李彥宏承認百度與用戶漸行漸遠
The chief executive of Baidu has said the Chinese search engine must reform or face “bankruptcy in 30 days”, following a scandal over an advertisement for cancer therapy.
百度(Baidu)首席執行官表示，這家中國搜索引擎必須改革，否則“離破產就真的只有30天”。此前百度被捲入一場圍繞癌症治療廣告的醜聞。
“Our values have become distorted, and financial performance has become more important to us than user experience,” Robin Litold employees a day after Cyberspace Administration, China’s internet regulator, imposed controls on medical advertising on the site.
“我們的價值觀被擠壓變形了，業績增長凌駕於用戶體驗，”李彥宏(Robin Li)對僱員們表示。一天前，中國互聯網監管機構——國家網信辦(Cyberspace Administration of China)出臺了針對百度網站上醫療廣告的控管措施。
The search engine has been under heightened scrutiny following the death of a 21-year-old student from a rare form of cancer in April. His parents said he used Baidu to search for alternative treatments, and paid Rmb200,000 ($31,000) for “biological immunotherapy” offered by a Beijing hospital. They added that the experimental treatment had no effect and led him to miss opportunities to use proven treatments.
該搜索引擎在一名21歲的學生4月死於一種罕見癌症後受到密切關注。他的父母表示，他曾在百度上搜索替代療法，並支付了20萬元人民幣（合3.1萬美元）接受北京一家醫院提供的“生物免疫療法”。他們補充說，這種實驗性治療沒有效果，還導致他錯過了接受經過驗證的治療的良機。
Since the scandal broke this month, Baidu’s share price has fallen more than 13 per cent as investors have questioned its dependence on an under-regulated medical industry for revenues.
自這場醜聞在本月初爆發以來，百度股價累計下跌超過13%，投資者質疑其依賴監管不足的醫療產業獲得營收。
Healthcare accounts for 20-30 per cent of search income, according to Barclays, while search revenues represented 84 per cent of total sales in 2015.
據巴克萊銀行(Barclays)介紹，醫療保健佔搜索收入的20%至30%，而搜索收入佔2015年總銷售額的84%。
The regulator on Monday told Baidu to vet advertisers more carefully, mark and attach risk warnings to all paid search results more clearly. It also said ads must comprise only 30 per cent of results displayed on a page.
週一，網信辦聯合調查組要求百度更加認真地審覈廣告商資質，對搜索結果中的商業推廣信息逐條加註醒目標識，並予以風險提示。監管者還要求嚴格限制商業推廣信息比例，每頁面不得超過30%。
Mark Natkin, head of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting, said the Cyberspace Administration’s statement was vaguely worded and its financial impact on the company would only become clear in the coming days.
北京邁博瑞諮詢(Marbridge Consulting)的馬克•納特金(Mark Natkin)表示，網信辦的聲明措辭含糊，對百度的財務影響要過幾天才會變得明朗。
Mr Li pledged in his open letter to change Baidu’s corporate culture, which he said was “drifting away from its users” by focusing on profits. “If we lose the support of users, we lose hold of our values, and Baidu will truly go bankrupt in just 30 days,” he wrote, saying the crisis was worse than any incident the company had previously experienced.
李彥宏在他的公開信中承諾改變百度的企業文化；他承認，對利潤念念不忘使該公司“與用戶漸行漸遠”。“如果失去了用戶的支持，失去了對價值觀的堅守，百度離破產就真的只有30天！”他寫道。他說，這場危機比該公司以往經歷過的任何事件都更加嚴重。
“I see senior engineers trapped in a conflict of interest between commercial interest and user experience, and often compromising the latter. Users are raising questions concerning the fairness and transparency of our commercial promotion results, and complaining about commercialisation of our products,” he said.
“我更多地……會看到一些高級工程師在平衡商業利益和用戶體驗之間糾結甚至妥協。用戶也因此開始質疑我們商業推廣的公平性和客觀性，吐槽我們產品的安裝策略，反對我們貼吧、百科等產品的過度商業化，”他表示。
In January, the company apologised after criticism over medical advice found on its online forums known as Tieba. Users had attacked the company for replacing the volunteer moderator of a board devoted to haemophilia with a for-profit clinic that paid Baidu for the privilege.
今年1月，該公司在其網上論壇“貼吧”上的醫療建議招致批評後作出了道歉。當時，用戶抨擊該公司趕走血友病貼吧的志願吧主，用一家向百度付費的盈利性診所取而代之。
