Christmas Tragedy – CFO of Baidu Passed Away in An Accident

It has been a profitable 2007 for Baidu.com, the leading Chinese search language search provider. It takes over 60% share in Chinese search market. According to the Q3 2007 financial report from Baidu, its total revenue reached 497million RMB. It is 107.5% growth compared to Q3, 2006, and 23.8% increase compared to Q2 this year. The net income of Q3 was 182million RMB, increased 113.2% than Q3 of 2006.

But it was a sad Christmas for Baidu and for Chinese Internet industry. Today Baidu announces that Shawn Wang, CFO of Baidu passed away in an accident on December 27, 2007 during the Christmas vocation.

Mr. Wang joined Baidu as its chief financial officer in September 2004, helping lead the company through its successful initial public offering on NASDAQ in August 2005, and through its recent inclusion in the NASDAQ-100; making Baidu the first company from China to be included in the index. He was named “CFO of the Year” by CFO Magazine in 2005. (via foxbusiness.com)

I am deeply sorry for the loss of Mr. Wang, who is such a great a great guy. 2008 will be brilliant still for Baidu, a wonderful year for China web, I do believe.