Kai-fu Lee: "Every decision has the right or wrong probability."

Lee insists that search is the core of Google. "If in China, our Chinese search can do our best, we are still successful." But if all of our products are successful and Chinese search fails, we still fail. "When it comes to making money," I never said we don't make money right now. It's just that we have our own principles, and we have not hastily set a deadline. "Google is not an elite search," he said, "because we think search is what everyone needs." "I heard you have a new dish recently, congratulations. "At Google's China headquarters canteen, Kai-fu Lee with a dinner plate, and the chef Xue to talk for a while." "Yes, yes.　　Xue, with a smile on his face, neatly slices a Peking duck. At noon, Google China headquarters in the cafeteria in the bustling. The continuation of the U.S. headquarters of Google's forthright style of staff, here is the Beijing Tsinghua Science and Technology Park, the most famous canteen, daily supply of multinational food, meal orders daily replacement, a few weeks do not repeat, meals include Beijing roast duck, Japanese sushi, Western cakes, all kinds of fruits ... Employees can also ask the chef to do their favorite food. Like the U.S. headquarters, many people in the vicinity of other companies like to come here to rub rice. Some good people have done statistics, the conclusion is that in this respect, Google China to do better than the U.S. headquarters.　　At Headquarters in the United States, the new employee averaged 10 pounds in one months, and in China the figure was raised to 15 pounds. This is the fourth year of Kai-Fu Lee in Google China.　　2005, he from Microsoft Job-hopping to Google China caused by the uproar so far fresh memories. "If you don't go, you won't get the officer." "It is said that Microsoft founder Bill Gates told him so. But he said to Gates, "I need to follow Myheart." July 19, 2005, Kai-Fu Lee formally submitted his resignation to Microsoft, Google announced the hiring of Kai-Fu Lee as Google's global vice president and China regional president; On the same day, Microsoft put Google and Lee to court,　　The reason is that they violate the non-competition and confidentiality contract signed by Lee when he joined Microsoft. In the summer of 2005, he returned to Beijing with two daughters and promised to buy them a big dog. Because of the case with Microsoft, in the first two months, Kai-fu Lee can not do anything, he later smiled and said that he "white-collar Google two months of salary." At the end of 2005, Google fans complained online: "This is the 100th day of Lee's entry into Google China, but we don't know what he's doing with Google China, except to see the teacher talk on TV occasionally." "At that time, Google China also dwelling in the Science Park building C inside the two floors, dozens of employees also did not enjoy the five-star chef cooking treatment." Now, 4 years later, the Kimmado of Kai-Fu Lee's family had already grown up, the big daughter completed the study in ChinaAnd went back to America to study. Google China's office has moved from the original Science Park C block two floors to the opposite 10-storey building, the interior decoration followed the Google United States headquarters of the consistent style: a huge leisure space, the president's office is very small.　　Here, young people wearing Google alphabet T-shirts are everywhere, and Google China's employees have turned from dozens of to thousands of now. And the most let Kai-fu Lee Sigh is, "those children finally know that in Google China can really go to the United States training for 6 months, really can directly against the boss's ideas." [Page] b= "Waitan pictorial" l= Kai-fu Lee "Our every goal is completed on time" B: You once told the story of Google China, you wrote to Google CEO Schmidt, "I heard you have a big plan in China, if it is true, we contact." "Then you joined Google China. What kind of assignment did Schmidt give you? For example, how much market promotion do you have to do in a few years? How much market share do you make?　　Or how long will it take to make a profit? L: Not at all. On the contrary, they indicated to me that they wanted me to join Google, and then it was my turn to open the terms. I told them that if we want to succeed in China, we must be decentralized and have a long-term vision.　　I do not ask them to provide me with any special conditions, but I ask them to give me time, let me build a good team; be sure to let us design new products, do not force us to make money early, but sooner or later we will earn.　　B: So you don't have any pressure? L: There is pressure, of course, there is pressure, but the pressure is their own set. For example, I told the headquarters of a certain one months we want to achieve how much revenue, if we do not have to deduct the final points. But interestingly, these goals are our own, and headquarters has not changed our goals. They sometimes even ask, "Whoa, God, is this going to work?" Wouldn't it be too hard? "Then our team will say," We believe we can.　　"Until now, each of our goals has been completed on time.　　B: Have you set a deadline for your money? L: I never said we don't make money now. I'm just saying that we have our own principles about making money, and we have not hastily set a deadline.　　Of course a company is always to make money, since I took office, we set up a sales team, more than three years they also have a lot of progress, this year to make so much, last year to make so much, three years down, we still make money.　　"Google can not fire me" B: You are at the end of 2005 into Google China, 2006 is Google China's slowest growth in the year, that time is your most stressful time? L: Yes, 2006 is really the slowest time for us to grow, and the outside world may feel like I'm under a lot of pressure, but I don't think so.To me, so many unknowns can be exciting. At that time, I felt that Google's success depends on whether we can do it well this year. Everyone knows that I've spent a lot of effort on getting into Google, including the lawsuit.　　It would be an unacceptable outcome for the company and for me if I did not get out of China in the end. B: You never thought about what would happen if you failed in the end?　　What if the company fired you? L: It's impossible to dismiss.　　Retreating from China is a lot more likely than firing me, though both are very low.　　B: At the time there was a rumor that Google was leaving China, and you responded, saying, "Even if the evacuation is to protect the interests of the existing staff," You did not think about, in the event of evacuation how do you protect the interests of employees?　　