Born:
November 17, 1968, in Yangquan, in north China’s Shanxi Province to factory worker parents. As a young student he always remembered his mother telling him: “Our family doesn’t have a back door, if you want a good job in the future you have to study hard and get into college.”
Education:
Study hard he did. In 1987, he was accepted to Peking University, where he studied library information management. As a sophomore, Li witnessed the government’s pro-democracy crackdown in Tiananmen Square which shut down his school. He graduated in 1991, and took a temporary job, while applying to many master’s programs in the United States. It had always been a dream of his to study abroad, and the atmosphere in China at the time was “depressing,” he said. He was soon accepted to the State University of New York at Buffalo on a fellowship and got his master’s in computer science in 1994.
Wall Street Journal and Silicon Valley:
His first job in the United States was developing a software program for the Wall Street Journal’s online edition, it was there that he began his fascination with search engines. In 1996 Li created a search method he termed “link analysis” that ranked the popularity of Web Sites based on how many other sites linked to it. His expertise led Silicon Valley search engine upstart, Infoseek, to recruit him to become the head of search engine development in 1997. Li stayed at Infoseek for two years, but resigned after the company began to focus more on content than searching.
Going Out on his Own:
Along with his friend, Eric Xu (Xu Yong), the two headed back to China to found Baidu in 2000. Li served as Chairman of the board, while Xu, trained as a biochemist, served as Chief Executive Officer. The company name, literally translated as “100 times” refers to a Song Dynasty poem on the persistent search for the sublime. Their first office was a hotel room near Peking University.
Partner Leaves Company:
In 2004, Xu resigned from the company after a restructuring gave him fewer responsibilities. He left to pursue the field of biotechnology. Li then took on the role of CEO and a year later, the company went public with successful opening on the Nasdaq. From early on, Baidu has led China’s search engines taking up 60 percent of the market share, far surpassing Google China. Li and Xu have both been listed on Forbes.com’s list of the 400 richest people in China.
Controversy:
The company has had its share of negative media attention. Music companies have sued over copyright violations for links to downloadable music from the Baidu site. Some have also alleged that the company inflates its hits. Western media have complained that it assists in Internet censorship in China. Most recently on November 15, 2008, China Central Television reported that Baidu’s paid-search clients included many unlicensed pharmaceutical companies and that it was including paid advertisers in its search results and excluding others that did not pay.
Public Apology:
A few days after the CCTV report, the company apologized for overlooking its advertisement management. In a conference call, Li said “With influence, comes responsibility.” Baidu denied excluding companies that didn’t pay and said it had cancelled the paid search listing for clients that did hot hold licenses, but the damage was already upon them. Shares of the company’s stock fell by a third in the days following the news report.