 "Josh Fenn")
We're intimately aware of the importance of localising our products and engaging with users and business communities, Josh Fenn tells Sangeeta Tanwar
What does the Chinese language internet search provider have on offer for Indian users?
Baidu opened its Gurgaon office in late 2015, but we actually began to make inroads into India several years ago when we launched our utility applications (apps) worldwide. Those products - DU Battery Saver, DU Speed Booster, ES file explorer and others - resonated with the people in India right off the bat, and we saw a lot of organic growth. The longer-term vision was to build an ecosystem of platforms and services not only for Indian end-users, but also for mobile developers, publishers and advertisers. We've taken some concrete steps to achieve that goal.
First, we launched our Android marketplace MoboMarket, which is geared to serve emerging markets. We have recently added support for a lot of Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Urdu. This is great for smartphone users because it makes the store more personal and accessible, but it's also hugely beneficial for the up-and-coming app studios that are looking for ways to connect with linguistically different audiences across the country and grow their user base.
In March 2016, we launched our mobile ad platform DU Ad Platform in India. Our latest initiative is the DU+ Plan, which will give mobile developers 100 per cent of the revenues from advertising campaigns that they carry out on the DU Ad Platform. This will help bring more resources into the funnel and encourage healthy, organic growth from within the domestic mobile industry. With our user-facing Android apps, our app marketplace MoboMarket, and the DU Ad Platform, we're well on our way to building a mobile ecosystem with a strong value proposition for app developers and consumers in India.
Are any of the lessons you learnt while developing the Chinese market applicable to India?
China and India actually have a lot in common if you look at the broad strokes. Both countries are home to over 1 billion people, both have linguistically and culturally diverse populations and both aspire to achieve economic power and are striving for higher education levels.
Baidu has over 16 years of history in China. We built up some of the foundational elements of the domestic internet landscape, such as search, maps, and internet 2.0. While doing that, we learned how to cater to a large and diverse population of users with varying levels of technical proficiency. That experience has imparted us with a certain sensitivity to peoples' needs. We're intimately aware of the importance of localising our products and engaging with users and business communities, even as they're spread out across the country. This understanding is extremely relevant to building a strong brand in India and elsewhere.
Mobiles and app monetisation are going to be Baidu Inc's key focus areas in India. What would be the cornerstone of your mobile and app monetisation strategy in the country?
Currently, our main focus is on building a healthy and viable mobile ecosystem in India. This covers three main aspects: user products, a publisher platform, and a developer and advertiser platform.
On one end of the spectrum we have apps that are completely user-centric - that includes DU Battery Saver, DU Speed Booster and more. In the middle we have our Android marketplace MoboMarket, which is a store for users to discover and download apps, and which also serves as a platform for publishers to distribute their apps. On the far end of the spectrum, we have our mobile ad platform, the DU Ad Platform, which is fully focused on generating revenue for developers and advertisers. As we grow and expand these three aspects of our India business, the natural interplay between users, publishers, developers and advertisers will generate more value for the entire mobile ecosystem.
What are the key trends that are likely to disrupt the search engine business going forward?
The key trends disrupting the search engine business in the future would evolve around speech recognition and voice search, as well as a variety of different entryways for people to find what they're looking for online. Search is maturing, and with the rapid uptake of smartphones and the emergence of online to offline services, we need to find new ways to bring value to users with innovations that make the best use of mobile devices, and leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence. There are a lot of opportunities to be explored and Baidu is moving forward in those areas.
