The peerless beauties of the Internet and Li Yanhong

Li Yanhong is a legendary tycoon in China's Internet industry.

He is handsome and sunny, known as the most handsome man among Internet entrepreneurs in China, and also one of the founders of BAT.

He is the chairman and CEO of Baidu, which has become the largest Chinese search engine and the second largest independent search engine in the world in just a few decades.

Before the establishment of Baidu, Li Yanhong was one of the top search engine engineers in the world, and his patent of hyperlink analysis technology was one of the basic inventions that laid the development trend and direction of the whole modern search engine.

Li Yanhong is also the first Internet entrepreneur in China to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

What was his growth process? What enlightenment will it give us? What is worth learning about his character? How did he quickly build Baidu into a magnificent building?

Let's go deep into this article and find out.

Li Yanhong was born in Yangquan City, Shanxi Province.

Compared with other big bosses, the birth of Li Yanhong seems a bit cold.

Li Yanhong's father is an arsenal worker and his mother is a leather factory worker.

Li Yanhong is the only boy in the family, with three sisters and one sister. At home, he is loved by thousands of people.

Although Li Yanhong is not a wealthy family, his family has a good style of study. Li Yanhong's father went to a private school when he was a child, and then he often read books at home. This learning atmosphere has a great influence on the Li brothers and sisters.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution and the resumption of the college entrance examination, Li Yanhong's eldest sister was admitted to the university and became the first batch of college students in China.

At that time, the number of people who took the college entrance examination was 5.7 million, but the number of people admitted was only 270,000, and the admission rate was only 5%. The difficulty can be imagined.

When my sister was admitted to the university, the Li family undoubtedly became the envy of others, which was a great encouragement to them.

Encouraged by my sister's going to college at that time, my brothers and sisters lived up to expectations, and later they all went to college one after another.

But among them, Li Yanhong and his third sister Li Xiuling are the best. Li Xiuling, the third sister, was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Peking University and got the opportunity to study abroad. Later, she was awarded the position of tenured professor at UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

This experience is in the words of Li Yanhong:

"My father grew up in a private school and has some skills in literature and language. Dad affects my sister, my sister affects my second sister, my second sister affects my third sister, and my third sister affects me. "

When he was in middle school, Li Yanhong liked computers very much. At that time, I also participated in the "National Youth Programming Competition".

Li Yanhong won the second place in Yangquan, but he didn't get any place in the competition in Shaanxi Province.

After the competition, Li Yanhong, who loves reading, came to Xinhua Bookstore near the competition.

As soon as he entered the door, Li Yanhong was stunned, because Li Yanhong saw rows of books about computers on the shelf as soon as he entered the door, and when he studied by himself, Li Yanhong learned only one textbook.

This made Li Yanhong understand the reasons for the failure and the lack of knowledge, and then he also summarized the reasons for the failure of the game.

We are too unequal in front of information and resources.

This may be the reason why after many years, Li Yanhong wants to build Baidu's ambition of "making people get information most equally and conveniently".

The failure of this competition also made Li Yanhong study harder and get out of that small county to make up for his lack of knowledge.

In the college entrance examination, Li Yanhong created a new miracle at home. Like his third sister, Li Yanhong was admitted to the Information Management Department of Peking University.

Li Yanhong, who entered Peking University, was not satisfied with his major, but he still tried his best to study hard.

Teachers in the library department teach Li Yanhong how to put books and how to store materials, which can make readers read more conveniently.

They also told Li Yanhong the importance of reading books quickly, just like going to the library to find books, even though they knew they would find the books they wanted in the library.

But the time spent on the road and the time spent looking for books in the library are all important factors to discourage readers.

At that time, although Li Yanhong didn't know what these theories were for, he was just bored.

Many years later, Li Yanhong realized that the seemingly useless knowledge at that time changed the fate of his life. Li Yanhong also said:

"This theory is boring for many people. But when it comes to search engines, it can explain why speed must be emphasized. If users work harder, they will also drive away some users. "

"This is the theory I learned in the library department. Later, I was instructed to emphasize the speed of search engines. In order to improve the speed of 0. 1 sec, I will spare no expense. "

In college life, Li Yanhong had a wonderful time. He participated in the campus debate, participated in the group dance team celebrating the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in Peking University, translated books for publishing houses, worked as a tutor and taught himself computers.

In this way, college life is so silent and so wonderful.

In the last few days of college, Li Yanhong was busy preparing to go abroad. Li Yanhong scored more than 600 points in the TOEFL (the old TOEFL is equivalent to the new TOEFL 100 and the new TOEFL 120).

Li Yanhong applied to more than twenty schools, but only one succeeded.

