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erinwong
2022-05-29

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Robin Li wants to turn crisis into opportunity, but Baidu still lacks a sharp product knife.

百度想再次成为一家伟大的企业。

Robin Li wants to turn crisis into opportunity, but Baidu still lacks a sharp product knife.

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{"i18n":{"language":"en_US"},"data":{"magic":2,"id":9024176922,"tweetId":"9024176922","gmtCreate":1653832261566,"gmtModify":1676535348262,"author":{"id":3586317757274365,"idStr":"3586317757274365","authorId":3586317757274365,"authorIdStr":"3586317757274365","name":"erinwong","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/81d91362bde32a7f8e54e43970de4e7b","vip":1,"userType":1,"introduction":"","boolIsFan":false,"boolIsHead":false,"crmLevel":11,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"individualDisplayBadges":[],"wearingBadges":[],"fanSize":38,"starInvestorFlag":false},"themes":[],"images":[],"coverImages":[],"title":"","extraTitle":"","html":"<html><head></head><body>Good&nbsp;</body></html>","htmlText":"<html><head></head><body>Good&nbsp;</body></html>","text":"Good","highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9024176922","repostId":1179976673,"repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1179976673","kind":"news","pubTimestamp":1653708677,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1179976673?lang=en_US&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-05-28 11:31","market":"hk","language":"zh","title":"Robin Li wants to turn crisis into opportunity, but Baidu still lacks a sharp product knife.","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1179976673","media":"36氪","summary":"百度想再次成为一家伟大的企业。","content":"<html><head></head><body>Author: Li Anqi<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/BIDU\">Baidu</a>Life isn't easy either. According to Baidu's recently released Q1 2022 financial report, it suffered a net loss of 885 million yuan (including a loss of 3 billion yuan from long-term investments), compared to a net profit of 25.653 billion yuan in the same period last year.How will a company allocate its tight resources amidst the pandemic?Spending cuts are the most common and expected means. Baidu cut its sales and administrative expenses by 11% – consistent with the impression of \"contraction\" left by its continuous layoffs over the past period.Surprisingly, Baidu's R&D investment not only did not decrease this quarter, but also increased by 10% year-on-year; From another perspective, the R&D expenses of 5.134 billion yuan this quarter are equivalent to 24% of its core revenue—which is consistent with the repeated public statements and actions of Baidu founder Robin Li. This founder, who has a technical background, once said: \"When I have 1 yuan, I will invest it in technology.\" One hundred million will be invested in technology; Even with 10 billion, it will still be invested in technology.“Crisis and opportunity are always two sides of the same coin. When there are difficulties in the market, innovative solutions to solve those difficulties are necessary. In business history, many great companies, groundbreaking innovative products, services, and business models emerged during times of economic hardship,” Robin Li said in an internal letter.Already behind<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/00700\">Tencent</a>Given Alibaba's current status, it's no exaggeration to say that Baidu is an underdog. But this large company, which missed out on the mobile era and failed to recover after its reputation was damaged, is trying to stabilize its advertising base while increasing its investment in opening up new markets.As Baidu's core business and cash cow, its online marketing business only declined by 4% year-on-year this quarter, which is already remarkable—Tencent's advertising revenue declined by 16% year-on-year in the same period this year. Baidu's non-online marketing (including Baidu)<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/5RE.SI\">smart</a>Revenue from cloud and other AI businesses increased by 35% year-on-year. Although its cloud business base is small and its market ranking is lower than that of Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei, it is still impressive - Tencent's business segment grew by 10% year-on-year.Coupled