Background
Li was born in Shanxi Province, China, where he spent most of his childhood. Both of his parents were factory workers. Li was the fourth of five children, and the only boy.
彦宏 李
Li was born in Shanxi Province, China, where he spent most of his childhood. Both of his parents were factory workers. Li was the fourth of five children, and the only boy.
He enrolled at Peking University where he studied information management and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. In the fall of 1991, Li went to the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in the US to study for a doctorate in computer science. He received his Master of Science in Computer Science degree in 1994 after deciding not to continue with the PhD.
Li developed a real-time information system for Dow Jones, which has since been used in the websites of several Wall Street businesses including the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. Li then focused on trying to find a solution to one of the most perplexing problems in the early stages of the internet: how to sort information. Two years later, he had his eureka moment. He invented ESP technology, a search program that he called ‘link analysis,’ for its ability to study the links that one website had to others and to come up with a ranking of the website’s popularity. It was a moment of great excitement. He told his boss about it, but he wasn’t interested. However this technology caught the attention of William Chang, chief technology officer of Infoseek, where his ESP technology was later applied. In 1998, Li wrote a book titled Silicon Valley Business War, in which he tried to draw attention to the commercial possibilities of internet search and described his own insights on the industry as it was in the 1990s.
In 1999, after Infoseek began shifting towards content, Li decided to establish his own internet search company with Eric Xu, a friend with a doctorate in biochemistry and a network of contacts in Silicon Valley. They raised money from venture capitalists and flew to China to establish Baidu. When the internet bubble was pricked in the United States, Baidu was beginning its ascent in China. The company began its life as a business offering search services to Chinese portals. Li soon changed course, despite some opposition from the board, as he was sure that the success of Overture, the company that made paid search engine advertising a real business, signaled a change in the industry. The Baidu.com website was launched in September 2001. It soon offered pay-per-click advertising, ahead of Google. The offering became popular among businesses and by 2004, Baidu became profitable. By that time, the company was ripe for an initial public offer- ing, which it finally made in August 2005.
Baidu still faces a strong challenge from its rivals Google and Yahoo. The two internet giants plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in a China offensive. But Baidu believes the Chinese market has different characteristics than Western markets, and that they are better able to serve that market. Baidu may be right: it continues to gain market share in pay-per-click advertising with at least 50 percent, while Google and Yahoo both lost market share in 2006. There are also legal challenges involving copyright infringe- ments. Lawsuits have been filed claiming that Baidu is breaking copyright laws on music files, however Baidu insists it only provides links. Investors are also concerned about its earnings, which are low relative to its share price; Baidu needs to find ways to increase income.
He has 4 children.