[08.11.24 福布斯]“中国那么快”——专访谷歌中国李开复
【原文标题】Google China's Learning Curve【中文标题】谷歌中国的学习曲线
【登载媒体】Forbes
【来源地址】http://www.forbes.com/technology/global/2008/1124/034.html?feed=rss_technology
【译者】荡漾
【声明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，转载请注明译者及出处，谢谢！
【原文】(by Russell Flannery)
Kai-Fu Lee has led the charge in the search-engine market in mainland China.
The number of Internet users in China surpassed that of the U.S. this year. While other overseas Internet companies such as AOL have stumbled in the mainland, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) has managed to raise its share of the search market to about 28% against a powerful domestic rival, Baidu, in the past three years. Google's Greater China president, Kai-Fu Lee, hired away from Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) in 2005, has led the charge. FORBES ASIA met the former Carnegie Mellon computer science professor in Beijing.
FORBES ASIA:How important is China to Google?
China is incredibly important because it is both big and growing fast. But when you're number two, you have to try harder. China advertisers aren't paying the same rate as in the U.S. So, although the search market is large, it's not monetizable at the same rate as the U.S. That will change over time.
You were a rising star at Microsoft but left to join Google. Why?
As a computer scientist, I found Google to be exciting. Also, I had realized that my destiny was in China. I wanted to leverage my bicultural background. I wasn't able to find that kind of opportunity at Microsoft or elsewhere, until I found Google. Also, I'm okay at executing, but I'm really good at starting things from scratch.
How would you compare Microsoft's and Google's efforts in China?
Microsoft came in with its own set of challenges: dealing with piracy and government relations. But it had patience, has improved the quality of its people and reached out to the Chinese government. China's president has gone to Bill Gates' house. But Google similarly has done well. We've had to do it in a much shorter time frame. I think it takes a long time for every American company to learn how to operate. General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ), for instance, a decade ago was trailing Audi and Volkswagen (other-otc: VLKAF.PK - news - people ). It was difficult to understand, but they eventually figured out how to do it. If you look at Coca-Cola (nyse: KO - news - people ), it took time.
The problem with Microsoft has been that its industry is faster moving than GM's. The problem for Google is that our industry is even faster moving than Microsoft's. If you can't learn quickly, your market share will perish, as many American Internet companies have seen. In the worst case, their market share has gone from 90% to 0% in three or four years.
How has that happened?
That's the result of expecting that no special things need to be changed in China, moving to make money too quickly and not empowering the China team. If you're Microsoft and have 20 years, you can make these kinds of mistakes and eventually recover. Or in the car or beverage industry, maybe you can have 15 years and eventually recover. But if you're in the Internet industry, you only have 2 or 3 years. It's that fast. Google didn't have much time. The problem that I had when I joined in 2005 was that we were halfway in our decline toward zero. Second, it would take a while for us to build a team and great products. I needed patience and got support.
What are some services that Google can offer in the U.S. that you can't in China? And vice versa?
The ones that we can't do aren't many, but there are cultural challenges. One example is music. Chinese people expect and demand free music downloads on their PCs, because they're used to it. Is it legal? There is no question that the record labels were not paid and it's not right. But who broke what law and who's responsible? That's up to the courts to work out. The use of digital music is huge, and that's become a huge pastime and one of the biggest applications in China. We can't be a part of that because we're not going to support a clear disregard for intellectual property. But we provide legal free music downloads with an ad-funded model that's not feasible in the U.S.
Also, Web search is different. You see many more things that you can click on. Chinese Web sites are more cluttered. But there's a reason: People don't like to type, they like to click. Typing is slow, it's a pain. So we have more detail there. Also, Chinese like to explore. So we want to build an interface that facilitates that local search behavior. We're also launching locally designed products--for instance, one that helped people find lost relatives after the Sichuan earthquake and one that helps people understand train delays.
Has the fall in equities made M&A more attractive for Google to expand in China?
We're not seeing huge bargains yet.
