Kai-Fu Lee's Advice to Mark Zuckerberg

Google is deepening its push into China as it seeks an edge in one of Tech's most competitive fields artificial intelligence the company opened a new Beijing research facility last week but the road ahead for Silicon Valley tech giants is still rocky I spoke with Kai Fuli CEO of sign evasion ventures and former Google and Microsoft exec who led those company's efforts in China on this week's episode of Bloomberg studio 1.0 about the road ahead for US tech companies in China when I joined Google and went to China we had made a decision we would comply by government laws and that allowed us to grow a business from about nine percent market share to twenty four percent and growing search revenue from nothing to almost a billion so I thought we were given space to do our business but ultimately I think the legal restrictions and Google's values really didn't allow Google to continue to operate YouTube getting shut down was really sort of the beginning of a series of shutdowns Facebook was blocking Twitter was blocked none of these companies would have had any chance of succeeding in China because I think American companies were just too far removed from the Chinese users needs Google eventually agreed to create a Chinese interface but but that would get in such a way of the Silicon Valley centric way of the world where one platform would serve the world and that egocentricity would have caused every American company to fail in China also if you look at the new companies that rose up in China in a very tough competitive environment I think we chad is clearly a better product than facebook Messenger I think Taba Timo is a better product certainly than eBay if not then Amazon the Chinese payment system fully connected frictionless micro payment peer-to-peer is clearly better than PayPal and the credit cards many people compare it with gladiators in the Colosseum and I'm afraid the Silicon Valley companies are just no gladiators they'd get killed in China you left Google in 2009 Google left China a few months later yeah what happened well I had no idea I was surprised New York Times called me one morning as a trifle what's going on can we get a quote from you and I said what what is it Google just left China and I said I had no idea I can't give you a quote so then I read about it on the news just as you did they didn't want to respond to the censorship demands of the Chinese government was that the right call it's hard to say what's right or wrong I think if Google is a very values entry company so it will do things according to its values for which I think we all respect but what but on the other hand that makes it impossible for the company to do business in China and I would prefer to see engagement and engagement would give users more choices and that would ultimately I think leads to competitiveness and better products but that of course required following the law and if you choose not to then I guess you would have to exit do you think Google will ever return to China I think it's very difficult it's hard to say ever but the core products cannot return unless they follow the laws and regulations I do think some secondary products you know Facebook's oculus is launching China I think some of Google's and new products that are maybe not as core could potentially be launched as a experiment I think Google is a great company and I would like to see them launch products everywhere Facebook has been making overtures shaking the right hands and we saw Facebook's whatsapp recently blocked Instagram and Facebook are still blocked do you see a scenario where Facebook can have a substantial presence there if I were mark I would definitely launch oculus I would work hard in getting more Chinese companies to see Facebook as a platform for ads so that Chinese companies can project positive images worldwide I would consider if I were either Google or Facebook launching the open-source AI projects in China China wants to be the a world leader in AI so there is a case where the the interests are aligned so it's always better the starts in an area where the interests are aligned rather than go into an area where there's conflicting values what do you make of $0.10 investment in snap buying a 12% stake is this the beginning of bigger US ambitions I think $0.10 very smart about making global investments I think they teach a lot to the companies they invest in I've spoken to Evan and he really appreciates all that Tencent's taught them based on Chinese users behavior is social and things like that but I also think Evan has taught Tencent through its experiences so 10 cents just is some very powerful and amazing learning machine so these investments are teaching what they know just like you know 10 cent and Facebook we're connected by yuri milner right so there's learning going both ways so I think 10 cent I don't think they have global domination ambitions I think they're primarily a Chinese company but they want to continue to increase their presence and and learn and teach at the same time

Channel: Bloomberg Technology

Views: 39,112

Rating: 4.7732425 out of 5

Keywords: Bloomberg

Id: EbnIVya2EJQ

Length: 5min 54sec (354 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2017