Robin Li

{{short description|Chinese software engineer and billionaire internet entrepreneur (born 1968)}}

{{family name hatnote|Li (李)|lang=Chinese}}{{Western name order|Li Yanhong}}{{Infobox person

| name = Robin Li

| image = File:Robin Li (2020).png

| image_size =

| caption = Li in 2020

| native_name = {{nobold|李彦宏}}

| native_name_lang = zh

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1968|11|17|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Yangquan, Shanxi, China

| education = Peking University (BMgt)
University at Buffalo (MS)

| occupation = Software engineer, internet entrepreneur

| title = Co-founder and CEO of Baidu
Chairman of iQIYI

| boards = New Oriental

| spouse = Ma Dongmin (马东敏)

| children = 4

| module = {{Infobox Chinese

|child=yes

|showflag=stp

|s=李彦宏 |t=李彥宏

|p=Lǐ Yànhóng

|mi={{IPAc-cmn|l|i|3|-|yan|4|h|ong|2}}

|w=Li Yenhung

|gr=Lii Yannhorng

|order=st

}}

Robin Li Yanhong ({{zh|s=李彦宏|p=Lǐ Yànhóng}}; born 17 November 1968) is a Chinese software engineer and billionaire internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Chinese multinational technology company Baidu.{{Cite magazine |last=Campbell |first=Charlie |date=2023-09-07 |title=Robin Li CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder, Baidu |url=https://time.com/collection/time100-ai/6310648/robin-li/ |access-date=2024-06-12 |magazine=Time |language=en}} As of May 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$5.5 billion by Forbes.{{cite web|title=Forbes profile: Robin Li |url=https://www.forbes.com/profile/robin-li/ |work=Forbes |access-date=18 March 2022}}

Li studied information management at Peking University and computer science at the University at Buffalo. In 1996, he created RankDex.[http://www.rankdex.com/about.html "About: RankDex"], rankdex.com; accessed 3 May 2014. In 2000, he founded Baidu with Eric Xu. Li has been CEO of Baidu since January 2004. The company was listed on NASDAQ on August 5, 2005.{{cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/08/07/2003266803|title=Baidu mesmerizes Wall Street - Taipei Times|date=7 August 2005|website=www.taipeitimes.com|access-date=13 August 2017}}{{cite news|title=The Ultimate List Of 15 Asian Scientists To Watch – Robin Li|url=http://www.asianscientist.com|date=15 May 2011|work=AsianScientist.com|access-date=6 June 2011}} Li was a member of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 2013 to 2018.{{cite web| url=http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm| script-title=zh:政协委员李彦宏:高薪挖著名教授成为不了优秀大学| access-date=March 5, 2016| publisher=China Internet Information Center| archive-date=March 5, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305010441/http://news.china.com.cn/2013lianghui/2013-03/05/content_28139169.htm| url-status=dead}}

During his tenure as CEO of Baidu, Li has been criticized for a number of controversies, including the death of Wei Zexi, advertising of unqualified hospitals on Tieba, and ad fraud.{{Cite web |last=Huang |first=Zheping |date=2016-05-02 |title=Baidu, China's version of Google, is "evil," a growing number of users say |url=https://qz.com/674030/baidu-chinas-version-of-google-is-evil-a-growing-number-of-users-say |access-date=2023-06-10 |website=Quartz |language=en}}

Early life and education

Li was born in Yangquan, Shanxi Province, where he spent most of his childhood. Both of his parents were factory workers. Li was the fourth of five children, and the only boy.{{cite web|url=http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/李彦宏|script-title=zh:李彦宏 - MBA智库百科|language=zh|publisher=Wiki.mbalib.com |date=1 May 2012|access-date=5 May 2012}}

He earned a Bachelor of Management with a major in information management from Peking University. In fall 1991, Li went to the University at Buffalo in New York to study for a doctorate in computer science. He left the doctoral program with a master's degree in 1994.

RankDex

In 1994, Li joined IDD Information Services, a New Jersey division of Dow Jones and Company, where he helped develop a software program for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.{{cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/bizfocus/archives/2006/09/17/2003328060|title=Robin Li's vision powers Baidu's Internet search dominance - Taipei Times|date=17 September 2006|website=www.taipeitimes.com|access-date=13 August 2017}} He also worked on improving algorithms for search engines. He remained at IDD Information Services from May 1994 to June 1997. In 1996, while at IDD, Li created the Rankdex site-scoring algorithm for search engine page ranking.Greenberg, Andy, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090922194042/http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/technology-baidu-robin-li-man-whos-beating-google_2.html "The Man Who's Beating Google"], Forbes magazine, October 05, 2009Yanhong Li, "Toward a Qualitative Search Engine," IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 24–29, July/August 1998, {{doi|10.1109/4236.707687}}USPTO,

