Changing faces: Li Tao aims bigger with Apus Group following Qihoo success
He's one year shy of 40, but LI TAO has already played a pivotal role in shaping a company that boasts more than a billion users of its products - Qihoo 360 Technology.
As a vice-president of the Chinese internet giant, Li focused on overseas expansion but left last year to launch his own start-up - the Apus Group -focused on creating applications for the Android platform. He's already attracted US$100 million in financial backing, but as he tells the Post's WU NAN, he's only getting started.
In the next 10 to 20 years, the global economy will be driven by the hi-tech industry. China and the US will dominate the marketplace, but emerging markets will also be important players. Over the past 30 years most hi-tech patents were from the US and Europe, but in the next 30 years the US and China will be the global leaders, but with different roles. The United States will continue to lead technological innovation, while more business models will emerge in China, where there will be the most tech manufacturing. Right now, half of the world's population use smartphones. Only one billion can afford an iPhone. There's a gap to be filled in which two billion people might choose to use an Android smartphone. That's where we see our opportunities as we need to serve Android smartphone users. We understand that the American business culture tends to make standardised products instead of customising them for foreign users' special needs. That's where we can serve global customers and meet their demands - from a different culture, language and way of thinking.
Within a few years, I had helped the 360 Mobile Security and 360 Mobile Assistant products attract one billion users. In April, 2013, I focused on building the Brazilian branch of Qihoo, and I met a lot of challenges because it is a complicated system within a big company like that. Many Chinese enterprises have had problems when going abroad because there were so many conflicting opinions inside their companies. I have seen the enormous markets overseas. The question is: how to pursue them? One personal observation I had in Brazil inspired me. I stayed in a local hotel in October, 2013 and met a bellhop. At that time he was using a basic phone. But last March, I went there and he had already bought a smartphone. Change in Brazil comes so fast you just have to grab the opportunities.
