Topic: Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2009
Xinhuanet Boao (Hainan) April 17th The annual meeting of Boao Forum for Asia 2009 was held from April 17th to 19th, 2009. More than 1,600 senior representatives from all over the world gathered in Hainan. It will discuss hot topics such as the evolution of the current financial crisis, whether the Asian economy can take the lead in getting out of the haze, enterprise innovation and capital market. "Xinhuanet enters Boao" will conduct a series of interviews and invite guests to communicate with netizens on related issues. The guest who walked into the interview room in front of Xinhuanet today is Li Kaifu, vice president of Google and president of Greater China.
On the 17th, Kai-Fu Lee, President of Google Greater China, visited the high-end interview of Xinhua News Agency and the live broadcast room in front of the Boao Forum of Xinhuanet. The picture shows Kai-Fu Lee’s rich expression in the interview. Xinhuanet Li Chun/photo
On the 17th, Kai-Fu Lee, President of Google Greater China, visited Xinhua News Agency for a high-end interview and the live broadcast room in front of the Boao Forum of Xinhuanet. The picture shows Kai-Fu Lee answering questions. Xinhuanet Li Chun/photo
Moderator: Welcome Mr. Li to visit Xinhuanet. The first thing I want to ask is how many times have you participated in Boao Forum for Asia? How do you feel about this annual meeting?
Li Kaifu: It should be the fourth time. Every time Boao Forum is very successful, there is a very clear theme. This theme certainly revolves around the global financial crisis and what role we play in Asia and China. This is a good question, and it is very appropriate now. We saw that the distinguished guests were still very enthusiastic and were not affected by the financial crisis at all, indicating that this forum has indeed played a world brand.
Internet can help reduce the negative impact of the financial crisis.
Moderator: As the moderator of the Internet branch of this forum, from what angle do you want to discuss the theme of Internet innovation and change at tomorrow’s branch? What kind of views and opinions do you personally want to express most?
Kai-fu Lee: I think we may discuss several issues. First, what impact the financial crisis has had on the Internet industry, especially the Internet in China, what impact it has had in the past, and how much impact it will have in the future, are more concerned.
Second, how can the Internet help China or help the world solve or alleviate the financial crisis and the problems it brings?
In addition, because the participants are experts in the Internet industry, they may discuss what we can see and learn from the so-called Internet bubble that happened about 9 years ago, and what may happen again this time.
Personally, I think the Internet can help reduce the negative impact of the financial crisis in many ways. For example, as a company, Google’s share with small websites has reached $5 billion in the world, which means that this $5 billion can help many small enterprises or entrepreneurial enterprises tide over the difficulties.
In addition, we can see that many other companies, such as Ding Lei of Netease, may talk about how the Internet can help solve some problems in rural areas. Therefore, I think every company may have different views. What everyone really recognizes is that the Internet is definitely a good channel. Whether it is through its advertising, influence and combination with traditional enterprises, or the business opportunities it creates, it can help alleviate the financial crisis. But I don’t think it can solve the financial crisis by itself. It is just a way, like the media and television.
Moderator: Just now, you mentioned that you would discuss how much the Internet industry will be affected by the financial crisis, so please talk about it in detail. What kind of influence has the Internet industry been affected? Is there any good way to deal with it?
Li Kaifu: From the short-term profit, almost every Internet company has been affected after the financial crisis. However, we can also see that most Internet companies are relatively less affected. For example, Google announced its financial report for the first quarter of 2009 yesterday, and we still have a good profit, but it may not rise as fast as before, but the growth rate is slowing down, not being seriously hurt.
On the whole, I am personally optimistic. Why is the Internet industry still optimistic? Because the internet is a very good sales channel, when people are short of money, they want to do the same thing with less money. Reducing costs is one way, and eliminating channels is another. If you have less money, you may want to sell directly, and the internet can just facilitate such a thing.
Moderator: Google’s profit in the first quarter financial report is still considerable, but you also mentioned that the growth rate has slowed down. What are your expectations for the operation of Google in 2009?
Li Kaifu: Eric Schmidt, our CEO, said at the press conference yesterday that we are experiencing a special financial crisis that we have never seen before, and we have never encountered such a situation, so there is no way to predict what will happen. But he also said with great confidence that the financial crisis will pass one day. As a company, how can we get ready? When the financial crisis passes, when the economy begins to recover, and when the growth begins to accelerate, how can we grow rapidly? I still think that search advertising is still a very good business model, and it is a low-cost business model during the economic crisis, which may help you grow dramatically after the economic crisis.
