Robin Li issues call to arms as Baidu slumps to first loss since 2005

Win the battles that need to be won. Be bold. Execute flawlessly. Stop finding excuses. Work hard. Fight harder.

These are messages from Baidu co-founder and chairman Robin Li Yanhong, who has again taken to the pen to stir the company’s more than 42,000 employees to action, as the Beijing-based search engine operator reported its first-ever quarterly loss since going public in 2005.

“2019 is not only a year of challenges, but also a year of opportunities. In the coming months and days, the whole Baidu family, from the senior management to all employees, must work hard and fight harder,” Li said in the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Post.

“For senior managers, saying ‘I have tried’ is not enough and we need to make sure we win in the battlegrounds that we must win; for employees, we must spare no effort to make sure every task is executed flawlessly.”

Baidu has had a stranglehold on search in China with 70 per cent of the market, especially after Google exited in 2010. But a shift in internet usage patterns has chipped at that dominance, with the rise of self-contained super-app ecosystems by rivals like Alibaba and Tencent. A user could quite easily watch a movie, read news, shop online and order takeaway food without having to leave one of these walled communities or go to a traditional search engine.

Meanwhile, the rise of start-ups like ByteDance, with their AI recommendation-driven news and short-video apps Toutiao and Douyin, are challenging the original trio known commonly as BAT, for the attention and wallets of China’s more than 800 million internet users.