Virus ‘Search Queries’ on Baidu Exceeded 1B During Chinese New Year, Says CEO

Chinese tech company Baidu “open-sourced” its facial-recognition and artificial-intelligence technologies to help contain the coronavirus by deploying “fever-screening systems” in rail stations, hospitals and municipal buildings across China, said CEO Robin Li on a Q4 call Thursday. “Our systems remotely measure the temperatures of up to 200 people per minute,” including those wearing protective face masks and hats, he said. The technology also can “identify those who are not wearing masks or wearing them improperly,” he said. The “near-term impact” on the Baidu business has been negative, “as many of our top industries, such as travel, real estate, auto, health care and franchising, suffer from reduced off-line activities,” said Li. But the positive “side effect” is that people are “staying home more, and they have the opportunity to get to know Baidu's products and services better,” he said. “Search queries on coronavirus exceeded 1 billion during the Chinese New Year, as users came to Baidu for fact checking and finding more reliable information.” Baidu expects Q1 revenue down between 5% and 13% from a year earlier, said Chief Financial Officer Herman Yu. The coronavirus situation in China is “evolving, and business visibility is very limited,” he said. The Q1 forecast is based on a “current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty,” he said. The Chinese New Year holiday was originally scheduled to end Jan. 30, but many shops, restaurants and malls “remain closed down, as we speak,” he said. “Consequently, the rebound for online marketing after Chinese New Year has been slow this year.” Business conditions in the past two weeks “have started to pick up as people return to work,” said Yu. Baidu employees “are gradually returning to the office,” he said. “We assume businesses across China will do the same.”