[https://patents.google.com/patent/US5920859A/en?oq=US5920859A "Hypertext Document Retrieval System and Method"], US Patent number: 5920859A, Inventor: Yanhong Li, Filing date: 5 February 1997, Issue date: 6 July 1999{{cite web |title=Baidu Vs Google: The Twins Of Search Compared |url=https://fourweekmba.com/baidu-vs-google/ |website=FourWeekMBA |access-date=16 June 2019 |date=18 September 2018}} Google cofounder Larry Page filed a patent for the PageRank search algorithm, two years later in 1998, which references Li's work on RankDex.{{cite web |last1=Altucher |first1=James |title=10 Unusual Things About Google |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesaltucher/2011/03/18/10-unusual-things-about-google-also-the-worst-vc-decision-i-ever-made/ |date=March 18, 2011 |website=Forbes |access-date=16 June 2019}}{{cite web |title = Method for node ranking in a linked database |url = https://patents.google.com/patent/US6285999 |publisher = Google Patents |access-date = 19 October 2015 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185034/http://www.google.com/patents/US6285999 |archive-date = 15 October 2015 }} Li later used his Rankdex technology for the Baidu search engine.

Baidu

Li worked as a staff engineer for Infoseek, a pioneer internet search engine company, from July 1997 to December 1999. An achievement of his was the picture search function used by Go.com.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/dec/08/piracy.news|title=The man behind China's answer to Google: accused by critics of piracy and censorship|first=Jonathan|last=Watts|date=8 December 2005|access-date=13 August 2017|newspaper=The Guardian}} Since founding Baidu in January 2000, Li has turned the company into the largest Chinese search engine, with over 80% market share by search query, and the second largest independent{{vague|date=March 2018}} search engine in the world. On 5 August 2005, Baidu completed its IPO on NASDAQ, and in 2007 was included in the NASDAQ-100 Index.[https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0706/gallery.50whomatter.biz2/34.html CNN Money, June 2007, "50 people who matter now"], cnn.com; accessed 3 May 2014.

Recognition

In 2001, he was named one of the "Chinese Top Ten Innovative Pioneers".{{cite web |url=http://chuangye.cyol.com/content/2006-05/23/content_1392636.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060530071214/http://chuangye.cyol.com/content/2006-05/23/content_1392636.htm |archive-date=2006-05-30 |title=中国十大创业新锐"80后"李想上榜}} In 2002 and 2003, he was named one of the "IT Ten Famous Persons".{{Cite web|url=https://it.sohu.com/20070101/n247384736.shtml|script-title=zh:2006年中国IT十大风云人物任正非当选年度人物-搜狐IT|website=it.sohu.com}} In April 2004, he was named in the second session of "Chinese Software Ten Outstanding Young Persons".{{Cite web|url=http://www.baiduer.com.cn/?p=6777|script-title=zh:爱好者日报|website=www.baiduer.com.cn}} In December 2005, he was named one of the "CCTV 2005 Chinese Economic Figures of The Year".{{cite web |url=http://www.cipnews.com.cn/showArticle.asp?Articleid=726 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707014939/http://www.cipnews.com.cn/showArticle.asp?Articleid=726 |archive-date=2011-07-07 |title=中国经济界奥斯卡奖的"ＣＣＴＶ２００５中国经济年度人物评选"各个奖项揭晓-中国知识产权报---要闻回顾}}

In August 2014, Li was appointed by the United Nations Secretary General as co-chair of the Independent Expert Advisory Group on Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.{{cite web |date=18 September 2014 |title=UN Secretary-General's Data Revolution expert group |url=http://www.undatarevolution.org/about-ieag/ |access-date=13 August 2017 |website=undatarevolution.org}}

Personal life

Li is married to Dongmin Ma, who also works for Baidu.{{cite web|url=http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2065361/baidu-focuses-ai-founder-robin-li-hires-new-management-team|title=Baidu focuses on AI as founder hires new management team|date=25 January 2017|website=scmp.com|access-date=11 October 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bestchinanews.com/Science-Technology/8303.html|title=She has been a partner of Robin Li, now return to Baidu as a special assistant|website=www.bestchinanews.com|access-date=11 October 2017|archive-date=3 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180703050907/http://www.bestchinanews.com/Science-Technology/8303.html|url-status=dead}} They have four children and live in Beijing, China.

References

External links

[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE60H01S20100120 "NEWSMAKER-Baidu founder rules China's Web with pragmatism"] by Melanie Lee, Reuters, 19 January 2010.
[http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBio&ID=138201 Robin Li profile]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140908094409/http://ir.baidu.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=188488&p=irol-govBio&ID=138201 |date=2014-09-08 }}. ir.baidu.com; accessed 3 May 2014.
[http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2280 Robin Li delivers lecture at Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004200233/http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2280 |date=2011-10-04 }}. September 2009; accessed 3 May 2014.
{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050527134407/http://www.asia-inc.com/May05/Hchina_RobinLi_may.htm Asia.com]}}; accessed 3 May 2014.

Category:1968 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century Chinese businesspeople

Category:21st-century inventors

Category:Baidu people

Category:Businesspeople from Shanxi

Category:Businesspeople in information technology

Category:Businesspeople in software

Category:Chinese billionaires

Category:Chinese computer businesspeople

Category:Chinese computer scientists

Category:Chinese inventors