Q: Can Baidu really cut into the Japanese market? Most users become accustomed to a search engine once they choose their favorite portal. Even if Baidu's technologies and services are superior, it is still difficult to make users change their customs, isn't it? In addition, Japanese users tend to prefer Western products and services.
Li: I agree that such issues are major challenges that we face as we enter the Japanese market. Generally speaking, many people feel that Chinese products are low-priced and poor quality. However, this is not always the case in the Internet world.
When it comes to purchasing clothing, for example, Chinese also seek out Western brands. When using the Internet, however, they access Websites run by Chinese companies. In the Internet world, the competitiveness of Chinese companies is not always inferior.
Even Google operates its services in China using the Chinese name "Pinyin." In other words, Google is trying to gain popularity with the Chinese by pretending to be a Chinese company.
We will experience those kinds of difficulties for some time in Japan. That's because I think many people think that Western technologies are more advanced and Western Internet companies are powerful.
However, general users don't take that many things into consideration when they use the Internet. They use the site if it's good and won't use it otherwise. They don't check to see if the site belongs to a US company, Japanese company or Chinese company.
In addition, as Baidu is listed on the US NASDAQ and the majority of its shareholders are US investors, we don't see Baidu as being a pure Chinese company.
I don't intend to say our goal is to top the market in one year, of course. We are currently aiming to have many users try Baidu services little by little. During that process, the increasing number of users that like Baidu services or need its services may gradually shift to Baidu from other search engines, I believe. But I believe that this process will be anything but easy.
We are considering implementing diverse measures to have many users try Baidu. For example, we are planning not to host any advertisements on our search portal for the time being. By doing so, we may get opportunities to have users that dislike advertisements on other search portals turn their eyes to Baidu.
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