with the general rise in Chinese concept stocks on the night of the earnings release (Tencent ADR rose 3.4%),<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/PDD\">Pinduoduo</a>(Up 9.5%), Baidu's closing price rose by more than 14% on May 26. The market seems to be voting in favor of Baidu.One of the new businesses that Baidu is trying to invest in is cloud computing. Recently, Shen Dou, Executive Vice President of Baidu Group, has been transferred from head of mobile ecosystem business to head of intelligent cloud business. Within Baidu, intelligent cloud is regarded as the second growth curve, and Baidu clearly hopes to use a promising future to drive the performance of its cloud business.Another business that Baidu is trying to increase its investment in is the automotive sector, including businesses such as autonomous taxis (Robotaxi)—which requires a lot of R&D spending, but is unlikely to yield results in the short term. The company most likely to be effective in the short term is Jidu Auto, which directly manufactures cars and is a joint venture with Geely. This business was mentioned multiple times by Robin Li during the earnings call. \"We are very excited about Jidu and hope to integrate our AI capabilities into it,\" Robin Li called it \"a machine with four wheels.\"<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/300024\">Robot</a>。”Baidu's shift in focus is now being applied to various movements.<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/KRKR\">36Kr</a>As recently exclusively reported, Baidu has just incorporated Baidu Maps into its automotive business segment.While Baidu's determination to invest in research and development and try to open up new fields even in difficult times is certainly commendable, the risk that Baidu once proposed \"All-in AI\" and failed to see operating returns for a long time should not be forgotten.How can we create a highly successful, practical product with long-term technological investment that is difficult to see returns? This is the most real and urgent challenge Baidu faces when talking about its technological dreams.Three major adjustments to the advertising basePreviously, at its Q4 2021 earnings call, Baidu stated that if the pandemic did not worsen after the first quarter of 2022, its advertising business would reach its lowest point. However, during this earnings call, Baidu abandoned its predictions for a turning point in its advertising business. \"Things may improve in the second quarter, but there is still a lot of uncertainty,\" Robin Li said.This has a connotation of \"lying flat\". However, according to 36Kr, Baidu has already adjusted and reformed its advertising business in three aspects: content system, sales system, and organizational structure.The most recent reform on the content side was in April 2021. At that time, Shen Dou, head of Baidu's mobile ecosystem business, proposed the \"X+Y strategy\" for the mobile ecosystem, which is to comprehensively upgrade to service-oriented and personalized. In addition to the layout of traffic entry points such as Baidu App, Baidu Cloud, and Baidu Maps, the company will deeply cultivate vertical industries such as health, e-commerce, and video, so that users can get a complete information search + service experience in Baidu's mobile ecosystem.Taking Baidu App as an example, Baidu App is no longer just a simple search tool, but more like a comprehensive platform that uses \"search\" as a fulcrum to leverage local life services. Users can check express deliveries, book hotels, book movie tickets, etc.Changes in content have also yielded certain results. Financial reports show that in March 2022, Baidu App's MAU increased by 13% year-on-year to 632 million, with daily logged-in users accounting for 83%.Regarding the sales system, in March of this year, Baidu made a comprehensive adjustment to the sales system of its mobile ecosystem: the previous KA (Key Account) sales model was adjusted to be distinguished by customer type, with a focus on establishing several major industries such as mass consumption, big health, content consumption, and business services.Baidu hopes to generate diversified revenue from memberships, tips, transactions, and merchant orders in addition to advertising through cloud storage, e-commerce, and lifestyle services. However, there has not been much progress in the reform of