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Navigating the bamboo scaffolding of China's rapid-rising tower of technology

by Steven Millward, China

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Baidu CEO, Robin Li, speaks out

Sep 25, 2009 21:24

Robin Li, the co-founder and current CEO of Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant, is--unsurprisingly--a tech superstar. However, we don't get to hear too much from him. So, the Wall Street Journal got a great scoop with an interview with Mr Li himself, during a rare trip by him to Silicon Valley and New York.

Better still, it was a video interview, so we could see and hear the Baidu exec more clearly, on a range of important issues: Baidu's planned global expansion (which has started in earnest in Japan), dealing with the Chinese Government's demands, an intriguing new project to build a "Baidu OS" to rival Google's upcoming Google Chrome OS (though that news is surely more of a concern to Microsoft than Google; but that's a whole other blog post...), and accusations of music piracy.

Those piracy claims have rumbled on for years, since the early days of Baidu when its MP3 file deep-search--which links to and allows users to download illegally copied music buried in the directories of Web sites across the globe--accounted for around three-quarters of user searches, although Baidu now insists that it's still-in-place MP3 search is utilized in only "a very small amount" (from Robin's own lips) of all searches in 2009. Google earlier this year launched a legal music-player that is geo-specific to China, and allows streaming of tens of thousands of tracks (and legal, free downloading of a selection of those) in a revenue-sharing agreement with a number of major music labels.

Unfortunately, the WSJ journalist, Julia Angwin, was either playing softball, or not too knowledgeable on Baidu, as quite a few obvious questions and follow-ups went unasked. Will Baidu launch a legit music service too? Is "Baidu OS" aimed only at Netbooks? Is it a XP/Vista/7 killer? Ah...

Anyway, here's the embedded video, which runs to just over 7 minutes:

(Or here's a link to the WSJ blog page).

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About Steven Millward

Six years after arriving in China to 'check it out', Steven Millward has decided to stay put, and is hooked on the fast-changing dynamic of mainland China. He's not too intimidated that his current city of residence has a greater population than his entire homeland of Wales. A freelance editor, lifestyle magazine writer, English teacher, and rather enthusiastic blogger, he can also be found on twitter (as @SirSteven) discussing media, tech and music. You can email him with any tips, queries or feedback.