
Microsoft's man in China defects to search powerhouse Baidu - ximeng
http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1587457/zhang-yaqin-microsofts-man-china-joins-search-powerhouse-baidu
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jacquesm
Why do they use a loaded word like 'defect'?

Is the man somehow conscripted and should he be shot on sight for joining the
enemy? Really, he should be free to change jobs at the level, just as it is ok
for other high level people to change jobs without using such incredibly
loaded language. A job change is never a defection.

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melling
Are you asking someone to explain why news organizations use "catchy"
headlines? Perhaps you want to know why certain metaphors are used in
business? Somehow, I think you already know the answer.

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jacquesm
That's not catchy. That's equating moving from one employer to another with
betrayal. It paints the person moving in a supremely negative light, the kind
of feeling you normally reserve for those that join the enemy during war time.

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mkaziz
America vs China, is why. The East is the Enemy. :)

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SeanLuke
It's true that the Kuok family, the current _owners_ of the South China
Morning Post, are somewhat pro-Beijing. But this isn't a chinese newspaper.
It's an english-language Hong Kong newspaper, founded in 1903, with a strong
tradition of british style journalism. I think that defect was used in exactly
the same context as "so and so defected from Google to Microsoft".

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eva1984
Indeed. Nowadays, the new graduates are bragging themselves for joining the so
called BAT(Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) and other homegrown internet companies,
and most of the time you do get better benefits and chances to make bigger
impact. Other talents may just leave and come to US for work.

Nevertheless, the good days for the foreign companies' division in China have
come to an end. They can no longer easily grab the top talents without direct
confrontation with the local giants. And they are restricted in decision
making process for having to taking order from oversee headquarter, thus
losing to the local companies in terms of faster response to the market.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Also, the Chinese companies have it much easier since they are mostly just
copying already "proven in the west" products, foreign companies obviously
can't do that. For example, they could never do what xiaomi did.

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eva1984
Not entirely.

I did agree the point a lot of Chinese companies start with copying their
western counterparts. But it is also not true to say that those formulas could
succeed if stay unmodified. In fact, those successful Chinese copy-cats take
very different approaches after forking the original one.

Take WeChat for example, it is blatant copy of WhatsApp from the very
beginning. Now, it has so much more functionalities to offer than WhatsApp: it
has a private social network called Friend Circle; it has a gaming center; you
can even make mobile payment through it. And arguably, WeChat has better UI
that is more friendly to Chinese users, like better emoji support. The
difference is so significant, it is fair enough to say they are on their own
track, and I sincerely doubt if there is something more WeChat can copy from
WhatsApp, if not vice versa.

As to your question about Xiaomi, it is infamous even in mainland China for
violation of copyrights and open source licenses. But again, it is not the
most important thing that makes Xiaomi successful. The reason is simple: there
are 100 or more companies out there, trying to make money by copying the
western ideas. If copying the only thing Xiaomi did, it definitely cannot
achieve what it has now. Actually, one key factor that leads Xiaomi to its
current success is marketing: setting up online forums for cultivating its own
fanbase; introducing flash sales with limited supplies in an effort to
tantalize the consumers. I could go on with a lot more, but the point is,
Xiaomi takes a grass-root approach to maximize its brand awareness, greatly
leveraging the power of internet and social network, without paying huge
amount of money to the traditional advertisers like what the western companies
always do. In turn, it allows Xiaomi to offer phones with competitive specs at
lower price. This idea has been back ported to US recently by OnePlus, and
have been successful to some degree.

To be honest, Chinese companies have a hell lot to improve. However, IMO, they
deserve some praises of their own for accounting their success. Attributing
everything for being copycats might seem easy and politically right, but it is
oversimplified and preventing people from looking at the bigger picture.

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frozenport
>>they deserve some praises of their own for accounting their success.

Don't forget the anticompetive policies of the Chinese government which are
strongly tied to need for easily controlled alternatives to Western internet
with its politically dangerous messages.

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DominikR
We are doing the exact same thing with political messages that we label
"extremist" or dangerous. (for example: political messages of radical
Islamists)

And lets be serious: the US and EU would never accept or allow that a Chinese
social network is as successful in the US/EU as Facebook is right now, with
all the private data potentially getting into the hands of the Chinese
government. If something like that happened, I'm pretty sure we'd just block
those websites.

Just look at the US paranoia that Huawei had to deal with. The US senate (and
UK/Australia) restricted their business and subjected them to additional
oversight. Also, they warned South Korea to prevent a deal between Huawei and
a South Korean telecommunication company.

They didn't even show any evidence for their suspicion of backdoors, it's
sufficient that it could be possible.

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seanmcdirmid
WeChat is not blocked in the USA. Nothing is blocked in the USA actually, they
don't have the infrastructure for it and the lines out aren't routed through
central points as in china.

If you think US censorship is even in the same league as Chinese censorship,
you need to come visit for a few weeks.

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DominikR
I didn't say that it's in the same league, I just mentioned that we do have
censorship for opinions that the government thinks are dangerous.

That is _exactly_ the same way China justifies its censorship. It doesn't
matter that the US censors less, since once the laws are in place to censor
opinions, the government can always expand censorship activities later.

I stand by my opinion, that Chinese social networks would be censored here, if
they were as widely used as Facebook. Just imagine the NSA being unable to
reach all your private data while China can. This wouldn't be tolerated.

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seanmcdirmid
The threat of censorship is quite different than actual censorship. I have to
live with most websites being blocked, search engines not working, wondering
from day to day what will work, or if the VPN will, actually work or not.

Now you talking about what the states could or would do, even though they
haven't done it yet. Actions are much stronger than paranoia.

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guardian5x
Related: Chinese Search Giant Baidu Hires Man Behind the “Google Brain”
[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527301/chinese-
search-g...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/527301/chinese-search-giant-
baidu-hires-man-behind-the-google-brain/)

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frigg
How long can Microsoft keep bing at float? I have several times compared the
search results between bing and google and bing still has much more to grow.

Is Microsoft running bing at a loss?

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seanmcdirmid
Wow, this is like when kaifu left Microsoft for google.

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ximeng
Not sure how much of an impact someone at that level leaving will have on the
day-to-day operations and how the timing will work out. Any thoughts (in
general terms)?

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seanmcdirmid
I don't know anything ( or I couldn't talk), but this should create some
change relevant if you are a China-based softy, but otherwise not relevant.
Also, I think no chairs will be thrown over this :)

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illumen
Elop.goWorkFor(Nokia)

Microsoft.eat(Nokia)