the sales system so far.Following changes on both the content and sales sides, Baidu directly underwent a major reshuffle of its senior management: on May 5, Shen Dou officially switched careers to become the head of the intelligent cloud business. He has a more important task: to shoulder the growth of the second growth curve business, intelligent cloud. The mobile ecosystem business is headed by He Junjie, the newly appointed senior vice president of Baidu Group.It is evident that after the completion of the content sales system reform, the long-term direction of Baidu's mobile ecosystem has stabilized. As for whether it will make money and how to stabilize its core business, that is up to He Junjie. He has helped Baidu successfully operate several investment and acquisition projects. As a manager with a background in finance, it remains to be seen whether He Junjie will exercise greater control over cost investment in the future.Looking back, we can see that Baidu's search business transformation always seemed to be accompanied by shadows: the second half of the PC era coincided with the rapid expansion of the mobile internet, and after Baidu came to its senses in its mobile ecosystem business, short video platforms had already made a full-scale invasion. In addition, in the face of the pandemic, its mobile ecosystem strategy has always lacked an opportunity to be fully implemented and demonstrated. Since Shen Dou took over as the number one position in the core business, the potential of this business has been explored for several years. It's hard to imagine any significant growth in this business.Baidu stated that it has also been testing the waters in various ways during the pandemic, launching new products such as Ask a Question. But clearly, they can't afford to make a splash right now.B2B challenges that require continuous irrigationIf Baidu has a \"stability-seeking\" attitude towards its advertising core, then it clearly has high hopes for a second growth curve.Undeniably, AI business has become an indispensable part of Baidu's financial reports, especially Baidu Smart Cloud business. In the first quarter, Baidu's AI Cloud business revenue grew by 3.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45%, a slowdown compared to the 60%-70% growth rate in previous quarters.“Many of our clients are large enterprises or government agencies, and they are very willing to communicate face-to-face. Without the opportunity to meet in person, many things cannot be advanced.” Robin Li frankly admitted the challenges that the pandemic has brought to the smart cloud business at the earnings conference.It is understood that Baidu AI Cloud is mainly implemented in manufacturing, water, energy, transportation, finance and government affairs. In the field of intelligent transportation, Baidu's ACE intelligent transportation solution has been adopted in 41 cities, with contract values exceeding 10 million yuan in each city.In the industrial manufacturing sector, Baidu Vice President Li Shuo previously told 36Kr that Baidu's artificial intelligence technology can help power and water companies automatically monitor energy consumption, automatically adjust specific workshops and production lines, and help companies improve production efficiency.However, Baidu AI Cloud is still operating at a loss. Compared to Alibaba's focus on e-commerce retail and Tencent's focus on entertainment and gaming, it is difficult to have a very universal methodology for AI technology to empower traditional sectors such as industry and energy. The intelligent manufacturing transformation of these traditional sectors varies in level and demand, requiring a longer wait.Currently, Baidu is still in the process of working on multiple projects and setting benchmarks. Baidu AI Cloud needs to extract as much experience as possible from projects and replicate it more quickly in large-scale industry sectors in order to escape its current unprofitable situation.Automotive products face a major testCompared To the B2B challenges that require continuous nurturing, the automotive business is likely To be a major public test that Baidu is about To face.It is understood that the ROBO-01, the first concept car of Baidu's automotive brand Jidu Auto, will be unveiled in early June. Jidu Auto CEO Xia Yiping also announced the latest progress in car manufacturing on Weibo: