On October 7, Baidu Group ushered in the adjustment of personnel structure。According to the internal announcement, Jing Kun, vice president of Baidu Group and former CEO of Xiaodu Technology, will resign due to personal reasons; Li Ying, vice president of Baidu Group and chief information officer (CIO) of Baidu Group, will take over as CEO of Xiaodu Technology and report directly to Robin Li, chairman and CEO of the Group.。

Li Ying & Jing Kun: Baidu's native pick-up industry bull.

According to public information, Li Ying graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China and Northeastern University and was one of Baidu's early employees.。Since 2003, Li Ying has been an intern at Baidu.。After graduating in 2004, Li Ying, who performed well during her internship, officially joined Baidu's web search department and led the relevant business.。

2020 is a key year for Li Ying's promotion at Baidu。Due to her outstanding performance in Baidu Maps business, in February 2020, Li Ying was appointed as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Baidu Group and was promoted to Vice President of Baidu in May of the same year.。

In the position of CIO, Li Ying for the artificial intelligence outlet, in Baidu to establish artificial intelligence technology and knowledge management as the core of the intelligent work platform "such as flow," for the company in the AIGC level of application to contribute。Several media outlets revealed that Baidu gradually shifted its focus to the big model after ChatGPT sparked a big model frenzy。In 2023, Li Ying successfully led the reconstruction of Baidu Ruliu and other products based on the Wenxin model.。

Like Li Ying, Jingkun was first exposed to the search business in the Internet field; unlike Li Ying, Jingkun made a name for himself in the Internet world before joining Baidu.。

It is understood that Jing Kun Benshuo graduated from Wuhan University and Zhejiang University respectively。After graduating in 2006, Jing Kun first entered Microsoft China and was once appointed Chief R & D Director, mainly responsible for the research and development of Microsoft Bing Search in the Asian market.。In 2014, Jing Kun joined Baidu in a high profile as the chief product architect of the company's search business, which is also an area where Jing Kun is better at Microsoft China.。

In 2018, Jing Kun was appointed as the general manager of Baidu Smart Life Business Group (SLG), the predecessor of Xiaodu Technology.。In SLG's work, Jing Kun led the team to produce a number of smart hardware products for consumers, including the well-known "small speakers."。In 2020, as SLG signed an independent financing agreement, Xiaodu Technology officially became an independent subsidiary of Baidu, Jing Kun remained CEO, and led the team to launch a richer range of intelligent solutions, further opening up Baidu's vast market in the field of conversational AI.。

It can be said that Jing Kun witnessed the small-scale technology from scratch, is the small-scale technology to the era of fully interactive Internet of Things leader.。

A small lead is not big.

In the announcement, Baidu did not explain Jing Kun's post-departure movements。

Some media said that after leaving Baidu, Jingkun will join hands with Zhu Kaihua, the former CTO of Xiaodu Technology, to start a business, focusing on the research and improvement of large model technology, with the goal of creating an integrated voice interaction solution, somewhat similar to the "talking Chat GPT."。Industry analysts, two people in the combination of hardware and software experience, will be a major advantage in the entrepreneurial process。

According to Baidu's second-quarter financial report for 2023, in Q2 2023, Baidu achieved revenue of 34.1 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), up 15% year-on-year; net profit attributable to Baidu was 8 billion yuan, up 44% year-on-year, exceeding market expectations.。Among them, Xiaodu Technology, as an important sector of Baidu's "AI Life," has also maintained a growth trend.。

According to data released by IDC and Canalys, Xiaodu won the first place in China's smart screen and smart speaker shipments in the first quarter of 2023.。In the second quarter, small smart screen / smart speaker sales and sales also achieved double growth, respectively, up 31.58% and 10.19%。By the end of 2022, the number of monthly voice interactions of devices equipped with small assistants reached 7.1 billion, the number of monthly interactions of small own hardware products increased by 97% year-on-year, and the core product small smart screen users spent more than 232 minutes per day.。

Although the small degree in the domestic market has opened up, but also sit on the domestic smart audio market market share of the first throne, but its leading edge is not big。According to the "China Smart Speaker Retail Market Monthly Tracking" data released by Lotu Technology, in the first half of 2023, the market share of small degrees was 37%, millet was 34%, Tmall Genie was 23%, small degrees never reached the "far ahead" level, a little carelessness will be overtaken.。

Under such circumstances, Xiaodu Technology's change of command and Li Ying's replacement of Jing Kun as CEO of Xiaodu Technology may mean that Xiaodu Technology will take on more missions in the AI era and use large models to support Xiaodu's growth.。We also have reason to expect, as a native Baidu person, what kind of performance Li Ying will give in the position of CEO of Xiaodu Technology.。