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Baidu CEO Robin Li quits Trip.com board as the search giant shifts focus from travel to AI

  • Li has resigned as a board director at Trip.com, a role he assumed after the company completed a share swap with Baidu-backed Qunar
  • Baidu remains Trip.com’s largest shareholder with a 10.7 per cent stake, although Li has turned his gaze from the travel sector to large AI models

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Robin Li Yanhong, founder, chairman and CEO of Baidu, has left the board of Trip.com. Photo: Reuters
Lilian Zhang
Robin Li Yanhong, founder and chief executive of Baidu, has quit the board of Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel service provider, after eight years as a director, reflecting the country’s changing technology and entrepreneurship landscape.
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The Shanghai-based holiday-booking site operator on Thursday announced the resignation of Li, 54, with immediate effect, without providing a reason for his departure.

Li landed a seat on the board in 2015 when Ctrip.com International, the predecessor of Trip.com, and Baidu-backed Qunar completed a share swap to end a cash-burning price war. The deal gave Baidu a 25 per cent stake in Ctrip, while Ctrip controlled 45 per cent of Qunar.

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But Li’s interests in the travel service business began to wane as he shifted increasing attention to autonomous driving and artificial intelligence. The latter became an even bigger priority after the launch of ChatGPT by US start-up OpenAI, which spurred Baidu on to introduce its rival Ernie Bot and bet its future on foundation models.

The Beijing-based search engine giant in 2019 sold about a third of its stake in Trip.com for around US$1 billion amid a slowing economy and intensifying competition in the advertising field – one of its key businesses.

With its remaining 10.7 per cent stake, Baidu is still Trip.com’s largest shareholder, according to the travel company’s annual report last year.

Trip.com Group is currently listed on Hong Kong stock exchange, following a secondary listing in 2021. Photo: Handout
Trip.com Group is currently listed on Hong Kong stock exchange, following a secondary listing in 2021. Photo: Handout
Founded in 1999 in Shanghai, Ctrip – renamed Trip.com in 2019 after it acquired the Silicon Valley-based start-up bearing that name – has been listed on the Nasdaq since 2003. It secured a secondary listing in the Hong Kong stock exchange in 2021.
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