Jidu has started body mold casting for its first mass-produced vehicle, officially moving from model design to the preparation stage for mass production and manufacturing of the entire vehicle.At the earnings call, Robin Li stated that Jidu Auto expects to begin accepting orders next year, targeting the passenger vehicle market priced at 200,000 yuan. Jidu will also release a second model in the second half of this year. According to sources who told 36Kr, Robin Li's OKR even clearly states the pre-order targets that Jidu Auto aims to achieve this year.It is foreseeable that Baidu is making every effort to implement Jidu. According to 36Kr, Baidu has established a dedicated integration innovation department to support Jidu's work, including facilitating and...<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">NVIDIA</a>Cooperation with chip suppliers, etc.For Baidu, the shadow of the \"Wei Zexi incident\" lingered in its history of To C communication, and its C-end products were limited To a small number of Xiaodu smart speakers. Although the brand building, technology and products, and sales channels of automobiles are all operated independently by Jidu Auto, the shadows are more or less present.Whether Jidu and Baidu can use product strength to impress consumers, build a new image, and bring new benefits is crucial. The former needs To survive among a host of emerging car manufacturers, while Baidu needs To use Jidu's products To leverage more OEMs and strive for a larger automotive B2B market.Currently, in addition to providing its intelligent driving solutions to Jidu, Baidu is also seeking more cooperation. With<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/002594\">BYD</a>Automakers such as Dongfeng Voyah have reached cooperation agreements with Baidu. It is understood that Baidu's intelligent driving solution ASD and in-vehicle infotainment system Xiaodu in-vehicle OS have received a total of about 10 billion yuan in designated and signed projects, compared to 8 billion yuan in the previous quarter.In the field of autonomous driving, Baidu's autonomous driving travel service platform Apollo Go provided 196,000 rides in the first quarter. Currently, Baidu's autonomous vehicles are providing unmanned passenger services in Beijing and conducting unmanned road tests in Chongqing. The investment is substantial, but as a business limited by technology and urban traffic regulations, its commercialization is still lukewarm.Jidu Auto is currently the sharp knife that Baidu is most likely to use. However, with \"Wei, Xiaoli\" surrounding the company and Xiaomi's Lei Jun entering the car manufacturing market, the window of opportunity and opportunities for Jidu to make mistakes are running out.</body></html>","source":"36k","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Robin Li wants to turn crisis into opportunity, but Baidu still lacks a sharp product knife.</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 12.5px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nRobin Li wants to turn crisis into opportunity, but Baidu still lacks a sharp product knife.\n</h2>\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n36氪2022-05-28 11:31\n\n</h4>\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body>Author: Li Anqi<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/BIDU\">Baidu</a>Life isn't easy either. According to Baidu's recently released Q1 2022 financial report, it suffered a net loss of 885 million yuan (including a loss of 3 billion yuan from long-term investments), compared to a net profit of 25.653 billion yuan in the same period last year.How will a company allocate its tight resources amidst the pandemic?Spending cuts are the most common and expected means. Baidu cut its sales and administrative expenses by 11% – consistent with the impression of \"contraction\" left by its continuous layoffs over the past period.Surprisingly, Baidu's R&D investment not only did not decrease this quarter, but also increased by 10% year-on-year; From another perspective, the R&D expenses of 5.134 billion yuan this quarter are equivalent to 24% of its core revenue—which is consistent with the repeated public statements and actions of Baidu founder Robin Li. This founder, who has a technical background, once said: \"When I have 1 yuan, I will invest it in technology.