Baidu CEO Robin Li spent much of the AM session of Baidu World discussing new mobile constructs. He noted that the Baidu open platform already has 700,000 developers and has a distribution platform capable of delivering 69mn apps on a daily basis, which we believe leads the industry. The 0.1% most popular apps represent 70% of all downloads.
Baidu and Concept of Light Apps
Baidu’s solution offers to replace native apps with “light apps” for long tail app developers, with a set of light app tools including App Builder, Clouda and Site App. The key features of “light app” include: 1) no need to download: the app can be launched via a web search interface directly on Baidu mobile products, ideally through the Baidu search app or search page, 2) better user experience than web apps: “light apps” can leverage local hardware capabilities including GPS, notifications, camera and voice input/output, far richer than simple web apps, 3) it offers a good fit with Baidu’s top online vertical search categories for web apps, esp. in health care, online travel, etc, 4) Baidu claims that the app developer can achieve higher user retention with Baidu mobile search through the unified access point.
Baidu’s light app construct in our minds clearly offers an alternative to the prevailing mobile app dichotomy of apps and OS (eg – the Android marketplaces and Android-based apps, iTunes and iOS-based apps.) If successful, Baidu mobile search should be able to broaden sources of mobile queries and participate more directly in the app experience.
On the other hand, while possibly serving to enhance the prospects of non-mainstream, low- frequency category-specific apps that might otherwise wither, it is not clear whether developers would rush to adopt yet another framework, moreover one in which their intimacy with user, exposure to user data etc, could be disintermediated, etc