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Chapter 274 0271 [Google Takes the Initiative to Seek Cooperation]

"Boss, Kai-Fu Lee from Google wants to meet with you."

Ask him when he's free.

He said I could come over anytime.

"Let's get him some coffee."

ByteDance is located in the Peking University Science Park Building, while Google China is located in the Tsinghua University Science Park Building.

You can come over for coffee anytime.

Chen Guiliang didn't have a good impression of Li Kaifu because his words and actions were very outrageous.

The most disgusting incident was when Lin Miaoke was verbally abused on Weibo, prompting her to call for the deletion of harmful comments and the purification of the Weibo environment.

Li Kaifu, however, posted on Weibo, tagging Lin Miaoke, saying: "Harmful speech is a highly subjective judgment. Freedom of speech is an inalienable human right. Those who suppress speech become increasingly domineering and dictatorial. Those who are angry become increasingly angry the more they are suppressed. Creating a healthy environment should tolerate more speech, not suppress people's right to speak."

He actually labeled a minor girl who was publicly insulted as a perpetrator who deprived others of their freedom of speech.

Chen Guiliang didn't have to wait long before Li Kaifu arrived.

And they walked all the way here.

As soon as Li Kaifu entered the company, many ByteDance employees turned to look at him.

At this time, Li Kaifu was surrounded by too many halos, and he was looked up to and worshipped wherever he went.

Programmers, in particular, practically idolize Li Kaifu.

Li Kaifu was used to this treatment. He smiled and waved to the crowd, as if a high-ranking leader had come to inspect the area.

Chen Guiliang came out of his office to greet him: "Welcome, Mr. Li, to our office."

Li Kaifu shook hands with Chen Guiliang and said, "Mr. Chen's website is excellent; it's one of the best SNS websites in China right now. I've come here to learn from your experience and see if we can have a deeper collaboration."

Chen Guiliang invited him to the reception room.

Why did Li Kaifu take the initiative to visit? Of course, it was because Chen Guiliang had angrily confronted Baidu.

The enemy of the enemy is the friend.

It's perfectly normal for Google to cooperate with ByteDance while taking advantage of Baidu's misfortune.

Li Kaifu maintained a smile throughout, his demeanor refined and composed, like a kind and venerable elder. Judging from his bearing and manner, it was hard to guess that he was capable of such despicable and wicked deeds.

After exchanging a few pleasantries in the conference room, Li Kaifu gradually got to the point: "Competition is the only way to develop and progress. No matter what industry it is, a single dominant player is never a good thing; monopolies only lead to the decline of an industry."

Chen Guiliang nodded and said, "That's true."

Li Kaifu said, "Baidu currently has a market share of 56.6%. If it continues to develop as it is, it will inevitably monopolize the search industry one day. That's why we, Google, came along, and in just a few months, we've increased our market share to 32.8%."

Chen Guiliang asked bluntly, "Is it Google 32.8%, or does Google have 32.8%?"

Li Kaifu said, "Google is the Chinese translation of Google."

Chen Guiliang smiled, too lazy to expose him directly.

Google (domain suffix .cn) and Google (domain suffix .com) are of course different.

The former operates legally in China and requires information filtering.

The latter is operating illegally in China and does not require information filtering.

Li Kaifu said that of the 32.8% market share, more than 99% was contributed by the latter (illegal), while the former (legal) contributed less than 1%.

Furthermore, Google's (.cn) technical team currently consists of only a handful of people. It's extremely difficult to use; the user experience is terrible, and significant improvements are not expected until next year.

How can the average user know the difference between Google and Google?
With the comprehensive upgrade of the Golden Shield Project (the Great Firewall) before the 08 Olympics, Google.com became completely unusable in mainland China, leaving only Google.cn, which had to filter harmful information. As a result, its market share plummeted by 39% within a year!

This is the real reason why Google withdrew from China—its business was shrinking and it was suffering heavy losses.

As for the claim that Google does not comply with Chinese laws, this statement is not comprehensive and confuses the .cn and .com domain names.

Google (.cn) engages in illegal practices in areas such as maps, but the information is filtered, yet its business has never grown significantly. Google (.com) has consistently violated the law, and was eventually blocked by the Great Firewall.

Chen Guiliang chatted casually, knowing what Li Kaifu meant, but he didn't actively engage in the conversation.

Li Kaifu said, "I hope to cooperate fully with ByteDance. For example, we can embed Google search boxes on Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com, so that users can search for information across the entire internet within the site. This would be very convenient for users of Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com."

Chen Guiliang said, "I need to confirm whether it's embedding Google or embedding Google. The former works very well, but strictly speaking, it's illegal operation. The latter is legal and compliant, but to be honest, it's far inferior to Baidu, and the Chinese content it returns is always irrelevant."

"The two are consistent." Li Kaifu was still lying through his teeth.

This is Google's established operating strategy: to confuse the difference between Google and Google. Not only are ordinary internet users confused, but even government departments are bewildered, and some officials turn a blind eye even when they know.

Chen Guiliang emphasized: "ByteDance is a law-abiding company, and we do not cooperate with websites that operate illegally."

Li Kaifu, usually so refined and composed, finally frowned. He couldn't understand whether Chen Guiliang was pretending to be law-abiding or genuinely a law-abiding citizen.