\" One hundred million will be invested in technology; Even with 10 billion, it will still be invested in technology.“Crisis and opportunity are always two sides of the same coin. When there are difficulties in the market, innovative solutions to solve those difficulties are necessary. In business history, many great companies, groundbreaking innovative products, services, and business models emerged during times of economic hardship,” Robin Li said in an internal letter.Already behind<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/00700\">Tencent</a>Given Alibaba's current status, it's no exaggeration to say that Baidu is an underdog. But this large company, which missed out on the mobile era and failed to recover after its reputation was damaged, is trying to stabilize its advertising base while increasing its investment in opening up new markets.As Baidu's core business and cash cow, its online marketing business only declined by 4% year-on-year this quarter, which is already remarkable—Tencent's advertising revenue declined by 16% year-on-year in the same period this year. Baidu's non-online marketing (including Baidu)<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/5RE.SI\">smart</a>Revenue from cloud and other AI businesses increased by 35% year-on-year. Although its cloud business base is small and its market ranking is lower than that of Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei, it is still impressive - Tencent's business segment grew by 10% year-on-year.Coupled with the general rise in Chinese concept stocks on the night of the earnings release (Tencent ADR rose 3.4%),<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/PDD\">Pinduoduo</a>(Up 9.5%), Baidu's closing price rose by more than 14% on May 26. The market seems to be voting in favor of Baidu.One of the new businesses that Baidu is trying to invest in is cloud computing. Recently, Shen Dou, Executive Vice President of Baidu Group, has been transferred from head of mobile ecosystem business to head of intelligent cloud business. Within Baidu, intelligent cloud is regarded as the second growth curve, and Baidu clearly hopes to use a promising future to drive the performance of its cloud business.Another business that Baidu is trying to increase its investment in is the automotive sector, including businesses such as autonomous taxis (Robotaxi)—which requires a lot of R&D spending, but is unlikely to yield results in the short term. The company most likely to be effective in the short term is Jidu Auto, which directly manufactures cars and is a joint venture with Geely. This business was mentioned multiple times by Robin Li during the earnings call. \"We are very excited about Jidu and hope to integrate our AI capabilities into it,\" Robin Li called it \"a machine with four wheels.\"<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/300024\">Robot</a>。”Baidu's shift in focus is now being applied to various movements.<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/KRKR\">36Kr</a>As recently exclusively reported, Baidu has just incorporated Baidu Maps into its automotive business segment.While Baidu's determination to invest in research and development and try to open up new fields even in difficult times is certainly commendable, the risk that Baidu once proposed \"All-in AI\" and failed to see operating returns for a long time should not be forgotten.How can we create a highly successful, practical product with long-term technological investment that is difficult to see returns? This is the most real and urgent challenge Baidu faces when talking about its technological dreams.Three major adjustments to the advertising basePreviously, at its Q4 2021 earnings call, Baidu stated that if the pandemic did not worsen after the first quarter of 2022, its advertising business would reach its lowest point. However, during this earnings call, Baidu abandoned its predictions for a turning point in its advertising business. \"Things may improve in the second quarter, but there is still a lot of uncertainty,\" Robin Li said.This has a connotation of \"lying flat\". However, according to 36Kr, Baidu has already adjusted and reformed its advertising business in three aspects: content system, sales system, and organizational structure.The most recent reform on the content side was in April 2021. At that time, Shen Dou, head of Baidu's mobile ecosystem business, proposed the \"X+Y strategy\" for the mobile ecosystem, which is to comprehensively upgrade to service-oriented and personalized. In addition to the layout of traffic entry points such as Baidu App, Baidu Cloud, and Baidu Maps, the company will deeply cultivate vertical industries such as health, e-commerce, and video, so that users can get a complete information search + service experience in Baidu's mobile ecosystem.Taking Baidu App as an example, Baidu App is no longer just a simple search tool, but more like a comprehensive platform that uses \"search\" as a fulcrum to leverage local life services. Users can check express deliveries, book hotels, book movie tickets, etc.Changes in content have also yielded certain results. Financial reports show that in March 2022, Baidu App's MAU increased by 13% year-on-year to 632 million, with daily logged-in users accounting for 83%.Regarding the sales system, in March of this year, Baidu made a comprehensive adjustment to the sales system of its mobile ecosystem: the previous KA (Key Account) sales model was adjusted to be distinguished by customer type, with a focus on establishing several major industries such as mass consumption, big health, content consumption, and business services.Baidu hopes to generate diversified revenue from memberships, tips, transactions, and merchant orders in addition to advertising through cloud storage, e-commerce, and lifestyle services. However, there has not been much progress in the reform of the sales system so far.Following changes on both the content and sales sides, Baidu directly underwent a major reshuffle of its senior management: on May 5, Shen Dou officially switched careers to become the head of the intelligent cloud business. He has a more important task: to shoulder the growth of the second growth curve business, intelligent cloud. The mobile ecosystem business is headed by He Junjie, the newly appointed senior vice president of Baidu Group.It is evident that after the completion of the content sales system reform, the long-term direction of Baidu's mobile ecosystem has stabilized. As for whether it will make money and how to stabilize its core business, that is up to He Junjie. He has helped Baidu successfully operate several investment and acquisition projects. As a manager with a background in finance, it remains to be seen whether He Junjie will exercise greater control over cost investment in the future.Looking back, we can see that Baidu's search business transformation always seemed to be accompanied by shadows: the second half of the PC era coincided with the rapid expansion of the mobile internet, and after Baidu came to its senses in its mobile ecosystem business, short video platforms had already made a full-scale invasion. In addition, in the face of the pandemic, its mobile ecosystem strategy has always lacked an opportunity to be fully implemented and demonstrated. Since Shen Dou took over as the number one position in the core business, the potential of this business has been explored for several years. It's hard to imagine any significant growth in this business.Baidu stated that it has also been testing the waters in various ways during the pandemic, launching new products such as Ask a Question. But clearly, they can't afford to make a splash right now.B2B challenges that require continuous irrigationIf Baidu has a \"stability-seeking\" attitude towards its advertising core, then it clearly has high hopes for a second growth curve.Undeniably, AI business has become an indispensable part of Baidu's financial reports, especially Baidu Smart Cloud business. In the first quarter, Baidu's AI Cloud business revenue grew by 3.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 45%, a slowdown compared to the 60%-70% growth rate in previous quarters.