Original source:/GB/1037/5170845.html.
China news agency, Shanghai, December 14th (Reporter Jiang Yu) The awarding ceremony of the 11th batch of Shanghai regional headquarters of multinational corporations was held in Shanghai today. Up to now, 15 1 foreign-invested companies and management companies established in Shanghai have been recognized as regional headquarters of multinational companies.
Zhou Bo, director of the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission, revealed that the amount of foreign investment attracted by Shanghai this year reached a record high when presenting certificates to representatives of B&Q (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Yakult (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and Baidu (China) Co., Ltd.
The highest in history.
According to him, from January to November this year, Shanghai * * * approved 3,637 foreign investment projects, with contracted foreign investment exceeding $13.1 billion, an increase of 1.63% over the same period last year; The actually used foreign capital was $66.5 1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1.6%.
Four years ago, Shanghai introduced measures to encourage multinational companies to set up regional headquarters, and constantly strengthened and improved the environment for the economic development of Shanghai headquarters. Today, 15 1 regional headquarters of multinational companies have settled in Shanghai. Among these multinational companies, there are 40 Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 26% of the total.
In addition, Zhou Bo also revealed that there are 196 foreign R&D centers in Shanghai, and a number of well-known multinational companies such as Novartis, Unilever and Schaeffler have set up large R&D centers in Shanghai this year with a total investment of more than 30 million US dollars.
The name Baidu comes from a sentence in a very famous poem by Xin Qiji (11207), a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty: people looked for him for thousands of Baidu, and suddenly looked back, but the man was in the dim light.
First of all, I don't want to argue about which company Baidu listed on Nasdaq is. I just want to explain some facts.
After 4.04 million ADR shares of Baidu Company (Baidu.com, Inc.) were successfully listed in the United States (in-depth analysis: also known as Baidu listing), it caused quite a stir in China. A large number of blogs and websites have commented and reported on important events before and after its listing. In these articles, almost everyone agrees that Baidu is a China company. Even today, when reading the article "Baidu's Next Step" in Economic Observer, a famous financial newspaper in China, I found that two journalists also hold this view.
However, this is not the case. So, which country is Baidu's company from? Let me give you my opinion.
It is an indisputable fact that the globalization of economy and the transnational flow of capital and manpower complicate the geographical attributes of a company, especially multinational companies. When I say geographical attributes, I mean that a company belongs to which geographical scope from all major angles, especially limited to countries. Specifically, it is called China Company, Japanese Company, American Company and so on. In the past, the national attributes of a company were often very obvious, such as Toyota being a Japanese company, BMW being a German company, McDonald's being an American company and so on. Things are different now. Let's take Baidu as an example.
First of all, in order to explain the problem better and more specifically, I intend to introduce several projects that I think are of great significance and can play a decisive role in explaining the company's geographical attributes. They are: place of registration, headquarters or main office, and the territory of the company owner derived from the ownership structure. The following is explained one by one:
1. From the point of registration, Baidu Company is located in Grand Cayman Island, British Cayman Islands (Cayman Islands includes three islands, and Grand Cayman Island is the largest and M& Island). The specific address is M & amp； Company Services Limited, PO Box 309GT, Ugland House, South Church Street, Georgetown, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. Although this is not the main office of the company, a small number of managers should be arranged to do some necessary work here.
2. Because Baidu's main business is in China, its main office is in Beijing, China. The specific location is: Ideal International Building, No.58 Northwest Fourth Ring Road, Beijing 12 Floor (Ideal International Plaza, No.58 Northwest Fourth Ring Road, Beijing, People's Republic of China (PRC)10080). ) The two major operating units related to Baidu Company, namely Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (a foreign-funded company) and Baidu Netcom Technology Co., Ltd. (a Chinese-funded limited liability company), the two founders, Li Yanhong and Xu Yong, hold 75% and 25% of the shares respectively. This website is operated by this company, which is closely tied to Baidu Online through various treaties, thus establishing a close relationship with Baidu.com, the parent company of Baidu Online. Obviously, the definition of head office involves another company. As far as Baidu is concerned, it is in China.
3. From the owner's territory. Some owners of Baidu mainly come from the United States and China. In addition, American institutions have a controlling stake in the company, because their shares exceed 565,438+0%. The specific distribution is: DFJ Epland (California, USA) 25.8%, Integrity Partners (California, USA) 9.7%, Peninsula Capital (Detroit, Michigan, USA) 8.5%, IDGVC(IDGVC) is rooted in China, however, its parent company IDG is from the United States. Chinese shareholders are mainly individuals, and the founders and executives of the company account for the majority. The details are: Li Yanhong 22.9%, Xu Yong 7% (both founders), CTO Liu Jianguo 0.9%, CFO Wang Zhansheng 1%.
