What is it that American search companies have failed to understand in China? Baidu's CEO Robin Li asserts numerous reasons that foreign-based search tools underestimated the growth of China's online content in the 1990's and early 2000's. He first points out that the capabilities of Google and Yahoo! overseas did not match China's tremendous scale of content growth. In addition, North American companies underestimated the fierce competition and entrepreneurial spirit of the Chinese. And many Internet companies coming to China did not plan for the long-term investment necessary to fully mesh with the local market.

With no business model and a company that was barely solvent, Baidu CEO Robin Li quickly realized that his customer base didn't want to buy the best technology; only the cheapest. The entire strategy of his company needed to change, and he revamped his enterprise from a back-end search utility to a front-end, consumer-focused provider. Since making this change in 2001, Baidu has gone on to become one of the most successful online search tools on the planet.

The pivotal points that changed the direction of Baidu's emergence, says its CEO Robin Li, include fewer extravagant expenditures (and planning for six months of capital to last for over a year), a switch from a back-end to a consumer-oriented interface, and a conscious decision to outshine the competition. In addition, Li recalls the ten months he spent micromanaging the engineering team to quickly turnaround the best quality technology the team could muster. He credits all of these early-term risks with the long-term sustainability of the enterprise.

More than 700,000 computer science-related engineering students graduate each year in China, but few from this labor pool have the experience necessary to help an innovative company grow, says Robin Li, CEO of search engine Baidu. And, he points out, the management opportunities on a global scale are tremendous. That said, he and his company also outline the qualities that they seek in incoming talent - including a readiness to learn, a political and hassle-free outlook, and supreme reliability.

In an effort to index the 99 percent of the "dark" web - that is, the vast majority of web pages unreachable by most search tools - Robin Li, CEO of China's Baidu, launched a product called Aladdin. The goal of the open interface is to allow for and encourage user content submission, and to provide the site's users with a deeper, unbridled search capability.

"It's not a million dollar question. It's a trillion dollar question," says Robin Li, CEO of Baidu, on the emergence of a Silicon Valley entrepreneurial ecosystem in China. Though the country's economy is enormous, much of it is based on cheap labor and inexpensive manufacturing. Many in China, particularly those in government, says Li, are very interested in developing the country's potential, but the task of replicating that kind of innovation has many roadblocks in its path.

Described as not just a function of search, but a "vision for our future", the CEO of Baidu, Robin Li, talks about the continuing emergence of the "magic" search box as the primary tool for browserless, consolidated information gathering. He also discusses at length how search terms have evolved - no longer just subject queries, but users hunting for everything from weather and movie time information, arithmetic solutions, and even dating help. From his stance, the empty box awaiting information is the simplest, easiest-to-learn computing platform, operating independently of location, operating system, or application.

Focusing on technology, operations, and the user experience, Robin Li, CEO of Chinese search engine Baidu, took a pragmatic approach and recalls how he took on the role of project manager for the company for nearly a year. Focusing on nothing but search services, the company avvoided the market crash of 2000/2001 and resisted the trends in online development, and instead continued to play to the company's best strengths.