L: At that time said the evacuation is assumed that we do not have the license plate, then we will first in China to do our product, but does not launch, obtains the license to launch again. B: Are you a person who is confident in your decision?　　Do you think your decision is right? L: No. I look at decisions and self-confidence: every decision has a right or wrong probability, and what we need to do is to spend the right time analyzing all the possibilities and factors and making the best decision at the right time. If we know afterwards that the decision is wrong, we should not waste time to regret it, but to learn from it. If it's right, that's good, we increase self-confidence and continue to do it. I have more to do than to regret, not to be wrong, everyone will be wrong.　　[Page] "We focus on what users want" B: 2008 is Google China's fastest growing year, others say it is an opponent's problem, such as bidding rankings.　　Do you think so? L: Indeed in 2008 I often talked about search impartiality. But in fact, I've been talking about it for the past few years. I always think that this is the foundation of Google, is all Internet workers need to consider, understand, follow an idea. Because users put their most trusted problems to the Internet, from learning to finance and so on, they all trust search engines, you can at least cheat them.　　This is a very important thing.　　B: At the end of 2008 you made a speech, said 2009 Google China will have a few huge opportunities. L: Yes. One is mobile search opportunities, with the advent of the 3G era, mobile applications will explode. One is the explosion of geographical products such as electronic maps.　　There is our product line to do the whole, music search, question and answer, and so on, of course, to do appropriate promotion, word of mouth can reach the effect of the outbreak.　　B: Does this mean that you and your opponents will be more competitive in China in the future? L: We are concerned about what the user wants. For example, users want music search but they want to use for free, well, the user is always right, we will do a free authentic music search. By advertisers pay, we have good enough advertising platform, there is veryMore cooperative music companies that authorize us and then divide us into ads.　　The product is designed like this.　　B: You mean as long as you can do it? L: This is our global philosophy.　　Of course you have to understand the user, but if the user feels that your product is not good enough, you still have to understand the competitor, but we definitely do not regard the competitor as a goal. "Google is not the elite search" B: in Google for more than three years, you make the biggest decision is to let your team forget the star products forget ads, only remember the search quality. But there may have been some controversy at the time, and some people didn't think it was right, and some even left. Did you hesitate or did you continue to say that you were going to do it?　　Why are you so firm? L: First of all, I can't agree with other people's opinion, leaving and controversy are not related to these. Why it was so firm, because I think when a team is very small, it still needs focus, need attention, identify goals.　　And I think Google's core and most fundamental is its search. I remember a product manager said: "If in China, our Chinese search can do the best, we are still successful." But if all of our products are successful and Chinese search fails, we still fail. "So Google has a lot of products, but its core is search, its search must be successful."　　[Page] B: In the past two years your market share has increased by one times, but compared with the industry's first place, there is a certain gap. For example, many Chinese users find Chinese materials accustomed to using Baidu, find English information to use Google.　　Does this mean that Google still has plenty of room to improve on Chinese search? L: The question you are talking about is mainly about people's search habits, which is really the next important task for us, and our next goal is to change our habits.　　I think anyone who makes a detailed comparison will soon change, but a lot of people don't want to compare.　　When it comes to progress, I think every company has room for improvement in every product, but from our internal tests, Google Chinese search quality has been as good as English search.　　B: Maybe indeed, as you said, how do you plan to change the habits of the people? L: We encourage more people to try. For example, we will do more in the Internet café Google promotion, because many people first time online is in the Internet café.　　We hope that the first search engine that these people have contacted for the first time is Google. The second is in the university campus promotion. Many people's lives are changed after entering university, perhaps, many young people have not used Google. But after entering the university, they will do more academic search, news search, want to know what happened in the world or want to learn English and so on, they will contact Google, such contact is a good development direction. So in the last two years we were in the bigLearning to do nearly 1000 lectures, is to disseminate our culture, ideas and products.　　In addition, we also and many Web sites Alliance, cooperation, whether Sina, Tencent or some small sites, users have many opportunities to see Google's logo and search box, these sites bring traffic is also very considerable. B: I have seen a media comparison that Google is relatively elite, Baidu is relatively grassroots.　　Do you agree with this position? L: I think the product positioning can be viewed from different perspectives. If it is from the product line of three years ago, this kind of argument makes sense. At that time we did not have a community product, no one you asked me to answer the Community model, there is no music search, the video has just begun. So Google looks like an academic search. We launched the first search is also Google Academic search.　　So we feel that this is a serious company, entertainment is absolutely not above, the grassroots will not like. For today's Google Chinese search, such a distinction may be only partially true. The elite does account for a lot of our users, but the so-called grassroots are gradually becoming our users. I would like to mention here that there is no such thing as an elitist concept in the world, because we think that search is what everyone needs. So we are absolutely in the face of all users, our company's mission is to make global information for everyone to benefit, there is absolutely no difference in the idea. As you can see, in the past three years, Google China has made up any vacancy on the product line. Music, video, etc. can be found.