BEIJING, May 13, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:
BIDU) today announced a series of measures to support content
creators on its mobile platforms and set out its overall mobile
strategy at the 2020 Wanxiang Conference, an event hosted by the
company's Mobile Ecosystem Group (MEG), which marked the one-year
anniversary since Baidu's search, feed, and mobile businesses were
consolidated under MEG. In light of impressive user growth and
increased average time spent on the flagship Baidu App over the
past year, Baidu said it will continue to use AI to improve its
mobile ecosystem, with the aim of providing higher-quality content
and services to the one billion-plus users of Baidu's family of
apps.
More Support for Content Creators
Baidu announced eight initiatives that will provide
subsidies and direct more user traffic to high-quality content
creators and developers, in part to incentivize more livestream and
short-video content. Baidu also announced that it will
cross-publish content across its wide-range of mobile platforms,
including Baidu App, smart mini programs, Baidu Wiki, which
features high-quality information compiled by experts in
specialized fields, short video app Haokan, and iQIYI, an
innovative market-leading online entertainment service provider.
Cross-publishing content is expected to bring more exposure for
content creators, increase communication between users and
creators, and enhance the interconnectivity of Baidu's mobile
ecosystem.
"We will break open barriers between the platforms of Baidu's
mobile ecosystem so that any creator's work on any platform can be
viewed and used by users on other platforms," said Dou Shen, Executive Vice President of Baidu.
Through these steps, Baidu aims to support the growing number of
content creators and developers that help serve users on Baidu's
platforms. At present, Baijiahao publisher accounts exceed 3
million and Haokan has 800,000 accounts for media organizations and
other creators of professional user generated content (PUGC). Baidu
also intends to enhance the service capabilities of Baidu's 420,000
smart mini programs, which currently provide a wide range of
services, including government services, shopping, and
tourism.
Livestream Capabilities Serve Both Users and Creators
With Baidu's twin engines of search and feed, Baidu is uniquely
positioned to capitalize on the growing popularity of
livestreaming, which has become an important medium for acquiring
knowledge, entertainment, and shopping. Search and feed enable
Baidu to understand users' preferences, so Baidu can deliver
personalized services to users and connect them with relevant
content creators. For example, since the outbreak of COVID-19,
Baidu has promoted livestreams of the Forbidden City to users who
have been unable to visit in person. When users view a livestream
on Haokan that recommends a certain book, Baidu can direct them to
a smart mini program where they can purchase that book.
"In 2020, we intend to be more active in promoting the entire
Baidu livestreaming business. We have capabilities to organize very
targeted livestreams to attract users, and provide corresponding
services that meet users' unique demands," Shen said during the
conference.
"Baidu's mobile ecosystem hopes to provide users an improved and
faster mobile experience with end-to-end services," Shen added. "At
the same time, we want to equip creators and developers with
effective platforms for showcasing their content and services to
users."
AI-Powered Mobile Strategy Shows Clear Dividends
At the conference, Baidu also highlighted the success of MEG's
efforts over the past year to integrate the company's leading AI
capabilities into its mobile ecosystem, with Baidu's mobile
products seeing increased user numbers, user satisfaction, and
stickiness.
Baidu App's daily active users (DAUs) have surpassed 230
million, smart mini programs' monthly active users (MAUs) have
reached 500 million, and average use time has increased 30%,
according to Xiaoli Ping, Baidu Vice
President and General Manager of Baidu App. Moreover, Baidu App
satisfies 58% of search queries with the first result.
AI has been the driving force behind improvements to Baidu's
mobile ecosystem. Cutting-edge knowledge graph and natural language
processing technologies enable Baidu's platforms to better
understand users' information requests and find content that
matches their needs. Powered by Baidu's WaveRNN real-time speech
synthesis technology, the "Read and Listen" mode on Baidu App's
feed features AI readouts of original news stories and of
AI-generated news summaries. By integrating AI into its mobile
platforms, Baidu can deliver higher-quality content and services to
users in different scenarios.
By supporting content creators and encouraging livestreaming,
Baidu hopes to build on its successful strategy of using AI to meet
users' diverse and changing content needs and provide a range of
mobile-based services.
In line with Baidu's belief that AI technology is a force
for good, at the conference, Baidu also launched the Xingchen
Initiative to provide AI technology, computing power, resources,
and user traffic to NGOs and developers to help them tackle public
welfare issues.
About Baidu
Baidu, Inc. is a leading search engine, knowledge and
information centered Internet platform and AI company. The
Company's mission is to make the complicated world simpler through
technology. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market
under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A
ordinary share.
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SOURCE Baidu, Inc.