"Ai'S First Share" Baidu'S IPO In Hong Kong?

On March 23, Sina officially announced the completion of privatization. Meanwhile, baidu (09888. HK) held a second listing ceremony in Hong Kong in Baidu Technology Park, 211 meters away from Sina headquarters.

Li Yanhong, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu company, regards the return to Hong Kong listing as Baidu's starting point and starting a new business again. Sina, the representative of China's early Internet, chose to withdraw from the spotlight of capital. Some people in the circle sigh: one era is over, another is beginning.

What is the new era? Everyone has his own answer. But it is indisputable that AI will become a strong brush in the picture of the times. It's no wonder that Baidu's listing label is "Ai's first stock".

Under the AI label blessing, capital's attitude towards Baidu is enthusiastic and prudent. Before listing, baidu gained 100 times over subscription. On the first day of listing, baidu opened with a high of HK $254. After a brief reversal, baidu rose to HK $256.2. However, after that, its share price began to decline along with the Hang Seng Index and broke through the session.

In the end, baidu closed at its offering price of HK $252 on the first day, with a market value of HK $712.9 billion. Capital for Baidu, want to touch and return, perhaps also a different kind of mood.

However, for the first day's share price, Li Yanhong's attitude is relatively indifferent. After his IPO speech, he admitted to 21st century economic reporter that he did not pay attention to real-time stock price, and said he paid more attention to the company's long-term and medium-term stock price performance.

There is no doubt that medium and long-term stock prices need fulcrum. Today, the dawn of artificial intelligence fields such as intelligent transportation, intelligent driving and intelligent cloud is coming. Baidu is stepping on the pace of the next era, holding technology and stepping into the spotlight of capital again with the posture of "Ai first share" of Hong Kong stocks. How long can it last?

Li Yanhong will return to Hong Kong to be listed as Baidu's starting point again. Visual China

Three growth curves

Before and after listing, the attitude of capital to Baidu is worth pondering.

On March 12, baidu officially recruited 95 million shares, oversubscribed more than 15 times on the first day, and by March 15, the margin amount exceeded HK $40 billion, nearly 31 times over subscription. Until the day before listing, baidu Hong Kong public offering part was 112 times oversubscribed. By comparison, bilibilibili, which is expected to return to Hong Kong next week, is 58 times oversubscribed.

However, on the listing day, after the Hang Seng index continued to decline, baidu broke out for a time, and finally closed at HK $252, with a market value of HK $712.9 billion. Today, the Hang Seng Index fell 1.34% to 28497.38, while the Hang Seng technology index fell 2.51%.

"Baidu first day does not break, I will insist on holding." Around the performance of Baidu's share price, investors who pay attention to Baidu told the 21st century economic report that "affected by the current market, it is normal for Baidu to fluctuate after listing. I am optimistic about the following stock price space."

Some investors told reporters that due to the large number of IPO projects this year, they did not participate in Baidu Hong Kong stock trading and trading. However, the person admitted that he had invested in Baidu US shares and was ready to see other enterprises.

Although investors have different attitudes, but from Baidu itself, the top AI halo.

Baidu currently has three growth curves, of which mobile ecology is the first curve, which is also a stable basic disk. By improving the construction of information flow ecology on the basis of search advertising, taking baijiahao, intelligent applet and hosting page as the three AI pillars, and building quick view video and purchasing YY live broadcast to respond to the trend of video, Baidu will achieve 107.07 billion yuan of revenue and 30.26 billion yuan of Q4 revenue in 2020, with a year-on-year increase of 5%.

Although Baidu ranks only sixth in China's public cloud market share, smart cloud in the second growth curve stands out by providing AI solutions based on AI capability and knowledge map. In 2020, Q4 will grow 67% year on year, with an annual revenue of about 13 billion yuan.

In addition, the third growth curve constructed by intelligent driving and other growth plans has won the favor of many investment banks and securities companies in the near future with the imagination space of the future track. After the release of Baidu's financial report in 2020, 21 securities companies have appraised Baidu's Apollo, and CICC's highest valuation of the business reached 53.9 billion US dollars. Institutions generally believe that the process of AI business commercialization will be further accelerated, and it is expected to become a new growth engine for Baidu.

Tianfeng securities recently predicted that Baidu will achieve 120.8 billion yuan, 135.2 billion yuan and 151.1 billion yuan from 2021 to 2023, respectively. "In combination with the profit forecast for 2021, we will give the company a market value of $127.5 billion, corresponding to a market value of HK $990.1 billion."

AI's star sea

"Love this era, star sea" is the theme word of Baidu's second listing ceremony today,.

Li Yanhong recalled that in the first decade, baidu focused on the development of search engine technology, which enabled it to serve 1 billion internet users and evolved artificial intelligence technologies such as voice, image, knowledge map and natural language processing.

In the past decade, Baidu has invested in advanced fields such as deep learning, dialogic artificial intelligence operating system, autonomous driving, AI chips, etc., making itself a leading AI company with Internet foundation.

"It's not because we're smarter than others, but because we're more focused, and we like to constantly think about what's our opportunity and what's not." Li Yanhong concluded that what the era can provide is the stars and the sea. What enterprises in this era should do is rely on their own sense of smell and keen, and devote themselves to the vast and unknown.

Therefore, Li stressed that Baidu is willing to invest for the long term and for the future no matter whether it is difficult or not. "When we have 1 yuan, we will invest in technology; if we have 100 million yuan, we will invest in technology; if we have 10 billion yuan, we will still invest in technology."

According to the data, Baidu's R & D expenses in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were 15.8 billion yuan, 18.3 billion yuan and 19.5 billion yuan (US $3 billion), accounting for 15%, 17% and 18% of Baidu's total revenue, respectively.

In his opinion, only by long-term investment in technology can baidu seize the market opportunities in cloud services, intelligent transportation, intelligent driving and other fields of artificial intelligence, which will become a super cake supporting Baidu's future for a long time.

According to IDC's prediction, the overall market size of artificial intelligence in China will maintain a compound annual growth rate of 30.4% from 2020 to 2024, and it is expected to reach a market scale of 17.22 billion US dollars by 2024. China's share of the global AI market will rise from 12.5% in 2020 to 15.6% in 2024, becoming an important driving force for global market growth.

In the high-speed growth market, Baidu has occupied its own place in the AI field. It has the first independent and controllable open-source deep learning platform, flying paddle. In terms of intelligent driving business, it is the enterprise with the largest cumulative test history and automatic driving license plate in China. The direct off-site car building also reflects Baidu's confidence in the business. In addition, Baidu's smart speakers ranked among the top in the world in terms of shipping volume.