Baidu, which has always emphasized technology and R&D investment, recently began to reflect on the gap between technology R&D and practical application at the internal staff meeting.

　　On the afternoon of January 6, a recent internal speech by Baidu Chairman Robin Li leaked out.

He pointed out many problems in the enterprise and asked everyone to face up to the problems in the business.

　　Li Yanhong took a high-growth star business of Baidu as an example, saying that there are more than 10,000 engineers doing research and development. If you take a closer look, self-developed products only account for more than 20% of revenue, and the remaining 70% are resold.

"What's the difference between this and a trading company?"

　　The financial report shows that in recent years, Baidu's technology research and development investment accounted for more than 20% of its revenue.

Li Yanhong said at the plenary meeting that Baidu still values ​​technology investment and innovation, but he emphasized the importance of matching technology with the market, so that technical experts should not "self-proclaim" and make technologies that the market really needs.

　　"Many times, due to the limitations of personal ability or the limitations of our system and mechanism, some technical students do things that are far away from the market, and many times they are self-satisfied." Li Yanhong said, "He thought he did a good job, but I posted I published a top paper, I applied for a patent, and I made some rankings. But after a year or two, I found out that this thing has not been used.”

　　He said that he saw some technologies being used on the surface, but he asked the business "how much they are willing to pay for this technology", and the result was "it is useless, let me pay for the budget, and I am not willing to pay." The technicians are a big blow, and the waste of time and energy is also a waste of resources for the company.

　　A Baidu insider who participated in the simple appointment revealed to the first financial reporter that although the atmosphere of the live broadcast of the all-hands meeting (internally called "simple appointment") seemed relaxed, the content of the chat was high-density and the words were sharp. Directly point to the problems of various aspects of the enterprise.

　　In addition to the topic of research and development and implementation, in terms of "cost reduction and efficiency increase", Li Yanhong said that he encountered many unexpected situations.

For example, many employees do not have a deep understanding of the nature of business.

In particular, many of Baidu's new businesses are losing money. After a long time, everyone feels that losing money is justified, and even some senior executives of Baidu don't think about "whether the business can make money in another three years, or whether it will be profitable again." It will make money in five years, or it will not make money in a hundred years."

He asked rhetorically, "When we were implementing it, did anyone go to see what happened seven years later?"

　　Li Yanhong said that Baidu has begun to adjust, and the gross profit is more qualitative than the income.

"In the early years of our search business, part of our income came from the alliance. The traffic of the alliance was actually bought, and the money we earned had to be shared with the partners of these traffic." Robin Li said, "But later we did all kinds of new businesses. At that time, everyone gradually forgot: why I want to do this new business, why I have to lose 1 billion or 5 billion a year to do this thing.”

　　He also asked to pay attention to operating profit: "Although some businesses have gross profits, they still lose money after deducting R&D and various expenses. In the short term, it is possible to say losses because of rapid growth, but in the long run it is not."

　　Cash flow is just as important.

"Although there is income on the books, in fact the money has not been recovered. It is the money owed to you by the customer. Many, many To B companies have no profit or no cash flow. In the end, the funds broke and died. There are many such companies. .”

　　When talking about business transformation, he mentioned that "if the company wants GMV, I will make GMV; if the company wants DAU, I will make DAU; if the company wants income, I will find a way to turn turnover into income." When it is passed on to the front-line employees who actually do the work, they don't understand "why do I do this" at all, which is very bad.

　　He also asked every employee to face up to the problems existing in the business. "Some people's weekly reports are always good news. How much has been improved here, and who has been surpassed there, and we will never see which of our progress is not in line with expectations. But he Are the things you are responsible for always in line with expectations?"

　　For AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content), Li Yanhong revealed caution in his speech.

He reminded that the opportunity is not very clear now. If the technology can achieve this step, what kind of product will it become and what kind of demand will it meet?

In this chain, there are actually many uncertainties.

"We are a commercial organization, can we turn such a cool technology into a product that everyone needs?"

　　At the general meeting, Robin Li was also asked by employees whether he paid attention to Ma Huateng's recent internal speech.

Not long ago, Ma Huateng said in an internal speech that many of Tencent's businesses should be cut as soon as they should be cut. Don't blindly follow your friends and don't believe in buying volume. He also mentioned that Tencent's corruption problem is serious.

Li Yanhong also responded to this, saying, "Baidu also has the problems of Tencent." He also said that Baidu does not have such a star product as Ma Huateng's video account, but the R&D intensity and the ratio of R&D to the total revenue are higher than Tencent's. "Although I am losing a lot of money now, but I believe there will be corresponding returns in the future.”

　　Li Yanhong said that he is optimistic about the long-term development of the economy, and mentioned that for new businesses, no matter what the indicators reported by the team are, he will set a much higher indicator.

"There are three or four new businesses, as long as one business comes out, I think it's doing well."