“Many of our clients are large enterprises or government agencies, and they are very willing to communicate face-to-face. Without the opportunity to meet in person, many things cannot be advanced.” Robin Li frankly admitted the challenges that the pandemic has brought to the smart cloud business at the earnings conference.It is understood that Baidu AI Cloud is mainly implemented in manufacturing, water, energy, transportation, finance and government affairs. In the field of intelligent transportation, Baidu's ACE intelligent transportation solution has been adopted in 41 cities, with contract values exceeding 10 million yuan in each city.In the industrial manufacturing sector, Baidu Vice President Li Shuo previously told 36Kr that Baidu's artificial intelligence technology can help power and water companies automatically monitor energy consumption, automatically adjust specific workshops and production lines, and help companies improve production efficiency.However, Baidu AI Cloud is still operating at a loss. Compared to Alibaba's focus on e-commerce retail and Tencent's focus on entertainment and gaming, it is difficult to have a very universal methodology for AI technology to empower traditional sectors such as industry and energy. The intelligent manufacturing transformation of these traditional sectors varies in level and demand, requiring a longer wait.Currently, Baidu is still in the process of working on multiple projects and setting benchmarks. Baidu AI Cloud needs to extract as much experience as possible from projects and replicate it more quickly in large-scale industry sectors in order to escape its current unprofitable situation.Automotive products face a major testCompared To the B2B challenges that require continuous nurturing, the automotive business is likely To be a major public test that Baidu is about To face.It is understood that the ROBO-01, the first concept car of Baidu's automotive brand Jidu Auto, will be unveiled in early June. Jidu Auto CEO Xia Yiping also announced the latest progress in car manufacturing on Weibo: Jidu has started body mold casting for its first mass-produced vehicle, officially moving from model design to the preparation stage for mass production and manufacturing of the entire vehicle.At the earnings call, Robin Li stated that Jidu Auto expects to begin accepting orders next year, targeting the passenger vehicle market priced at 200,000 yuan. Jidu will also release a second model in the second half of this year. According to sources who told 36Kr, Robin Li's OKR even clearly states the pre-order targets that Jidu Auto aims to achieve this year.It is foreseeable that Baidu is making every effort to implement Jidu. According to 36Kr, Baidu has established a dedicated integration innovation department to support Jidu's work, including facilitating and...<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/NVDA\">NVIDIA</a>Cooperation with chip suppliers, etc.For Baidu, the shadow of the \"Wei Zexi incident\" lingered in its history of To C communication, and its C-end products were limited To a small number of Xiaodu smart speakers. Although the brand building, technology and products, and sales channels of automobiles are all operated independently by Jidu Auto, the shadows are more or less present.Whether Jidu and Baidu can use product strength to impress consumers, build a new image, and bring new benefits is crucial. The former needs To survive among a host of emerging car manufacturers, while Baidu needs To use Jidu's products To leverage more OEMs and strive for a larger automotive B2B market.Currently, in addition to providing its intelligent driving solutions to Jidu, Baidu is also seeking more cooperation. With<a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/002594\">BYD</a>Automakers such as Dongfeng Voyah have reached cooperation agreements with Baidu. It is understood that Baidu's intelligent driving solution ASD and in-vehicle infotainment system Xiaodu in-vehicle OS have received a total of about 10 billion yuan in designated and signed projects, compared to 8 billion yuan in the previous quarter.In the field of autonomous driving, Baidu's autonomous driving travel service platform Apollo Go provided 196,000 rides in the first quarter. Currently, Baidu's autonomous vehicles are providing unmanned passenger services in Beijing and conducting unmanned road tests in Chongqing. The investment is substantial, but as a business limited by technology and urban traffic regulations, its commercialization is still lukewarm.Jidu Auto is currently the sharp knife that Baidu is most likely to use. However, with \"Wei, Xiaoli\" surrounding the company and Xiaomi's Lei Jun entering the car manufacturing market, the window of opportunity and opportunities for Jidu to make mistakes are running out.