Former Baidu Search President Xiang Hailong Joins Smartphone Manufacturer Transsion

According to LatePost, former Senior Vice President of Baidu and President of Baidu Search Xiang Hailong has officially joined Transsion, a Chinese smartphone manufacturer that strives to export its products worldwide. Xiang serves as President of the firm’s mobile internet department. He was joined by several of his former Baidu subordinates.

An individual close to Transsion said that Xiang will manage the development of its software products and commercialization of mobile internet services such as Transsion’s app store and its own apps.

From the time he joined Baidu in 2005 to the time he left in 2019, Xiang gradually took charge of Baidu‘s vast commercialization system, and was a central figure within the company. The search engine business he oversaw contributed over 70% of Baidu‘s revenue.

However, Baidu released its first loss-making quarterly report since its listing and announced Xiang’s resignation in May 2019. Xiang joined Gome as CEO of Gome Online in August 2020 and resigned in July 2021.

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Several sources close to Transsion said that Xiang’s online marketing and advertising capacities are important to the company at the moment. Transsion’s current market value exceeds 100 billion yuan ($15.7 billion), and its major overseas markets include Africa and the Middle East. The company has not only focused on smartphone hardware, but has provided software products and services such as app stores, game centers, advertising distribution platforms and smartphone butlers in the last five years. It also owns self-developed apps for overseas users include music player Boomplay, Vskit, a TikTok-like platform popular in Africa, as well as news aggregation tool Scooper and browser Phoenix.