【译文】
李开复引领了（谷歌在）中国大陆搜索引擎市场的发展。
今年中国互联网用户超过了美国。包括AOL在内的其他海外互联网公司在中国大陆发展一直不顺利，而谷歌在过去三年面对本土强有力的竞争对手百度已经成功地在搜索市场占据大约28%的份额。正是2005年从微软卸职的谷歌大中国区总裁李开复引领了此发展。福布斯亚洲在北京专访了这位前卡内基梅隆大学计算机科学教授。
福布斯亚洲：中国对谷歌有多重要？
中国市场不仅大发展还很快，对谷歌来说中国非常重要。不过当你排行老二的时候，你得更加努力才行。中国广告商不像在美国市场那样掏钱，因此尽管（中国的）搜索市场巨大，赢利仍不如美国市场，不过相信随着时间会有改变。
你在微软发展势头正猛的时候选择离开加入谷歌，这是为什么？
作为一个计算机科学家我认为谷歌令人振奋，我也意识到我的前途在中国。我可以发挥我双文化背景的优势，但在微软或其他地方我找不到这种机会，直到遇到谷歌。我的执行力不错，而在从零开始方面我颇具优势。
在你看来微软和谷歌在中国成就如何？
微软有其面临的挑战：盗版及与政府的关系。但它有耐心，其用户质量已有提高，也向政府伸出了手，中国主席应邀去过比尔·盖茨的家。不过谷歌也做得很好，我们得在更短的时间内做这一切。我相信每一个美国公司都花了很长时间来了解（如何在中国市场）运作，例如通用汽车十年前被奥迪和大众甩在身后，一开始它很难理解其间的原因，但最后他们明白了该如何做。再看可口可乐，也同样花了（很长的）时间才成功。
微软在中国的问题是其所在的行业发展速度要比通用的更快，而谷歌的问题是我们的行业发展速度甚至比微软还要快。如果不能快速领会适应，市场份额就会被蚕食。许多美国互联网公司已经发现了这一点，出现的最坏的案例是在三到四年内市场份额从90%直接降到0。
这是怎么发生的？
如果你以为在中国什么调整都不用做、太快就想赚钱、还不愿意放手让中国团队去干，出现这种结果也不奇怪。如果你是微软、有20年的时间，你可以犯这些错误并最终改正过来；或者汽车或饮料行业，你可能有15年并最终得以恢复。但互联网行业就只有2-3年的时间，它太快了。谷歌并没有太多的时间，2005年我加入的时候谷歌正处在朝零下滑的过程中；其次我们花了点时间组建了团队并设计出好产品。我需要耐心也得到了支持。
哪些服务是谷歌在美国市场提供而中国市场没有的，或者反过来？
我们不能做的事情不多，不过确实有文化上的挑战，比如音乐。中国用户希望并要求能免费下载音乐到电脑上，因为他们一直习惯了这么做。这合法吗？毫无疑问唱片版权未支付费用这是不对的。但究竟谁违法谁又该对此负责？这些该交给法院。数字化音乐在中国已经成为人们娱乐的普遍性选择，是普及度最高的数字应用之一。我们不能加入其中，因为我们不会支持明显无视知识产权的行为。但我们提供广告赞助模式的合法的免费音乐下载，而这在美国市场是不可行的。
网页搜索也有不同。人们通过点击就能看到许多东西，中国的网站相对混乱一些，不过这是有原因的。人们不喜欢打字，喜欢点击，打字速度慢，会累，因此我们提供更多的条目。中国用户还喜欢浏览，因此我们想建一个符合本土搜索习惯的界面。我们还开发本土设计的产品，比如帮助人们寻找四川地震后失散的亲人、告知人们火车是否延误等。
市场份额下降是否促使谷歌选择并购来促进在中国的发展？
目前尚无大动作。
【截图】
[ 本帖最后由 荡漾 于 2008-11-16 03:12 编辑 ]
页:
[1]