He is now a successful Chinese Internet Entrepreneur and the co-founder of Baidu, a Chinese search engine. In September 2015, Li was ranked the seventh richest man in China and 119th in the world with an estimated net worth of US$9.6 billion.
Robin Li accomplishment (The rise of Baidu)
During the summer of 1998, a biochemist, Eric Xu, 34, introduced his colleague Robin Li to the leader of Yahoo’s engine for search, John Wu. By then, Mr. Li was a frustrated worker at Infoseek as a staff engineer (Barboza, 2007). The company was an Internet search engine oriented, which was partially possessed by Disney, a firm whose devotion was fading to Infoseek didn’t blend in with Mr. Robin's search frenzy. Robin was devoted to sticking with search even though his colleagues didn't believe the search was all that relevant.
As a matter of fact, a year later, Li started his own search company, which he named Baidu. Baidu enjoys a market worth of $3 billion today, and it works on the website which is the fourth-most trafficked around the globe. And today, the firm has managed to do what no alternative Internet organization has managed to accomplish; outsmarting Yahoo and Google in its domestic market. With the help of a website which the Chinese government censors heavily and grants it the first concern to advertising in preference of search results, Baidu keeps the ball rolling to earn shares in the Chinese market.
Although Baidu's evolvement, and Robin's adventure as a businessman, grants examples of textbooks of the perils and payoffs of carrying out business in China and propose that Baidu may certify to be more flexible than a few analysts think. An estimated 130 million people of the China's population of 130 billion are Internet users, a vir6ual market, which is second in breadth to the market of America. China is considered to be the next battleground of the internet by analysts because is number one fastest growing major economy in the world, with Baidu adversely situated to succeed in that competition.
The firm has secured its supremacy with the government of Chinese’s support in return for allowing censors to oversee its website. The government of China frequently blocks Google in China and dictate very tough rules and censorship to other external companies of the internet. China entrepreneurs have the tendency to pummel internet giants from America as suggested by the analyst. Mr. Brueschke, an analyst from the Citigroup, of the Chinese market, believes Baidu will detain position in the search industry of China. He says, "Who is going to be number two, and not who is going to be number one in the battle of the competitive landscape".
Of course, Google won’t agree with this, insisting on its search results independence and the reach of its customers internationally. However, Mr. Robin says his firm model is working extraordinarily well, and the organization has gained the loyalty of its customers who value its capabilities in searching.
During the start of this company, Mr. Li and his partner Eric Xu, raised $1.2 million from two venture capital firms in Silicon Valley purposely to invest in this business. Two firms of venture capital, IDH Technology and Draper Fisher Jurvetson pumped in another $10 million nine months later. Offering services of searching to other portals of China is what the firm started with before it developed its search engine that stood alone.
Baidu started its own website, Baidu.com, which was just similar to the no-frills homepage of Google in September 2001. Baidu granted advertisers the bid for ad space, before even Google did it, and paid the firm each time a client clicked an ad. The company achieved a profit in 2004 as the company was engulfed in traffic due to the small and medium-sized businesses who loved it. On August 2005, Baidu went public with at a share of $27. The shares of the company closed at $122 when the trade end that day, up 354%, since the peak of dot-com in 2000, this was the biggest opening on Nasdaq. Unexpectedly, Baidu became a $4 billion firm with Mr. Robin having stock valued over $900 million. In the first half of this year, Baidu's income jumped 190% to $40.9 million, with 550% soared gain to $11.7 million. The company's website is attracting millions of teenagers with the quest to download files of music, blogs creation or "China's ten most gorgeous women" pictures. Although Baidu is evolving fast, when compared to Google's, its revenue is still weak.
According to analysts, the firm is dealing with a different audience when compared to Western internet organizations since the people of China are more obsessed with entertainment rather than books, car rental rates or news. 70% of internet users in China are below the age of 30 and are looking for entertainment. According to a research company from Beijing, no other internet firm in China is growing at the pace of Baidu, which had over 50% pay-per-click market during its first six months from a 37% share in similar duration.
Robin Li effects on people and organization
Robin Li has vast domestic admirers (The Guardian, 2007). The multi-millionaire is an internet entrepreneur model who has managed to outsmart some of the most powerful multinationals around the globe. However, his detractors blame him for being a navigator-in-chief of the fleet for online music pirates especially in the industry of global entertainment. But Robin asserts that he does not have time for criticism and plaudits. He is busy keeping ahead of the fast changes in the internet of China, and focused on building an empire which he predicts will set a challenge to Microsoft of Bill Gates one day.
Leadership style
Robin Li uses the visionary style of leadership. He asserts that as the CEO of his firm, the desire to empower the people of Chinese is what motivates him and not by money (Dougherty et al., 2016). Seeing the greater need for the search Engine Company in China, he returned to his homeland to develop the search engine even though he was successfully working with IDD and Infoseek in America. Li started his firm, with giving Chinese people vast information access being the vision, ever since it has been the driving motivation. Li saw it would be more realistic to settle an agreement with the government rather than staying out of China because of the challenges the Chinese government imposed. Li agreed on the censoring of some information in order to remain in business and stay in favor of the government. However, he feels that offering millions ease of access to a more significant percentage of the deal found on the internet is much better than not offering access at all.
Li is focused on driving his employees towards their goal despite the critics from other firms for allowing censorship of some information. Li saw potential in establishing search engine presence in China, whereas other firms were afraid to attempt. Li has plans for expansion outside China and expand into other markets. Li is continuously determined to grow his business despite its current position at Alexa Rankings of number four, maybe until it is the most trafficked website globally.
How he exemplifies the pace setting the style of leadership
Li developed the patented search algorithm on his own that the firm’s functionality driving force. At a particular time, he set aside his CEO role temporarily to take control of the development of search site. During this period, their weekly meetings were doubled, and most of the time he slept in the office. Robin is not fearful of getting his hands dirty and perform the work on the frontline regardless of his lofty position. Li has authority to set targets, and tasks for his workers that he is aware are realistic and can be achieved being an expert in this field.
What is surprising about Li is that his firm is not just about internet search engine, the firm also works to develop technological advances and artificial intelligence, inclusive of self-driving cars.
REFERENCES
Barboza, D. (2007). The Rise of Baidu. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/business/yourmoney/17baidu.html
Dougherty, S. (2016). The Effectiveness of CEO Leadership Styles in the Technology Industry. Retrieved from http://community.mis.temple.edu/sdougherty/files/2016/02/The-Effectiveness-of-CEO-Leadership-Styles-in-the-Technology-Industry.pdf
The Guardian. (2007). The man behind China's answer to Google. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/dec/08/piracy.news
Wikipedia. (2016). Robin Li. Retrieved from http://www.fbcoverup.com/docs/library/2016-06-16-Robin-Li-Baidu-ADR-Wikipedia-biography-accessed-Jun-16-2016.pdf
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