The relevant authorities haven't even come out to investigate, so why are you, a company owner, getting so hung up on this?
Google's development this year has been quite difficult, as it is still in its early stages.

If we can partner with Renren.com and HaiNei.com to directly embed the Google search box, it would be equivalent to gaining tens of millions of potential users.

Li Kaifu took out a pack of American cigarettes and asked, "Mr. Chen, would you like some?"

Chen Guiliang pulled out a Zhonghua cigarette: "Try this one."

Li Kaifu took a cigarette, puffed out smoke, and said, "As long as ByteDance is willing to cooperate with Google, Google can open up some of its APIs. For example, Maps, Translation, Calendar, etc."

Chen Guiliang lit a cigarette; he was slightly tempted.

But considering Google is leaving China in four years, if ByteDance's programmers integrate all of Google's stuff, they'll still have to develop their own programs. In the end, they'll perfect all the applications, only for Google to just pack up and leave. Wouldn't that be a complete waste of time?

However, these past few years have been a critical period of development for ByteDance, and it seems that cooperating with Google could bring huge benefits.

After considering it for a while, Chen Guiliang asked again, "What else can Google offer me?"

Li Kaifu said, "The internal search engines of Renren.com and HaiNei.com are actually not very good, you could even say they are very poor. Google is willing to provide some search technology. ByteDance's programmers can communicate with Google's programmers regularly."

This is just empty promises and empty talk.

Chen Guiliang chuckled and said, "As far as I know, Google.cn's search engine isn't much better than ByteDance's internal search. Your search technology team seems to consist of only a few people. Do you think you can bring programmers over from Google headquarters?"

Li Kaifu said, "Although it's only a six-person team, they were all recruited from Microsoft Research Asia. I believe in their abilities, and Google will make significant progress in Chinese search by next year at the latest."

Chen Guiliang said, "I could also poach people from Microsoft Research Asia."

Li Kaifu said, "You can't get them. The reason I was able to recruit a few of them is because I had connections and prestige back at Microsoft Research Asia."

Chen Guiliang neither confirmed nor denied.

It's just a search engine, and it's not even for the entire internet; it only performs vertical searches within Renren (a Chinese social networking site) and domestic websites.

There are plenty of such technical talents; ByteDance has already recruited several and is currently working on perfecting its system. A vertical search engine project like this can be completed with a budget of two to three million.

If it were a full-fledged internet search engine, Chen Guiliang naturally wouldn't dare to pursue it, nor could he afford it. Research and development investments would easily reach tens of millions, and even that would be considered small-scale.

“I don’t need this technology, so what else can Google give me?” Chen Guiliang asked.

Li Kaifu was very unhappy after being rejected repeatedly: "Young people shouldn't be impatient. In mutually beneficial cooperation, don't make too many demands."

Chen Guiliang shook his head: "Because the cooperation you proposed is not on equal terms. If Renren and HaiNei.com embed Google search boxes, it's tantamount to fully supporting Google, which would greatly benefit Google's development. But what does Google do? It only opens up a few interfaces such as Maps and Translation. As Google develops its business, it will eventually have to open up these commercial interfaces to more companies. Isn't that the same as ByteDance unilaterally helping Google?"

Li Kaifu said, "After embedding the Google search box, users of Renren.com and HaiNei.com who want to search for information across the entire network no longer need to leave the website to open Baidu."

Chen Guiliang said, "Google must show more sincerity before I am willing to cooperate."

“Then let’s both think it over again.” Li Kaifu stood up and shook hands.

The situation at Google China is complicated, and there are too many problems with cooperation.

Chen Guiliang went to discuss it with Guo Feng, and after listening, he was speechless.

For example, when Google opens its API, it's definitely opening the interface at its headquarters, because Google China doesn't currently handle those services. Google headquarters will certainly use the international standard REST API. ByteDance, due to the Great Firewall, will tend to choose SOAP.

Both sides disagreed, and ultimately, Google headquarters had to take their word for it, resulting in an application with severe lag and stuttering. The user experience would be extremely poor.

Li Kaifu has been making empty promises from beginning to end!

Chen Guiliang didn't know much about technology and was almost fooled by this guy.

Guo Feng said, "Google China will definitely port all its services over. It would be good for us to cooperate with Google after they have perfected the localization. It is indeed too early to talk about cooperation at this time."

Chen Guiliang said, "Keep a closer eye on the internal search engines of Renren and HaiNei.com and do a better job of them. With the surge in users and content, what are the search results now? There are already a lot of negative feedback from users."

“You get what you pay for,” Guo Feng said. “The six-person search engine team that Li Kaifu poached from Microsoft Research Asia, any one of them earns more than me annually.”

Chen Guiliang immediately fell silent.

It definitely depends on the money.

Li Kaifu left ByteDance and strolled leisurely back to Tsinghua Science Park.

He was very dissatisfied with Chen Guiliang, feeling that the young man was greedy and had no respect for him as a senior.

Google took the initiative to seek cooperation, and he even visited in person; any normal person would have happily agreed.

Chen Guiliang actually made the request again and again.

No wonder Robin Li was criticized so harshly.

-

(I recommend the new book by veteran entertainment writer Bin Tie: "Chinese Entertainment 2000: Rising from a Boiler Worker at Beijing Film Academy".)
(End of this chapter)