李彥宏找到百度“二把手”

Baidu chief executive Robin Li is to step back from the day-to-day running of the Chinese search engine group to take on a more strategic role.

百度(Baidu)首席執(zhí)行官李彥宏(Robin Li)將退出這家中文搜索引擎集團的日常運營，轉而扮演一個更具戰(zhàn)略性的角色。

After 17 years at the helm, the group’s co-founder is to hand over the daily challenges to Qi Lu, who was yesterday appointed chief operating officer. Mr Lu was poached from Microsoft and is an expert in artificial intelligence.

在掌舵17年后，百度聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人將把日常挑戰(zhàn)交給陸奇，后者昨日被任命為首席運營官。身為人工智能(AI)專家的陸奇是百度從微軟(Microsoft)挖來的。

“I want to gradually take the day-to-day management work off my shoulders,” Mr Li said at a media briefing at the company’s headquarters in Beijing. “I think I will be spending a little more time on investing.”

“我希望逐步把市場管理事務放下來，包括多花一點時間到投資上，”李彥宏在公司北京總部舉行的一個媒體吹風會上表示。

Mr Li had fulfilled the functions of chief operating officer for the past seven years since the previous incumbent resigned, and said Mr Lu’s appointment was in order to spur the company’s AI research — the group’s key focus for the coming decade. However, Mr Li was vague about how the new strategy of emphasising Baidu’s AI research would translate into company revenues.

自上任首席運營官辭職以來，李彥宏在過去7年期間一直履行這一職能。他表示，延攬陸奇是為了推動該公司的人工智能研究;后者是百度集團在未來10年的關鍵重點。不過，李彥宏對于注重人工智能研究的新戰(zhàn)略將如何轉化為百度的營收語焉不詳。

Last year, regulators ordered Baidu to reduce the advertising it carries alongside its search results, following a highly publicised scandal in which a young man died after receiving experimental cancer treatment advertised on Baidu.com. The company’s net profits declined by a third from the previous year in the second quarter of 2016.

去年，監(jiān)管機構責令百度減少其搜索結果頁面上的廣告，此前發(fā)生了一起被廣泛報道的丑聞，一個年輕人在接受了在百度上投放廣告的實驗性癌癥治療后身亡。2016年第二季度，該公司的凈利潤同比下降三分之一。

Baidu relies on healthcare ad­vertising for 20 to 30 per cent of its search revenues, says Barclays. Search revenues made up 84 per cent of the group’s sales in 2015.

據(jù)巴克萊(Barclays)稱，百度依賴醫(yī)療廣告獲得20%至30%的搜索營收。搜索營收占集團2015年銷售額的84%。

Mr Li will be spending more time with Baidu’s three investment teams, which he set up last autumn: the M&A department; Baidu Venture, which invests in early stage AI start-ups; and Baidu Capital, which acts as a private equity firm.

李彥宏將向他在去年秋季成立的三個投資團隊投入更多時間：并購部;百度風投(Baidu Venture，投資于早期階段的AI初創(chuàng)企業(yè));以及百度資本(Baidu Capital，一家私募股權公司)。

Both Baidu Venture and Baidu Capital are bringing in outside partners as well as reinvesting Baidu’s earnings.

百度風投和百度資本都在引入外部合作伙伴，并且再投資百度的盈利。

The Chinese “tech trinity” of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT) are collectively among the country’s biggest dealmakers, and are growing their in-house M&A banking divisions.

有BAT之稱的中國科技行業(yè)三巨頭——百度、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)——總體上躋身于中國最大交易撮合者行列，并且正在擴充各自內部的并購銀行部門。

Mr Lu will oversee Baidu’s products, technology, sales and marketing. He will also manage the heads of its project divisions, including its search engine company, technology and new projects group, financial team, driverless cars department, and AI group.

陸奇將領導百度的產(chǎn)品、技術、銷售和市場營銷。他還將管理百度項目部門的負責人，這些部門包括其搜索公司、技術和新項目事業(yè)群、金融服務事業(yè)群、無人駕駛汽車部門和AI事業(yè)群。

Mr Lu was previously vice-president of Microsoft, where he had led the online division and then the Office software business. Before that he was at Yahoo, where he had also been an executive vice-president and worked on the search engine.

此前陸奇是微軟的副總裁，先后領導在線部門和Office軟件業(yè)務。加盟微軟之前，他在雅虎(Yahoo)工作，擔任執(zhí)行副總裁，負責搜索引擎方面的工作。