Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

How Baidu takes on Egypt, and the world - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Headshot
Kaiser Kuo
China's largest search engine Baidu, number two in the world, is expanding globally. Kaiser Kuo, director international communication, explains in Knowledge CKGSB its global strategy, and why Egypt is high on the list of countries it wants to conquer. 

Knowledge CKGSB:
Some time back, Baidu CEO Robin Li declared that he wanted Baidu to be a household name in 50% of the world’s markets. The company has already started taking baby steps to realize this goal. According to Kaiser Kuo, Director of International Communications at Baidu, “Today we are the number two search engine in the world. The core technology for searches in a way can be applied (elsewhere), so there’s some scale that you can leverage from existing platforms.” To go global, Baidu is looking at emerging markets which are underserved by the dominant players. These markets are still evolving from an internet user perspective. 
Baidu believes that having roots in China will help as it globalizes. “In China we really are in two markets at the same time,” says Kuo. “We have the developed world market in these first-tier cities and we are very much in the mainstream of technological developments globally. We also serve very much a developing world market already with a relatively unsophisticated user base with relatively unsophisticated consumers. So we’ve gotten really good at developing technologies and products that are appropriate for those sorts of markets.” 
So far Baidu has chosen to dip its toes in Japan, Egypt, Vietnam, Thailand and Brazil (and has plans for other markets as well). So Baidu went in with Japanese language search in Japan, it took a Portugese language version of Hao123 (a directory of weblinks) to Brazil (and a similar local-language version of the same site in Thailand), and an Arabic version of Baidu Knows in Egypt. “These products were chosen in part because of their ability to help us understand the terrain and to connect us with other players,” says Kuo. 
The choice of countries is somewhat surprising. Take Egypt for instance, which doesn’t rate very high on many companies’ globalization plans. But Baidu has thought this through. “Egyptian Arabic has now become sort of standard from the Maghreb all the way through to Iraq, and Egypt is the culturally dominant country in the Middle East. It has the highest output of literature, film and so forth. There’s a huge group of very well trained engineers in Egypt,” says Kuo. “It makes the most sense from a lot of perspectives.” 
Baidu’s strategy is simple: go where English is not the dominant language, build capabilities in that market—and then expand.
More in Knowledge CKGSB.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in  our speakers' request form.

The China Weekly Hangout discussed the global aspirations of China's internet companies with Steven Millward of Tech in China on November 15, 2012.

This week, on Thursday 14 March, the China Weekly Hangout will focus on the media in Hong Kong. In the 1990s they were a beacon of hope, and Hong Kong one of few global news capitals. With Paul Fox of the HKU we will discuss the state of Hong Kong media. You can read our announcement here, or directly register at our event page. 
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Why China is not collapsing - Shaun Rein

ShaunReinportraitImage by Fantake via Flickr
The main difference between Tunesia, Egypt, Libya on one hand and China? Most Chinese support their government, argues Shaun Rein in CNBC in response to those who predict China might be the next on the block of governments under siege. Shaun Rein:
Sure, the system has shortcomings and continued reforms are necessary – corruption in particular is a significant problem area. But any unrest is more akin to the protests in Wisconsin than those in Tripoli.

People are far more likely to blame local governments than the central government. Many levels of society, from the military to the middle class to even the rising lower class, benefit from the status quo – no one wants a return to the chaos of the pre-opening up era.
China is not a one-family government, but a tidbit more complicated than many foreign observers think, and on a much more solid foundation, Rein argues in CNBC.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

How Cairo shocked China - Howard French

HowardHoward French by Fantake via Flickr
While China was busy repatriating its citizens from Egypt, writes Howard French in The Atlantic, "nowhere have these stories attempted an honest explanation of why an evacuation was needed in the first place. To do so would require getting into some deeply messy topics in post-Tiananmen China about popular demands for democracy and accountability and about the military's ambivalent relationship to the political leadership."
And more:
It is hard, though, to overstate the difficulties of spinning the Egypt situation from the perspective of the star of the Authoritarian International, in the delightful phrase of Chrystia Freeland, of Reuters. Things were so much simpler when so-called Color Revolutions swept a number of constituent parts of the former Soviet Union and the Balkans in the early 2000s. Beijing could indulge in the paranoid or cynical fantasy that this was a case of the West using its insidious non-governmental organizations and funding for civil society to undermine authoritarian regimes that had traditionally been in the socialist orbit. This was cast as a hostile takeover, and Beijing used this as an excuse to tighten controls on association both real and virtual. It also spread its word of caution in the non-democratic world: "Beware. If you let your guard down, this is what the West will do to you."
More in The Atlantic.

Howard French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.
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Monday, January 31, 2011

What China can learn from the events in Egypt - Shaun Rein

ShaunReinportraitShaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr
The situation in China has very little in common with Egypt, says Shain Rein in CNBC, but China's leadership can learn a few lessons from the country's turmoil. When trouble will occur, it will come from the students, not the middle class.
While it seems unlikely a revolt could happen anytime soon – most Chinese still firmly support the direction the government is taking the country – the reality is that university graduates could pose a problem in the coming decades if they feel their future options are being limited by corruption or a weak educational system that does not train them properly for the global job market.
What China can take from Egypt’s situation is that it needs to stamp out corruption quicker than it is now. Even when government officials are not corrupt, many assume they are...
Second, while corruption in Egypt is a problem, it is nothing new. It has been an issue since Mubarak rose to power. What is new now is the depths of the financial crisis facing Egypt which is leaving limited employment options for the middle class. That has further stoked Egyptians’ anger at what they see as privilege and corruption among the elites.
To ensure enough good jobs, China needs to reform its education system to prepare its students for a global business world that is fast moving, not just how to take standardized tests.
More in CNBC.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.
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