Behind the Silent Offline of Baidu Public Welfare

Recently, the Baidu public welfare platform quietly went offline and attracted attention from all sectors. The "Charity China" page of the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that the original 30 charity organizations' internet fundraising information platforms have become 29

Recently, the Baidu public welfare platform quietly went offline and attracted attention from all sectors. The "Charity China" page of the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that the original 30 charity organizations' internet fundraising information platforms have become 29.

In 2016, 13 internet fundraising platforms, including Baidu Public Welfare, were first launched and became "explorers" in the internet public welfare ecosystem. However, they have now withdrawn from internet fundraising platforms. What did they experience during this period? What impact will this have on the future direction of internet public welfare?

Why offline

Internet public welfare emphasizes interaction, linking, and broad public participation, which is not our advantage track, "Lu Jian, director of Baidu's Corporate Social Responsibility Office, responded in an interview with China Newsweek, Baidu is not like other platforms with strong social or e-commerce attributes. People have become accustomed to socializing or trading on these platforms. Baidu is actually a technology and information distribution platform, and users still come here to obtain information

Lu Jian said that under the current assessment mechanism, Baidu Public Welfare is unable to leverage its own advantages.

According to the "Basic Management Standards for Charity Organizations' Internet Public Fundraising Information Platforms" (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Standards") issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, if the platform intends to terminate the public fundraising information release service due to strategic adjustments or business changes, it should submit a withdrawal application to the national charity work authority 30 working days in advance. In the third quarter of 2022, Baidu Public Welfare officially submitted its withdrawal application to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. At this point, it was only 6 years since its official approval.

Baidu Public Welfare Platform went offline, but the query was unsuccessful. Image/Baidu Public Welfare Official Website

2016 is the first year for the implementation of the Charity Law of the China, which stipulates that "Charity organizations that conduct public fundraising through the Internet shall publish fundraising information on the unified or designated charity information platform of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and can also publish fundraising information on their website at the same time."

In the same year, 13 platforms including Tencent Public Welfare, Taobao Public Welfare, Ant Financial Services Public Welfare, and Baidu Public Welfare became the first batch of "players" to enter the public welfare track, and social welfare undertakings began to surge forward with the help of the internet trend. Data shows that from 2017 to 2021, China's annual internet donations increased from 2.59 billion yuan to around 10 billion yuan, with an average growth rate much faster than the growth rate of China's social donations, driving over 51 billion people to participate.

Compared to other platforms, Baidu Public Welfare has relied on Baidu's technological and resource advantages in search, integration, dissemination, and query since its entry. However, it was also affected by the controversy over the bidding ranking mechanism at that time, which showed a slight lack of preparation.

According to public reports, Baidu Public Welfare Foundation invested 2.2 million yuan in 2019 to provide information promotion services for 305 projects of 258 institutions. However, the Management Regulations clearly stipulate that in accordance with the requirements of public welfare and industry responsibility, "platforms should fulfill the social responsibility of internet information platforms, strengthen social brand awareness, and should not provide service cooperation or technical support for non designated platforms to engage in internet fundraising information services such as promotion, search, and online payment.

In fact, Baidu Public Welfare did not perform well in several "big exams" conducted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. In 2017, Baidu Public Welfare was interviewed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, requesting "to accelerate platform transformation and improvement, open up its own advantageous resources, and create work performance that is commensurate with public expectations". But at the end of the year, Baidu Public Welfare still ranked lower in terms of fundraising amount.

In 2018 and 2019, the Ministry of Civil Affairs requested Baidu Public Welfare to "further identify its positioning, improve efficiency, provide proactive services, and play a platform role that is commensurate with public expectations." However, Baidu Public Welfare seems to have yet to find a direction and break through.

Afterwards, with the launch of the second and third batches of internet fundraising platforms, Baidu Public Welfare significantly lagged behind in terms of online projects, donations, and the number of cooperative social organizations, until it quietly went offline.

In the view of Tang Min, Counselor of the State Council and Vice Chairman of the Youcheng Foundation, "Baidu's search function advantage is not significant in the field of public welfare fundraising." In fact, major platforms no longer pursue "only fundraising amount", but combine the fields that the platform excels in, through resource and technology empowerment, to compete products in more segmented fields.

Some people enter and some people exit, indicating that there is life and death in the field of public welfare in China. The liquidity of internet public welfare platforms itself is a good thing. "Tang Min said that Baidu's public welfare operation has not achieved good results, and exiting the business sector should respect the decision-making of enterprises.

What to do after exiting

Jin Jinping, director of the non-profit organization law research center of the Peking University Law School, believes that although the platform has the freedom to withdraw, it is undeniable that the strict selection from the initial trial, defense to publicity itself occupies a certain amount of public resources, and after the withdrawal, there are still some remaining problems, such as where are the projects that have not ended their fundraising? Where did the funds go? Where did the project data go?

Lu Jian told China News Weekly, "The processing methods vary depending on the situation. The unfinished projects of Baidu Public Welfare will be transferred to other platforms through the Ministry of Civil Affairs. As all projects are registered and launched by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the project data will be returned to the Ministry of Civil Affairs after the platform is offline, forming a closed loop of data security management

As for fund management, the "Management Standards" clearly stipulate that the platform should have online fundraising and payment functions and provide technical support. Donated funds should be directly deposited into the bank account or secure third-party payment account of the charity organization, and should not be intercepted or accepted on behalf of others. A staff member of the "Love Decibel" Foundation, which has previously collaborated with Baidu Public Welfare, mentioned that before the platform goes offline, public fundraising institutions can withdraw and collect donations on the platform.

