The ill-fated Baidu game was laid off and just restructured in July this year

Economic Observation Network reporter Ren Xiaoning December 22-23, social platform pulse and Weibo successively broke the Baidu game layoff news, some people posted that Baidu heavy games have been laid off, the end of the year suddenly unemployed. Some people also say that Baidu game release is completely cut, and other groups are estimated to cut some and retain some.

An Internet headhunter told the Economic Observer Network reporter that Baidu MEG layoffs are true, the game department is basically gone, and the entire middle and back office performance is 0.8, because iQiyi and Kuaishou lose money, and other employees follow the pot. When he was digging UP MEG employees, some baidu MEG people mentioned that other departments were fine, and there were many layoffs on the game.

According to the news, the current layoffs involve Baidu game positions, including heavy games, game video design, development, and distribution teams. Employees are very worried about how to solve the compensation problem, but also worried about their year-end bonus can be issued on time, before Baidu Games promised to pay 4 months of salary year-end bonus, at the end of the year layoffs, they are worried about whether they can successfully receive money.

Baidu game employees said in Zhihu that on December 21, they learned from external sources that their game business unit was about to lay off employees, and they still thought it was a rumor. It was not until December 23 that the news of the department's layoffs was confirmed.

Baidu Games is under the umbrella of MEG (Mobile Ecology Business Group) and employs more than 300 people in the game department. In addition to Baidu Games, other departments of Baidu MEG have also broken the news of layoffs, and the business lines such as education, live broadcasting, and e-commerce have all been exposed.

The Economic Observer Network reporter learned from several people close to Baidu Games that Baidu Games has not yet completely laid off employees, and employees have not received formal notices, but they have been interviewed in installments.

People in the game circle expressed shock at this, Baidu Games just recruited many people from July to August this year, and did not expect to lay off employees at the end of the year.

However, the laid-off game employees do not seem to be short of job opportunities. Under the news of a layoff in the pulse, Mihayou, NetEase Games, Ali Lingxi Mutual Entertainment, Perfect World, Hero Interactive Entertainment, and Fun Plus are all seeking resumes, claiming to be able to push inwards and take in Baidu heartbreaking classmates.

The reporter asked Baidu about the above-mentioned layoff news, and Baidu officials have not responded at present.

Sudden layoffs

"Just made up my mind to believe Baidu again, Baidu gave such a result." The new games are all booked, the results are good, and I can't say anything if I want to complain. On social platforms, Baidu game employees said.

Some users posted that on the afternoon of December 22, everyone in the game department knew about the layoffs, and it was more terrifying than the previous rumors, because Baidu planned to lay off the entire game department. Baidu Games has just spent 1 year recruiting people, such as more than 350 people in the stream group.

On the morning of the 23rd, we began to talk alone and put forward a plan. There are two separation scenarios, N+1 requires separation by December 30 and N requires departure by January 31 next year.

Consistent with what reporters learned from people close to Baidu Games, none of them received a formal layoff notice.

"Before tossing many rounds, changing several groups of people", a game company mid-level is not surprised by the layoffs of Baidu games, but he also expressed understanding, "the business of large companies said to engage in, said to lay off, normal." ”

It is a pity that Baidu Games has a product just launched for reservation, and on December 8, Baidu Games and Bandai launched a new game "Digimon: Source Code", ranking first in the TapTap reservation list.

The laid-off employee said that the product team was also very confident, but did not expect that it would be the result in the end, which was sudden and regrettable.

The death-threatening Taku

In July this year, Baidu Games held a press conference during ChinaJoy in Shanghai to announce the establishment of a new brand of Baidu Games and the restructuring of the business team. A new business leader was also found, Xu Jian, general manager of Baidu Games, was the general manager of touch games, and Wang Hui, deputy general manager of Baidu Games, was the COO of Babel Times.

This isn't the first time Baidu has tried to make a game. From 2013 to 2017, Baidu Games had a number of names such as Baidu mobile games and Duoku games, and all of them were publishing operations, and in 2017, Baidu sold its game business to third-party companies. Restarted in July this year, Baidu Games is more ambitious, wanting to make self-developed heavy games, as well as overseas releases.

"It was okay when it was cool before, after all, Baidu traffic is still very large." Wang Pei, general manager of the game division of The Speedway Network, told reporters that this year's Baidu games restarted and wanted to do heavy games, it may be to see Alibaba's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is good, a month of hundreds of millions of yuan of income, is indeed very attractive.

But what I didn't expect was that Baidu game students were not timely. Since July 22, the State Press and Publication Administration has not released a game version number for five consecutive months. So far, of the 23 games released by Baidu, only one has been launched. On December 8, Baidu Games and Bandai launched a new game "Digimon: Source Code", which has just been booked online.

