李彦宏找到百度“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)首席执行官李彦宏(Robin Li)将退出这家中文搜索引擎集团的日常运营，转而扮演一个更具战略性的角色。

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，百度联合创始人将把日常挑战交给陆奇，后者昨日被任命为首席运营官。身为人工智能(AI)专家的陆奇是百度从微软(Microsoft)挖来的。

“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.”

“我希望逐步把市场管理事务放下来，包括多花一点时间到投资上，”李彦宏在公司北京总部举行的一个媒体吹风会上表示。

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.

自上任首席运营官辞职以来，李彦宏在过去7年期间一直履行这一职能。他表示，延揽陆奇是为了推动该公司的人工智能研究;后者是百度集团在未来10年的关键重点。不过，李彦宏对于注重人工智能研究的新战略将如何转化为百度的营收语焉不详。

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，监管机构责令百度减少其搜索结果页面上的广告，此前发生了一起被广泛报道的丑闻，一个年轻人在接受了在百度上投放广告的实验性癌症治疗后身亡。2016年第二季度，该公司的净利润同比下降三分之一。

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.

据巴克莱(Barclays)称，百度依赖医疗广告获得20%至30%的搜索营收。搜索营收占集团2015年销售额的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.

李彦宏将向他在去年秋季成立的三个投资团队投入更多时间：并购部;百度风投(Baidu Venture，投资于早期阶段的AI初创企业);以及百度资本(Baidu Capital，一家私募股权公司)。

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

百度风投和百度资本都在引入外部合作伙伴，并且再投资百度的盈利。

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之称的中国科技行业三巨头——百度、阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)——总体上跻身于中国最大交易撮合者行列，并且正在扩充各自内部的并购银行部门。

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.

陆奇将领导百度的产品、技术、销售和市场营销。他还将管理百度项目部门的负责人，这些部门包括其搜索公司、技术和新项目事业群、金融服务事业群、无人驾驶汽车部门和AI事业群。

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.

此前陆奇是微软的副总裁，先后领导在线部门和Office软件业务。加盟微软之前，他在雅虎(Yahoo)工作，担任执行副总裁，负责搜索引擎方面的工作。