Baidu must make definitive changes to regain public trust

File photo of Li Yanhong, founder and CEO of Baidu Inc, has topped the 2012 Hurun IT rich list. [Photo / China Daily]

ON TUESDAY, Li Yanhong, chairman and CEO of domestic online search engine Baidu, issued a letter to all staff about the results of the recent investigation into the death of a college student, which concluded the search engine had played a role in the young man's death. Beijing News commented:

In the letter Li said he was moved to tears. We do not know how he managed to move himself, but his words obviously failed to move readers, as there has been hardly any positive reaction to his letter.

The public expected Li to apologize and correct his company's wrongdoings, but he only boasted of Baidu's "glories" instead. Worse, he tried to persuade the public with 1960s-style sentences even though this year is 2016. That only makes his persuasion annoying.

The investigators have already concluded that Baidu played a role in Wei's death, but Li insisted attributing that to pressure from market competition. The whole letter gave readers the impression that Baidu is always right and it just made some small mistakes.

This is not an apology. It is not even expression of regret. It is simply boasting.

Due to the lack of strong competitors, Baidu has a monopoly in the domestic search market. A monopoly does not necessarily bring hate but Baidu does because it uses the monopoly to misguide users for profit. If Li continues boasting instead of making changes, Baidu will only arouse more anger, instead of sympathy, from the public.

It is time for Baidu to be more sincere. It has already damaged its public trust, and if it continues being arrogant, the market will soon teach it a lesson.