(Chinese Version)

O2O is thriving in China right now. What can O2O do? Turning traditional offline payment online, connecting consumers and businesses onto one platform, and making lives a lot easier and more convenient for people than before. Almost all the Internet companies are exploring the potential of O2O and looking for a share of this market, let alone three Internet giants in China, BAT (Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent).

In the past decade, Baidu has always been the number one search engine and map service provider in China. Now, Li Yanhong, the founder and CEO of Baidu, is determined to make Baidu the number one movie ticket booking service, take-out service, and car beauty service provider in China.

Although Baidu appears to be the weakest among its direct rivals, Alibaba and Tencent, in O2O industry, Mr. Li clearly doesn’t look at it that way. Instead, he believes that key technologies haven’t been developed yet, and therefore most O2O companies are basically doing one thing: giving out endless red envelopes to attract users.

Baidu is known to be the most technology-based company among BAT, and is always investing heavily on the research and development of technology. Mr. Li also stated in his article that both Internet companies and companies from traditional industries need to be prepared to transform themselves. Only then can they survive the mobile Internet era.

The core of O2O is recommendation technology, while the core of recommendation technology is search technology. Baidu has always been working on improving its search engine, collecting big data. Recently, it is reported that Baidu is already developing its own voice and picture recognition technology. Besides that, Baidu Map can help Baidu become a key player among O2O positioning service providers. Moreover, Baidu Cloud could become a great resource for Baidu’s future development in cloud storage, cloud-computing, big data intelligence and recommendation technology.

Li Yanhong admits that there are some really breathtaking but rare new technologies, such as voice recognition, face recognition, artificial intelligence, big data, etc. These technologies are likely to help Baidu better “connect users with services”, meet users’ needs, increase efficiency, etc.

He gives two example to illustrate his point: artificial intelligence can be adopted in take-out delivery industry to choose the right guy to deliver food ASAP to customers; artificial intelligence can also be adopted by customer service industry, so that users get to enjoy better customer services.

With the fast development of O2O market, people get to have easier access to the services they are looking for nowadays. It seems that everything can be done via the Internet anywhere and anytime: booking a movie ticket, buying coupons for restaurants, having one’s car washed, getting nail services, etc. O2O is becoming more and more widespread in the everyday life of Chinese people.

Mr. Li suggests that the development of O2O will not only help Baidu better connect people with information and services, but also contribute to economic growth. Whether Baidu can catch up and keep up to the trend of Chinese O2O market or not remains unknown and only time can tell the future.

The following is Li Yanhong’s article, edited by TMTpost:

Although O2O industry seems to be booming in China now, relevant key technologies haven’t been developed yet. Most O2O companies are basically doing one thing: giving out endless red envelopes to attract users. However, key technology is the enduring competitiveness for Internet companies, whether it’s to boost their own development, or to transform traditional industries.

Indeed, O2O is changing not only the landscape of the Internet industry, but also the everyday life of every Chinese.

In the era of PCs, searching engines such as Baidu used to “connect people with information”. Yet, in the era of mobile Internet, Baidu should instead “connect people with services”, so that when our users want something, we can not only help them find out where to meet their needs, but also provide the service by ourselves. This is a huge difference between the era of PCs and mobile Internet.

With the fast development of O2O market, people get to have easier access to the services they are looking for nowadays. It seems that everything can be done via the Internet anywhere and anytime: booking a movie ticket, buying coupons for restaurants, having one’s car washed, getting nail services, etc.

Moreover, the development of O2O can lead to economic growth. For example, when Baidu was working on our movie ticket booking services, we found out that the average attendance rate at most cinemas was surprisingly low (around 15%). Imagine the huge amount of resources that have been wasted. However, with the help of Baidu’s O2O services, online movie ticket booking, Baidu got to increase the attendance to over 50% and even 80%. We can also increase the efficiency of catering industry by attracting more people to dine at restaurants with our coupons.

In a larger picture, the development of Chinese O2O industry is also the fastest in the world. Every business owner and enterprise owner in China seems to embrace the Internet and thinking hard on how to boost their businesses with the help of the Internet.

As a matter of fact, however, key technologies haven’t been developed so far. Most O2O companies are basically doing one thing: giving out endless red envelopes to attract users. However, key technology is the enduring competitiveness for Internet companies, whether it’s to boost their own development, or to transform traditional industries.

I do admit that there are some really breathtaking but rare new technologies, such as voice recognition, face recognition, artificial intelligence, big data, etc. These technologies are likely to help Internet companies better “connect users with services”, meet users’ needs, increase efficiency, etc.

Let me give you two examples: artificial intelligence can be adopted in take-out delivery industry to choose the right guy to deliver food ASAP to customers; artificial intelligence can also be adopted by customer service industry, so that users get to enjoy better customer services.

O2O market is only beginning to develop in China. For sure, O2O is going to transform the Internet industry, yet it takes courage and luck to seize the opportunity. Both Internet companies and companies from traditional industries need to be prepared to transform themselves. Only then can they survive the mobile Internet era.

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @TMTpost, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at ECHO), working for TMTpost.