Robin Li, the founder and CEO of Baidu.com, portrayed on Tuesday the would-be top man of Baidu Japan as appealing to people, young and versed in grasping new things and making decisions. But first of all, he must be a Japanese.

 

"Baidu is a consumer-oriented company. The president must be local, so that he can face the Japanese market directly. I hope people would say, 'The guy is amicable'," said Li.

 

According to Li, the would-be president shall have a good understanding of the clients' demands and a strong sense of judgment. And Baidu.com prefers somebody who has already moved up into the managerial circle in a Japanese enterprise.

 

The top Chinese-language search engine put its Japanese branch into formal operation last Wednesday after ten month of testing, in a move to expand business in the currently second economy in the world.

 

Who will fill the vacancy as the top man of Baidu Japan became the focus of the media.

 

"The right person may not come from an Internet company and not necessarily formerly worked with Baidu's competitor," Li stressed.

 

The Internet search giant was ranked as the world's 3rd search engines last Dec. by comScore, a well-known Internet research firm. And it posted a net income of 181.7 million yuan, or 24.2 million U.S.dollars, for the third quarter last year, more than doubled year-on-year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)