</body></html>\n<div class=\"bt-text\">\n\n\n source：<a href=\"https://36kr.com/p/1759069616563456\">36氪</a>\n\n\n</div>\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/696b32447d1c181a7397c96ba125d7bd","relate_stocks":{"BIDU":"百度","09888":"百度集团-W"},"source_url":"https://36kr.com/p/1759069616563456","is_english":false,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1179976673","content_text":"作者：李安琪百度的日子也不好过。根据百度刚发布的2022年一季度财报，它净亏损8.85亿元（计入长期投资亏损30亿），而上年同期是净利润256.53亿元。疫情围困之际，一家公司会将如何调配捉襟见肘的资源？缩减开支是最常见、最意料之中的手段。百度在销售及管理费用上缩减了11%的开支——这与它过去一段时间持续裁员、给大家留下的“收缩”印象相符。但出人意表的是，百度的研发投入本季度不仅没有缩减，还同比上涨了10%；换个视角看，本季51.34亿元的研发费用，更是相当于其核心营收的24%——这跟百度创始人李彦宏的多次公开表态言行一致。这位技术出身的创始人曾说过：有1块钱的时候，会投进技术里；有1个亿，会投进技术里；有100个亿，还是会投进技术里。“危和机从来都是一体两面。市场存在困难，就一定同时需要解决困难的创新方案。在商业历史上，很多伟大的公司、划时代的创新产品、服务和商业模式，都是在经济困难时期出现的。”李彦宏在内部信中如此说道。在已经落后腾讯、阿里一个身位的今天，说百度是underdog也并不过分。但这家错失移动时代、名誉受损后也未能恢复的大公司，正试图一边稳住广告基本盘，一边加注开辟新的市场。作为百度基本盘、现金牛的在线营销业务，本季仅同比下降4%，已属不易——腾讯今年同期广告业务收入同比下降 16%。而百度非在线营销（包括百度智能云和其他AI业务）收入则同比增长35%，虽然考虑其云业务基数较小、市场排名低于阿里腾讯华为，但也堪称亮眼——腾讯该业务板块同比增速为10%。再叠加上财报发布当晚中概股普涨（腾讯ADR涨3.4%、拼多多涨9.5%），5月26日百度收盘涨幅超14%。市场似乎正对百度投下赞同票。百度试图加注的新业务之一，正是云业务。近期，百度集团执行副总裁沈抖已经从移动生态业务掌门人，调整为智能云业务负责人。在百度内部，智能云被视为第二增长曲线，百度显然希望用一名大将来带动云业务业绩。百度试图加注的另一项业务，则是汽车板块，包括自动驾驶出租车（Robotaxi）等业务——这需要大量的研发费用，但却短期难以见效。最可能在短期有效果的，是直接造车、跟吉利合资的集度汽车。该业务在财报会中被李彦宏多次提及。“我们对集度充满了兴奋，希望将我们的 AI 能力等都整合到集度中去。”李彦宏称之为“一台有四个轮子的机器人。”百度的这种重心挪移正体现在各种动作上，36氪近期曾独家报道，百度刚把百度地图划入汽车业务板块。即便在艰难时刻也要加注研发、试图开辟新领域的决心固然值得期许，但是百度曾提出“All-in AI”并久久难见经营收益，这种风险也不该被忘记。如何在长期难见收益的技术投入中，做出能“爆”的落地产品？这是百度谈技术梦想时，最真实也最迫切的挑战。广告基本盘的三次大调整此前2021年四季度财报会上，百度曾表示如果2022年一季度后疫情不再恶化，广告业务将迎来最低点。然而此次财报会中，百度已经放弃了对广告业务转折点的预测。“第二季度或许有所好转，但是现在不确定性还是挺多的。”李彦宏表示。这颇有“躺平”的意味。不过据36氪了解，目前百度已经对广告业务的内容体系、销售体系和组织架构三方面进行了调整与改革。内容侧最近一次的改革，是在2021年4月。彼时百度移动生态业务负责人沈抖提出了移动生态“X＋Y战略”，即全面向服务化和人格化升级，在百度App、百度网盘、百度地图等流量入口的布局之上，深耕健康、电商、视频等垂直行业，让用户在百度的移动生态中获得完整的信息搜索+服务体验。以百度App为例，当下百度App已经不再是单纯的搜索工具，更像是一个以“搜索”为支点来撬动本地生活服务的综合平台，用户可以查快递、订酒店、订电影票等。内容端的变革也带来一定成效。财报数据显示，2022年3月百度App的MAU同比增长13%，达到6.32亿，日登录用户占比达到83%。而销售体系方面，今年3月百度对移动生态的销售体系进行全面调整：将以往KA（大客户）的销售模式调整为以客户类型为区分，重点设立涵盖大众消费类、大健康类、内容消费类、商务服务类等几大行业。百度希望除广告业务之外，还可以通过网盘、电商、生活服务等业务，实现会员、打赏、交易、商单等多元化收入。不过该销售体系变革成果目前还没有太多进展。而在内容和销售两侧变动之后，百度直接进行高层人事大调整：5月5日沈抖正式切换赛道，成为智能云业务负责人，他有更加重要的任务：扛起第二增长曲线业务智能云的增长。而移动生态业务则是由新晋百度集团资深副总裁何俊杰担任。可见，在内容销售体系都变革完成之后，百度移动生态方面的长期方向已经趋于稳定，至于接下来赚不赚钱，怎么稳住基本盘，则是交给何俊杰。他曾帮助百度成功操作多个投资收购项目——何俊杰作为一位财务线出身的管理者，接下来是否会在成本投入上做更多把控，值得继续观察。回顾过往会发现，百度的搜索业务转型似乎总伴随着阴霾：PC时代下半场遇上移动互联网高速扩张，等百度在移动生态业务上回过神之后，短视频平台已经全方位入侵。加之在疫情面前，其移动生态战略也始终缺乏一个可以酣畅施展、大展拳脚的机会。自沈抖出任基本盘业务一号位的几年中，对该业务的潜力挖掘已经进行数年。很难想象这块业务还能有什么大的增长。百度表示：疫情中百度也在多方试水，推出问一问等新产品。但显然，目前还扑腾不起水花。需持续浇灌的To B难题如果说，百度对其广告基本盘抱有“求稳”心态，那么对第二增长曲线显然给予了厚望。不可否认，AI业务已经成为百度财报中无法忽视的一部分，尤其是百度智能云业务。一季度百度智能云业务增速营收39亿，同比增长45%，较之过往季度60%-70%的增速有所放缓。“很多客户都是大企业或政府机构，他们非常愿意面对面沟通，如果没有办法见面，很多事情都没有办法推进。”李彦宏在财报会上坦诚了疫情对智能云业务带来的挑战。据了解，百度智能云主要在制造业、水务、能源、交通、金融和政务等领域落地。在智能交通领域，百度ACE智能交通解决方案已经被41个城市采用，城市合同金额均超过千万元。在工业制造领域，此前百度副总裁李硕告诉36氪，百度的人工智能技术能够帮助电力、水务公司自动监测能源使用的消耗情况、对具体车间和产线进行自动调节，帮助企业提升生产效率。但百度智能云目前仍处于亏损状态。较之阿里锚定的电商零售、腾讯锚定的文娱游戏领域，AI技术赋能工业、能源等传统领域很难有一套非常通用的方法论，这些传统领域的智能制造转型，水平参差需求各异，需要更漫长的等待。目前百度也还处于多方奔走、立标杆项目状态。百度智能云需要从项目中最大程度抽取经验，更快地复制到大规模行业赛道，才有可能摆脱不盈利的现状。汽车产品面临大考比起需要持续浇灌的To B难题，汽车业务恐怕是百度即将面临的公众大考。据了解，百度旗下汽车品牌集度汽车的首款车型概念车ROBO-01将会在6月初亮相。集度汽车CEO夏一平也在微博上公布了最新造车进展：集度首款量产车启动车身模具铸造，正式从车型设计迈向整车量产制造的准备阶段。财报会上，李彦宏表示：集度汽车预计明年开始接受订单，目标是 20万元的乘用车市场，今年下半年集度还会发布第二款车型。据消息人士对36氪透露，李彦宏的OKR中甚至明确写下了今年集度汽车要实现的预订单目标。可以预想，百度内部正在全力推进集度的落地。据36氪了解，百度内部专门成立了一个融通创新部门来支持集度的工作，包括疏通和英伟达等芯片供应商的合作。对百度来说，其To C传播史上曾有挥之不去的“魏则西事件”阴影，C端的产品也只有为数不多的小度智能音箱。虽然汽车的品牌构建、技术产品、销售渠道都由集度汽车独立运营，但阴霾或多或少相伴。能否用产品力来打动消费者，建立新形象，带来新效益点，对集度和百度来说至关重要。前者需要在一众造车新势力中存活下去，百度则需要用集度的产品撬动更多主机厂，争取更大的汽车To B市场。目前，百度的智能驾驶方案除了向集度提供之外，也还在寻求更多的合作。随着比亚迪、东风岚图等车企与百度达成合作，据了解百度的智能驾驶方案ASD 和车载信息娱乐系统小度车载 OS获得的定点和签约项目金额累计100 亿左右，上个季度该数据为80亿。在自动驾驶方面，百度自动驾驶出行服务平台萝卜快跑一季度提供了19.6万次乘车服务。目前百度的自动驾驶车辆正在北京提供无人化载人服务、在重庆进行无人化路测。投入不小，但作为一个受限于技术和城市交通法规的业务，其商业化仍处于不温不火的状态。集度汽车是目前百度最可能刺出的那一把尖刀。但是在“蔚小理”环伺、小米雷军下场造车的当下，留给集度的时间窗口、犯错机会已经不多。","news_type":1,"symbols_score_info":{"09888":0.9,"BIDU":0.9}},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":4535,"commentLimit":10,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"symbols":[],"verified":2,"subType":0,"readableState":1,"langContent":"EN","currentLanguage":"EN","warmUpFlag":false,"orderFlag":false,"shareable":true,"causeOfNotShareable":"","featuresForAnalytics":[],"commentAndTweetFlag":false,"andRepostAutoSelectedFlag":false,"upFlag":false,"length":4,"subscribersOnly":false,"subscribersOnlyAccessible":false,"xxTargetLangEnum":"ORIG"},"commentList":[],"hasMoreComment":false,"orderType":2}