Moderator: The theme of the Internet Branch tomorrow is "Internet innovation will drive economic change every winter after ten years". What do you think of the Internet’s promotion of economic development through technological innovation?
Kai-fu Lee: On the one hand, this is very suitable. On the other hand, it’s a little hard to meet. Coincidentally, Google was born in the financial crisis, almost in 2000 and 2001, when all the ".COM" bubbles caused their demise. At this time, Google was just a period of growth. At that time, it was also very clever. On the one hand, two young people thought of a new business model in Stanford, and this business model can make good technology very quickly and very well. Internet technology is to make very good technology very quickly. Once it was made, although everyone lost a lot of money, they couldn’t help but invest when they saw such a good technology. After Google became the richest company, the elites from those closed companies invested in Google one by one, so I personally think that Google was lucky to appear in this period, attracting excellent talents and making technology quickly. In this financial crisis, the Internet can also innovate. When it is not financing today, it can get the best people when it is hard to find a job, and then it will become the next miracle of the Internet. But I can’t predict what this company is, when it will happen and what state it is now.
Mobile, intelligent and personalized search engine is the future development trend.
Moderator: You mentioned that search engine is a very good model, so what do you think of the future development trend of search engine technology?
Li Kaifu: In fact, the development of search engines has just begun. Today’s search engines can be said to have taken several steps: the first generation of search engines is a text search engine; The second generation of search engines are different search engines, such as searching for pictures and books; The third generation search engine is integrated search, which integrates all kinds of different information, and searches for different contents, including words, pictures, videos and so on, by typing a search word.
There are several important trends further down: First, mobile search. Because there are more mobile phones than PCs, and mobile phones spend more time around than PCs, this is an important way. But not only mobile phones, televisions and cars in the future, all those who can access the Internet need to search, because the information is too big and too rich, so you must search to get a few information you really need; Second, an intelligent and personalized search engine. That is, the search engine can make individuals adjust the search results, that is, I don’t like a search result when I see it. I hope you can sort it in a different way or only give me information in a certain country, or even let me sort it in time, or sort it in importance, region and so on. Another kind of personalized understanding is that it can get the content I need for everyone’s needs. For example, if I search for "apple", I may search for Apple computer, and you may search for the fruit apple.
Moderator: In short, as long as people can find what they want more conveniently and quickly, it is the development goal that search engines should achieve.
Kai-fu Lee: We think that the ultimate task of a search engine is to lay down a question and get an answer, instead of typing a string of search words and seeing a million results. For example, one day I said "send my mother a bunch of flowers" to the search engine, and he could buy flowers and send them very kindly. I think this day will come in stages. For example, Google’s life search has reached a part of this function, and I believe it will get better and better. I believe that similar searches will be seen within three to five years. If every search word gives you a perfect answer, I think I may not see it all my life.
It is suggested that the Internet industry in China can better integrate with the world.
Moderator: What do you think is the biggest difficulty that the Internet industry in China is currently facing or what needs to be improved?
Kai-Fu Lee: I think the Internet in China has actually developed very well as a whole, and the increase rate of netizens is the highest in the world. The innovation of Internet companies in China is also improving. At first, they may have introduced many ideas from abroad, but they are gradually optimizing and putting forward new ideas. These aspects have made good progress.
If I put forward an idea and suggestion, I would hope that the Internet industry in China can better connect with the world. I found that netizens in China almost only read Chinese content, not foreign content. In fact, foreign countries still have a lot, very good and very rich content. Therefore, I think the integration in this respect may be insufficient. On the one hand, with so many netizens and such a large domestic demand market growing in China, I feel that I am on my own. In some small countries or backward countries, because they have no content of their own, netizens are forced to learn English and find translation tools. On the one hand, it is very hard, but on the other hand, they have learned the content of the language. I hope that when you search, users in China may see some results in Chinese, and some results in English. However, if you translate your search words into English, the results in English will be translated into Chinese for you to see. This day will be seamless, and users will be able to see things all over the world without leaving home.
Moderator: Thank you very much for accepting the interview with Xinhuanet. Finally, I want to ask Mr. Li a question. What kind of suggestions do you have for the development of Xinhuanet?
Kai-fu Lee: I think the content of Xinhuanet is still very rich. The innovation of the Internet is often not only about what you can do in the past, but also the direction of future development. For example, how to better integrate with the whole world may be a feature of Xinhua. Many other companies do not have this resource and may not have the ability to do it. My only hope is to wish Xinhuanet can really help the Internet in China and the Internet in other countries in the world, and can do a convergence work so that the whole world can enjoy the information generated by different countries.
Moderator: Thank you.
Editor: Gao Song
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