Moreover, there is no scholarship in this school, and Li Yanhong's visa has not been refused.

Because in China at that time, there were very few China students who didn't have scholarships to study abroad, and nine times out of ten they emigrated.

Therefore, at that time, Li Yanhong was rejected by the embassy because of his "immigration tendency".

There is no way, Li Yanhong only found a job of "advertising market research" in Beijing, but Li Yanhong explained to the company as soon as he entered the company:

"I want to go abroad and I can't do it for a long time."

Many things happen. 199 1, Li Yanhong finally got the "Admission Notice of Computer Department of new york State University in Buffalo" and gave him a full scholarship.

This time, Li Yanhong's visa was passed.

On Christmas Day, Li Yanhong embarked on a plane to the United States and started a new journey.

Going to America for the first time was the most difficult time in Li Yanhong's study career.

Unlike the clothes at home, Li Yanhong needs to be responsible for his own life, and there are also various contradictions from his roommates.

At that time, Li Yanhong shared a house with a China couple and a Vietnamese student.

When you are hungry, when you meet someone cooking, Li Yanhong must wait and remember to clean up every day. If you forget, others will be unhappy.

The relationship with the landlord is also a crucial link, and Li Yanhong is naturally unsociable.

Moreover, because Li Yanhong didn't study computer before, his foundation was relatively weak, and many courses, even Chinese, Li Yanhong had to listen with his ears open to barely understand.

It's English now. In class, Li Yanhong sometimes skips the next sentence before understanding the meaning of the last sentence.

After a class, Li Yanhong looked blank and didn't know what the teacher was saying.

Many years later, Li Yanhong also said that "this period is the time when my comprehensive pressure is the greatest."

At that time, in order to catch up with the learning progress, Li Yanhong studied day and night, staying up all night.

This situation was not alleviated until Li Yanhong's language barrier was basically eliminated, but nearly a year has passed.

Later, like a duck to water, Li Yanhong quickly established his own knowledge system and published many papers.

After graduating from college, he was valued by many companies and got many offer.

At that time, Li Yanhong chose a subsidiary of Dow Jones on Wall Street as a "senior consultant" and worked as a financial information retrieval system with an annual salary of $50,000.

Li Yanhong also developed hyperlink analysis technology in a subsidiary of Dow Jones, which is also an important foundation of modern search engines.

Many years later, Li Yanhong even told reporters, "The retrieval system used by the Wall Street Journal now may have been written by me at that time."

As far as this contribution is concerned, it is not an exaggeration for Li Yanhong to be called one of the founders of modern online search.

After the salary rose to $80,000, Li Yanhong thought that Wall Street belonged to finance and was not suitable for technicians like himself. He had no future on Wall Street, so he turned and left Wall Street and joined Silicon Valley.

The second job is a company called Infoseek (InfoSeek is one of the most important search engines in the early days).

Shortly after Li Yanhong joined InfoSeek, he led the completion of InfoSeek's second-generation search engine and became the first mainstream search engine to use hyperlink analysis at that time, which attracted many people's use.

But unfortunately, InfoSeek was quickly acquired by Disney, and Li Yanhong only got a few hundred thousand dollars in option realization income.

After a while, Li Yanhong lived a leisurely life like a peach blossom garden, and also published a novel called "Commercial War in Silicon Valley".

This is a book describing the struggle between Internet companies in Silicon Valley in the 1990s in the form of chapters, which was widely read at that time.

One of the readers is Xu Yong, who is from the Biology Department of Peking University and a classmate of Li Yanhong.

At that time, Xu Yong was filming a documentary called "Walking into Silicon Valley". At that time, Xu Yong also pulled Li Yanhong into the photography team.

This documentary called "Into Silicon Valley" needs to interview many entrepreneurs.

At that time, when interviewing Yahoo boss Jerry Yang, Li Yanhong saw Jerry Yang who was relished by Kan Kan in front of the camera, and the idea of starting a business surged in Li Yanhong's heart.

1999, Li Yanhong invited Xu Yong to his home.

Just entering the door, Li Yanhong took out a confidentiality agreement. After Xu Yong signed it, Li Yanhong told his plan.

It turned out that Li Yanhong planned to return to China to start a business, wanted to ask Xu Yong for help, and gave Xu Yong two plans.

Help Xu Yong find financing first, and then give Xu Yong 1% commission.

2. The equity of the venture with Li Yanhong shall be distributed according to 3: 1.

At that time, Xu Yong also had the idea of returning to China to start a business, so he agreed to Li Yanhong's request and started a business together.

Back in China, China's Internet was in a period of rapid development, and Li Yanhong's experience in the United States was undoubtedly a huge plus. Coupled with Xu Yong's contacts, their financing was successfully completed.