At present, the complexity of regional attributes of multinational corporations is mainly reflected in the different contents of key projects such as their registered place, headquarters or main office, owner's territory and so on. Therefore, from different angles, the same company can have different regional attributes. This is different from the previous companies with clear geographical attributes. For example, when Sony was born, it was registered in Japan, its headquarters was in Japan, and its owners were mainly in Japan. Obviously, this is a Japanese company. Therefore, in order to describe the regional attributes of multinational companies more accurately and comprehensively, it is necessary to introduce multiple explanations.
In my opinion, if we look at the origin of a company, the main criterion for measuring its geographical attributes is the place where it should be registered, while if we look at the ownership (capital), the regional attributes of a company should be based on the owner's territory, and if we take the business entity as the standard, we should take the company's main office or headquarters as the main criterion. But generally speaking, the owner's territory and the company's main office are the key elements to clarify the geographical attributes of an enterprise.
Just as the ownership and management rights of a company can be separated, and they have been clearly separated, so can the regional attributes of a company, which can be investigated from two main angles: the owner and the business entity. Therefore, we can try to describe the geographical attributes of a company as follows: Baidu Company [registered in the British Cayman Islands] is a Sino-US joint venture (which can also be said to be a US-owned holding company) operating Internet business in China.
According to Baidu's prospectus, Baidu, which is listed on Nasdaq in the United States, is from the British Cayman Islands. Obviously, it is not a China company. In China, there are only Baidu Online and Baidu Netcom, and these two companies are not listed in the United States or anywhere else in the world! But there is no doubt that Baidu's listing is mainly based on its business in China.
In fact, in today's economic globalization, the phenomenon of vague geographical attributes like Baidu is widespread. For example, Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer in beautiful Espoo, Finland, which we are all familiar with, is its big boss from the perspective of ownership, do you know? Let me tell you something: America!
Although Baidu used the concept of "China's Google" when it went public in the United States, to be honest, the biggest similarity I know between Baidu and Google may be that they are both American-funded companies. Baidu Company is registered in British Cayman Islands. Li Yanhong, founder of Baidu, holds a US green card. The capital started by Baidu is American venture capital. At present, US capital accounts for more than 565,438+0% of Baidu, so Baidu is an out-and-out American company.
The founders of the company are Robin Li Yanhong and Eric Xu Yong. The former 199 1 graduated from Peking University majoring in information management, and then went to new york State University in Buffalo to complete his master's degree in computer science. I stayed in the United States for 8 years, during which I worked in Dow Jones Company. Company), Infoseek and other companies, and is an authoritative expert in the field of new generation Internet technology. The latter 1982 studied biology in Peking University. 1989, after completing his master's degree in biology, won a doctoral scholarship from Rockefeller Foundation in the United States, went to study in the United States, and studied at A & M University completed his doctorate and later became a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a senior expert in the field of biology. /kloc-During his stay in the United States in 0/0, he worked for two famous biotechnology companies (QIAGEN and Stratagene) in charge of marketing and won outstanding sales awards.
While registering the general holding company Baidu.com Company, they established a wholly-owned subsidiary Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (Baidu Online Network Technology Company, referred to as "Baidu Online") in Beijing, China. This is a foreign-funded company, the first operating entity of Baidu in China, which is mainly responsible for providing P4P (Pay for Effect) services and search solutions to China enterprises, and providing technical support to Baidu Netcom. Due to various restrictions imposed by the laws of China on foreign companies engaging in Internet services in China, they subsequently established a second operating entity-Baidu Netcom Technology Co., Ltd. (Baidu Network Technology Company, referred to as "Baidu Network") in Beijing, China on June 5, 2000/kloc-0. This is a Chinese-funded limited liability company, with Li Yanhong and Xu Yong holding 75% and 25% respectively. China municipal government website and online advertising business license, specializing in website management and online advertising business. The familiar Hao 123.com belongs to this category.
In order to further consolidate its position in China, in June 2005, Baidu established its second wholly-owned subsidiary, Baidu China Co., Ltd. (Baidu China Co., Ltd., commonly known as "Baidu China") in Shanghai, China, and plans to take charge of its business in South China in the future.