"The self-developed game was originally relatively slow, plus the version number stopped in the second half of the year, they did not have a version number, and the game could not be sent out." Wang Pei told reporters that Baidu's advantage is traffic, in fact, it will be better to do game distribution safely, and there is no problem with product version numbers, "Baidu now has revenue performance pressure on the one hand, on the other hand, the version number is suspended, the game can not see revenue in the short term, and layoffs are sooner or later." ”

For Baidu, the game business has been trying, but it has not been smooth. Baidu's game business began in 2013, and every year since then, Baidu games have almost had tossing and turning events.

In July 2013, Baidu wholly acquired 91 Wireless for US$1.9 billion, which was the largest merger in the history of the Chinese Internet at that time. In 2014, 91 Wireless' game-related publishing business was merged by Baidu Duoku and renamed Baidu Mobile Games. In March 2016, Baidu Mobile Games changed its name again to Baidu Games. In October of that year, it was reported that due to the corruption of Baidu's game business, Baidu would sell the game business and lay off employees in the game business department. Baidu said at the time that the news was not true and that everything was subject to official information. On January 13, 2017, Baidu announced that it had reached an agreement with two third-party companies to sell its mobile game business for a total of RMB1.2 billion in cash.

Baidu Games before the sale, in 2016, operating income of 1.755 billion yuan, net profit of 73.9836 million yuan.

The person in charge of Baidu Games has also been replaced many times. In 2014, Robin Li's assistant Zhang Dongchen became the CEO of Baidu's mobile game division, reporting to Baidu Vice President Wang Zhan. A year later, in March 2015, the CEO of Baidu Mobile Games was replaced by Faye Wong, and in December of that year, Baidu once again adjusted its structure, and mobile games were transferred to Baidu MSG business group.

Baidu games have gone through several twists and turns before, and there are still internal corruption problems. In August 2014, Baidu Games' official Weibo confirmed that Liao Jun, deputy director of Baidu's game division, had seriously violated the company's professional ethics and discipline, had been terminated by the company, and was under investigation by the public security organs. At that time, media reported that Liao Jun was internally reported for "collecting kickbacks" and using Baidu Games as a platform to make money. In May 2016, Wang Zhan, who had led Baidu's mobile game business, was fired for seriously violating professional ethics and harming Baidu's interests. In November 2016, li Mingyuan, a former vice president of Baidu, was announced to resign due to "economic problems" at the unveiling ceremony of Baidu Games.

By 2021, Baidu Games, which involves layoffs, is a newly established business unit. In July this year, Baidu released 23 new games, including 14 casual games such as "Island Crossing", "Call of Mini: Zombies Return", "Garden", and 9 heavy games such as "Wu Gengji" and "Dream of a New World".

Unfortunately, the restructured Baidu game students are not timely. Due to the version number and other reasons, since July, Baidu Games has only booked one game online.

Not surprising

Baidu Games belongs to the mobile ecological business group, the mobile ecological business group was formerly Known as Baidu Search Company, and now, search is also where Baidu Cash Cow business is located. In the past two years, the advertising revenue generated by the search business has not increased significantly. In the third quarter, Baidu's core revenue was 24.7 billion yuan, an increase of only 700 million yuan from 24 billion yuan in the second quarter.

Not only this year, but also after 2018, Baidu's revenue as a whole is slowing down. In 2018, Baidu's revenue was 102.277 billion yuan, in 2019 it was 107.413 billion yuan, and in 2020 it was 107.074 billion yuan, for three consecutive years, the revenue just exceeded 100 billion yuan.

Internet analyst Ge Jia was not surprised by Baidu's layoffs. Previously, there have been a number of Internet manufacturers rumors of layoffs. Since August, ByteDance has laid off employees in multiple departments across multiple business lines. On December 1, iQiyi was laid off. On December 7, Kuaishou was laid off. Ge Jia had predicted to reporters before that the next Internet factory to spread the news of layoffs was likely to be Baidu.

"Core departments such as AI, big search, and unmanned vehicles cannot be touched, but the edge business must be touched." Baidu also has a number of other marginal businesses, which are not very profitable, "Baidu stalls are too big, their core business does not use so many people." At present, the mobile ecological business groups involved in layoffs include Baidu APP, search, information flow, mini programs, Baijia number, interactive entertainment, Baidu health, etc.

Baidu's focus and future is the driverless business, and everything with AI as the core. But both require Baidu's continuous investment, and the commercial return is slow. In the era of Baidu's abundant funds, it can "spend a lot of money" to raise marginal businesses that do not make money. At present, Baidu is in a trough. Under non-GAAP, Baidu's net profit in the third quarter was 5.09 billion yuan, and under the US GAAP, Baidu's net loss was 16.559 billion yuan, mainly investing in Kuaishou and YY blood loss.

"Now the situation forces Baidu to have to cut, there are no two or three quarters to wait", Ge Jia believes that baidu now, if the revenue does not go up, the negative effects will easily appear, "Baidu can not afford to lose."