At that time, Baidu's initial sales model was portal-oriented, providing them with the underlying search technical support.

However, at that time, users were not used to looking for information and news online, and selling products became a big problem for them.

Finally, the help of the financier prompted Baidu's first business.

If the story follows this trend, Li Yanhong's story can't be called legend.

When the Internet bubble burst.

Many companies are facing the crisis of bankruptcy, and Baidu is no exception.

Not long after the establishment of this new company, it came to the brink of life and death.

In infoseek, Li Yanhong is very relaxed. Now in Baidu, Li Yanhong has his first white hair.

At that time, Li Yanhong was looking for markets and investments everywhere, which led to a serious illness, but things continued to deteriorate.

In 200 1 year, Baidu convened the board of directors again, and Li Yanhong changed the profit model. He intends to make a profit by bidding for advertisements.

At that time, almost everyone in the company opposed Li Yanhong's decision and quarreled with him for nearly three hours.

Until Li Yanhong dropped his mobile phone on the ground and roared:

"I don't do it, everyone doesn't do it, and the company goes bankrupt."

At that time, everyone was shocked, because Li Yanhong was a gentle image like a scholar at ordinary times.

But now the image of running away makes everyone realize that the reform of Baidu and Li Yanhong is imperative.

In fact, Li Yanhong took a risky move at that time, because he didn't know whether his profit method was useful in the China market, and thought it was a desperate gamble.

After that, Baidu quickly launched a test page for individual users, which is also the one we are most familiar with later.

I think there were actually two reasons for the rapid rise of Baidu at that time.

First, because of Sina. At that time, Sina had become one of the most famous websites in China. It used Baidu's technology, but it owed money to Baidu and never gave it.

At that time, Baidu came up with a cruel trick.

Baidu stopped providing search service for Sina and wrote several big characters on the search page: "Baidu suspended its search service for Sina due to arrears!" " " .

This is also the first time that the "Sina arrears" incident has brought Baidu into the public eye, attracted many users and greatly enhanced Baidu's public image.

The second thing, no doubt, is the story of Google, which goes without saying.

At this point, Baidu has established the position of the first brother in domestic search, and Baidu has almost become a website that China netizens must open at that time.

After that, Baidu has also become a hot spot in various industries.

For a long time, Baidu Post Bar has been the largest Chinese online forum in the world, and it has also created a phenomenal wave of public opinion such as "Emperor War".

Baidu map has become a map service provider with rich panoramic data in the industry. Street panorama has covered 95% cities in China, and the number of panoramic photos exceeds 65.438+300 million. It integrates the functions of taxi, navigation, route planning and accurate prediction of congestion trend, and becomes a right-hand man for people to travel.

Baidu has therefore become an unavoidable company for any domestic Internet company, and has also been recognized by the world. Baidu has also become the glory of Chinese people.

However, with the passage of time, Baidu's road is getting harder and harder, and Baidu's controversy is getting bigger and bigger.

At first, I just used Baidu, and later I added a lot of junk software and games, which made people feel distressed, but these things were harmless.

But success is also ranked by bidding, and failure is also ranked by bidding. This directly or indirectly led to various public opinion events, just like the tsunami, which madly impacted Baidu.

Both the "Sanlu milk powder" incident and the "blood friends bar" incident have had a great impact on the company's values.

Baidu's share price even fell by 25.2% a day, and its market value evaporated by $6,543.8 +0.5 billion. In 2065.438+08, Qilu, the "working emperor", resigned, and Baidu evaporated 9.3 billion dollars. In 2065.438+09, its net loss was 327 million yuan, and its market value evaporated by 8.9 billion dollars overnight.

Now Baidu's market value has been far surpassed by Tencent and Ali, and B of the BAT Big Three has existed in name only.

20 18, 20 18 BAIdu ai developer conference was officially held in the national convention center.

Li Yanhong shouted the slogan "Everyone can AI" on the stage, officially announced the mass production of Baidu unmanned vehicles, and brought Baidu Cloud full-featured AI chip "Kunlun".

And Baidu's "Kunlun" chip is the same as "Huawei", grinding a sword for ten years.

Baidu may have overwhelmed Baidu's future when it laid out artificial intelligence.

On the day before New Year's Eve in 2020, Baidu's market value exceeded 1000 billion, and Baidu's share price rose all the way to $304.24.

Compared with the other two big names in BAT, Baidu's market value of 100 billion seems to have come too late.

Perhaps when we step into the era of artificial intelligence, Baidu will have another scene.

I also hope that Li Yanhong can continue to complete his grandiloquence in Silicon Valley:

I hope to change the world and life through technology.

In the past, he did it. Now, he did right and wrong. The future is unknown.

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