. The more powerful the Baidu data scene, the more favorable it is to the development of Du Xiaoman. Zhu Guang said that Baidu Finance is an important vertical category of Baidu, and the value created by Du Xiaoman can feed back to Baidu, and in the whole value chain of AI, finance is the best scenario. The path of the degree of small fullness can also empower Baidu. For example, insurance for driverless cars is currently being developed.
However, Zhu Guang also faced up to the problems encountered by Du Xiaoman in payment. In his view, the payment field needs a good scene, needs a closed-loop scene, and it is still difficult to develop out of the scene. "Du Xiaoman focuses on the financial industry and does a good job for financial services. In the field of financial services, we strive to achieve the ultimate experience. On the vertical class, we do in-depth research. Zhu Guang said that the payment done under the Baidu scene and the Baidu Mini Program do well, which is a new good scene. For example, smart speakers. At this stage, we still make finance to the extreme, and track and study in the process of technological iteration in the future.
Zhu Guang said bluntly that at present, Du Xiaoman only meets the needs of Baidu by 1% of the needs that have been developed, and 99% of the needs have not been developed. "The data shows that 2.3 billion traffic in Baidu search service, as long as there is 1% of financial needs, there are 2 million people, we do are small amounts, a person 10,000, basically put 200 million, if according to this logic, or very lack of suitable products to meet the needs of consumers." There is a lot of space, and more financial institutions are needed to join in.
<b>[If you have a news thread, please report to us, once adopted, there is a fee reward.] WeChat feed follows: ihxdsb, report qq: 3386405712].</b>