Baidu CEO Robin Li Issues Internal Letter: 'User First, Revenue Sacrifice Without Hesitation'

May 10 Morning News: Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li issued an internal letter to all employees today, stating that the company prioritizes users above all else, even at the expense of revenue.

In the email, Robin Li voiced his concerns: “Why do so many users who use Baidu every day no longer love us? Why are we no longer proud of our own products? Where exactly does the problem lie?”

In the email, Robin Li also stated that he often hears different departments quarreling endlessly over KPI allocations, and observes some senior engineers struggling or even compromising when balancing business interests with user experience.

Below is the full text of Robin Li’s internal letter:

“Stay True to the Original Aspiration, Live Up to the Dream”

Dear Baidu Colleagues:

The Baidu Tieba incident in January and the Wei Zexi incident in April sparked widespread criticism and skepticism toward Baidu among internet users. The public outrage surpassed that of any previous crisis Baidu had faced.

These days, whenever the night grows quiet, I find myself wondering: Why have so many users who use Baidu every day ceased to love us? Why do we no longer take pride in our products? Where exactly did things go wrong?

Do you remember Baidu in its early startup days? Back then, we were mainly competing with rivals like Google for users. But what I feared more was that they would poach our talent by offering exorbitant salaries. Google certainly had the financial strength to offer Baidu’s engineers compensation packages more than three times higher than what we were paying. Yet after they entered the Chinese market, they hardly managed to recruit any of our staff. On reflection, everyone at the time was driven by a strong determination to build the best Chinese-language search engine. Each of us took immense pride in our daily work.

Back then, our recruitment posters often featured the portrait of a celebrity, accompanied by a concise tagline. For instance, with Lu Xun’s image, the text read: “To translate, or to seek China’s significance through original creation?” With Qian Xuesen, it was: “To live in a villa abroad, or to return to China as the ‘Father of Chinese Missiles’?” With Mao Zedong, it stated: “To surrender, or to become stronger than the enemy?” Even today, whenever I recount these phrases to the younger generation, I am nearly choked with emotion.

Inspired by these dreams, we listened to our users and sought to understand their needs, gradually winning over the Chinese market despite a significant disparity in resources. It was our steadfast commitment to the value of “users first” that earned us their loyalty. In turn, these users built threads on Tieba, answered questions on Zhidao, and edited entries on Baike. The content they created and the information they contributed differentiated us from our competitors and underpinned Baidu’s remarkable success.

But what about today? I increasingly hear different departments embroiled in disputes over KPI allocations, and see senior engineers struggling—and even compromising—as they attempt to balance commercial interests with user experience. Consequently, users have begun to question the fairness and objectivity of our promotional practices, criticize our product installation strategies, and oppose the excessive commercialization of products such as Baidu Tieba and Baidu Baike. Driven by a pursuit of short-term KPIs from management down to individual employees, our core values have been distorted and compressed; performance growth has taken precedence over user experience, and simplistic operational tactics have replaced our principle of being “simple and reliable.” We are drifting further away from our users, and from the mission and values we upheld in our early entrepreneurial days. If we lose user support and abandon our commitment to these values, Baidu would be merely 30 days away from bankruptcy.

Today, Baidu influences more people than ever before. Information flows faster than ever, and the market environment is more complex than ever. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the true, and the false—all exist online. Every day, countless individuals make decisions based on search results from Baidu, which places higher demands on our product philosophy and code of conduct. We must keep pace with the times and act responsibly for our users!

We must align with public sentiment and opinion by addressing the concerns of internet users, thereby actively fulfilling our social responsibilities. Questions such as which revenues are permissible, how they should be generated, and how executives and employees should make decisions at critical junctures continually test our business ethics and code of conduct. In the period ahead, we must concentrate our efforts on accomplishing several key tasks:

First, we must re-examine the business models of all company products to determine whether monetization strategies are compromising user experience. Any practices that disregard user experience must undergo thorough rectification. We will establish a veto system for user experience reviews, overseen by a dedicated department. Any approach that violates user experience principles will be subject to an absolute veto, with no interference permitted from any individual.

Secondly, we must improve our user feedback mechanism, listen to users’ voices, and ensure that their input is rapidly incorporated into product design and updates, making user evaluations of products and services a key factor in search rankings.

Finally, we must continue to improve existing mechanisms for protecting internet users' rights and interests, such as advance compensation schemes, and establish a RMB 1 billion protection fund to fully safeguard the rights and interests of internet users.

These measures may have a negative impact on the company’s revenue, but we are determined to make painful yet necessary sacrifices, because I believe this is the right approach! It is a long-term strategy! It is an approach that aligns with natural trends and the times!

Ten years ago, we built new products such as Tieba, Zhidao, and Baike on the foundation of search. Today, I hope we will leverage artificial intelligence to create new products—such as voice search, automatic translation, and autonomous vehicles—that significantly impact people’s daily lives. To complete the long journey from a large enterprise to a great one, Baidu must possess not only the “stamina” to expand its business but also the “willpower” to uphold its culture of simplicity and reliability. Let us remain steadfast in our user-first values, strive tirelessly to fulfill our mission of enabling equal and convenient access to information so that users can find what they seek, and ensure that future generations will take pride in what we have accomplished!

　　Robin

　　2016-5-10