Robin Li (Chinese name Hongyan Li) was born in November 17th 1968, at Yangquan City, China. He get his Bachelor degree in information management from Peking University (best college in mainland China) in 1991. Then he went to U.S. study at University at Buffalo, the State University of New York. He get his Master degree in computer science at UB in 1994. He was the inventor for system of hyperlink analysis and received a U.S. patent in 1999.
He founded Baidu in 2000, and led it to become one of the biggest Chinese internet company. Baidu start as a search engine company and its success was largely base on the system of hyperlink analysis. The system of hyperlink analysis allows the most popular results will come at the top when people are using Baidu search engine. And Baidu was dominate the market. In August 2005, Baidu finished its initial public offering on NASDAQ. Now it has a market capital over 62 billion U.S. dollar.
After Baidu’s IPO, Baidu start invest other internet company and become a giant internet corporation. In 2010, Baidu established a new independent company Qiyi (currently known as iQiyi), an online video platform (kind like YouTube). In July 2011, Baidu acquired a majority stake in Qunar() for 306 million U.S. dollar. Qunar is a Chinese provider of travel services including transportation ticketing, packaged tours, accommodation reservation, and corporate travel management. Baidu acquired a hundred percent equity interest in 91 Wireless from NetDragon for 1.9 billion U.S. dollar in October 2013. In April 2014, Baidu launched Baidu Wallet (like Apple Pay). Baidu also started a new company called Baidu Takeout Delivery in May 2014(takeout delivery service is a multibillion industry). In China, Baidu, Tencent,and Alibaba, all know as BAT. They are the three giant company. Almost every other internet company are either own bay them or invested by them.
Even though, Baidu had invested so many different type of companies, their main revenues still come from search services.below is part of Baidu’s annual report. The annual report shows majority of thier revenue form search service. And it alomst triple in past four yeras.
Many organizations pay Baidu, so their goods or services will come on top of many results when people are using Baidu search engine. Like the hospital that Wei went to. When Baidu put all these infoemation on their search engine, they did not do background check to make sure all the information are corrcect. They more care about their profit than their users.
http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBoardBio&ID=143589
http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-milestones
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/18/188488/reports/Baidu%202015%2020-F.PDF
Business Ethics Case Studies 
Hi Yuchun,
I didn’t know a lot about baidu, so I think its a very interesting topic. Clear article- the unethical issue is that Baidu does not fully regulate and check whether the sources that they have are reliable and trustworthy for the users of the search engine. Despite Baidu being so untrustworthy like the incident that happened with Wei, why is it still popular and used by so many people? Is it because other chinese search engines lack resources that Baidu has?
Apart from the incident with Wei, is baidu as a search engine still considered reliable?
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Hi Alyssa
Thank you for your feedback. I think the reason why Baidu is still popular in China is that other search engines are really not good as Baidu. I have tried other search engines such as 360 , Sougou. Also, Baidu was the first one on this business, they had an enormous first mover advantage. As far as Baidu consider, I personally think they are the best in China.
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I have used Baidu a lot in China, before seeing your article, I think it is very reliable. So I think most people are just like me, they don’t know about the serious ethical problem of Baidu. What reasons you think make this situation appear in China?
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Well, I think there are many reasons. I think the most important reason is that Baidu’s company culture. Baidu’s as a company they only focus on profit and nothing else. Also, Baidu does not have a very stronger competitor in China. They are the only player in the game, I think that cause the problem too.
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