The legacy issues of offline internet public welfare platforms are far from just "ending", but they also need to explore new development space. In Tang Min's view, after the platform withdraws from the field of public welfare fundraising, attention should be paid to what else can be done. For example, in the field of rural revitalization, it is not only a matter of donating money, but also involves various aspects such as talent, industry, ecology, etc. It is a systematic project that requires long-term investment and comprehensive construction.

According to Lu Jian, after exiting its weak areas, Baidu's public welfare business will leverage its technological platform advantages, focusing on education, community life, and vulnerable groups. Through technological innovation, think tanks, and other resources, it will promote more artificial intelligence application scenarios, such as using image recognition technology to help blind people take medication, technology and talent empowerment, collaborating with schools and industries, establishing special courses, and cultivating cutting-edge "digital and intelligent" talents.

In fact, the Internet public welfare has entered a new stage of high-quality development. The platform is not only a more standardized, efficient, convenient and popular digital tool, but also will be more fully integrated into China's modernization process, and will play a major role in major issues such as population aging, "dual carbon" goals, and Common prosperity.

How to Sustain Internet Public Welfare

Behind the attention paid to Baidu Public Welfare is the booming development of internet public welfare in recent years. How to achieve sustainable development of internet public welfare has also sparked new thinking in the industry.

The public often closely pays attention to two issues when participating in internet public welfare, one is whether the platform is making profits under the banner of "public welfare charity", and the other is whether the donations are used reasonably.

It is understood that most internet public welfare platforms do not charge management fees or service fees, but most of the "charity fundraising" projects in the platform have a "management fee" item in the project budget table, which is collected by the initiating charity organization for project operation and administrative expenses. That is to say, internet public welfare platforms are just a free display window, not only without revenue, but also generate a large amount of expenses.

Taking Tencent Public Welfare as an example, in 2022, within 10 days of the 99 Public Welfare Day, Tencent Public Welfare Charity Fund established a special incentive fund of 100 million yuan after raising a donation of 300 million yuan. From 2015 to 2022, Tencent has provided nearly 2.6 billion yuan in donations for 99 Public Welfare Days, continuing its "zero return" investment for many years.

In this regard, Wang Zhenyao, president of the China Public Welfare Research Institute of Beijing Normal University and former director of the Department of Social Welfare and Philanthropy Promotion of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, believes that no country will connect donors, public welfare institutions and recipients so widely as China's Internet public welfare platform. Compared to European and American countries, the trickle down effect of Chinese internet public welfare charity is stronger because Chinese internet companies have opened up public welfare platforms and payment systems, shortened the operational link for participating in donations, and improved the convenience of public participation in public welfare.

Therefore, the technology and resources required to support the normal operation of internet public welfare platforms cannot be underestimated. To put it bluntly, the enterprises behind the platform should have a strong foundation. When this "free showcase" model is difficult to sustain, exiting is also inevitable.

From the perspective of equal rights and obligations, the sustainable mechanism for the development of internet public welfare fundraising platforms needs to be put on the agenda. "Jin Jinping admitted," The free lunch in the internet industry is about to come to an end. Do we still insist on providing free services, or do we allow platforms to freely choose whether to free or not

Internet fundraising information platform designated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs for charitable organizations. Image/Charity China Official Website

On the opposite side of 'sustainability', the problem that lies on the other end of the scale is' monopoly '. When online charity resources are mainly concentrated on designated platforms and lean towards large internet companies with technological and data advantages, the implementation of more diverse public welfare experiences also raises concerns about whether there is a monopoly issue.

Wang Zhenyao believes that the Ministry of Civil Affairs has a strict selection and evaluation mechanism for internet public welfare platforms. In the future, the entire internet public welfare ecosystem will develop towards specialization and the integration of large, small, and medium-sized platforms. Public welfare should not be monopolized, but rather co built, and should reflect more service-oriented and public nature.

For internet companies, improving their ability to design public welfare products based on user needs and continuously optimizing user experience is also an important part of fulfilling corporate social responsibility. Using technology to contribute to public welfare is a necessary option for leading enterprises to shoulder social responsibility, "said Wang Zhenyao.

Jin Jinping proposed that the internet has shifted from a simple online payment function to a full process participation in public welfare undertakings. Public welfare organizations should embrace the Internet, make good use of it to complete public welfare activities, and forge a more virtuous charitable organization in this process, including timely detection and response to social problems, listening to the opinions of all parties, paying attention to coordinating the demands of stakeholders, forming consensus, integrating resources, and being good at mobilizing and utilizing resources, ensuring the rights of all parties to know and supervise.

When internet companies' public welfare platforms rely too heavily on their own technological characteristics, and even struggle to get rid of the shadow of their business models, public welfare is often prone to "taking shape".

In addition, Tang Min stated that the current situation of public welfare institutions is that they tend to fight alone and cooperate less. The government, enterprises, and public welfare institutions can only work together to achieve great things.

At present, in terms of the number of participants, interaction methods, and public welfare leverage, China's internet public welfare charity is forming its own "characteristics". Technology, resources, innovation, and models are necessary conditions for the sustainable development of social public welfare, and none of them are indispensable.

Author: Li Quanyun, Wu Liting

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