Baidu-Arm Cloud Mobile Platform
Case Study

Company snapshot
Name: Baidu, Inc
Vertical: Search Engine andInternet Services
Size: ~50,000 employees
HQ: Beijing, China
Founded: 2000

Baidu Goal
The arrival of 5G is accelerating the development of the Android cloud industry based on
the Arm architecture. The Baidu Cloud mobile business provides a safe, reliable and efficienttechnology cornerstone for the industry, with strong support for cloud gaming and cloudoffice business innovation, and unlimited possibilities for a wide range of AIoT devices withrestricted computing power.
In 2013, Baidu commercially deployed Arm-based servers for the first time. Today, Baidu ischoosing an Arm-based server platform for their cloud mobile platform services. According toPengfei Shen, deputy general manager of Baidu Security Business Group, “Arm-based servers
deliver an optimized architecture and high performance for the delivery of Baidu’s cloudbased mobile platform services.”
Solution
Baidu’s Android cloud technology strategy uses the Arm architecture as the underlying
foundation and is divided into two stages to explore opportunities with the upstream anddownstream ecosystem.

“Arm-based servers deliveran optimized architectureand high performancefor the delivery of Baidu’s
cloud-based mobile
platform services.”– Pengfei Shen, Deputy General Manager
Baidu Security Business Group

During the first stage, cloud mobile solutions and technologies based on Arm SoCs will
gradually mature and become commercially available on a certain scale for near-termbusiness opportunities.
In the second stage, as the deployment at scale of Arm-based servers matures,
Baidu will actively support the development of Arm server chips, desktop-level GPU
hardware solutions and software virtualization technology in cooperation with majorArm server chip manufacturers. This stage includes optimization for Android-native
applications on the server side and delivers improved cost performance as a solid
foundation for popular cloud-mobile and cloud-game applications.

1Benefits
Arm-based servers deliver an optimized architecture and high performance.
Arm-based architectures are best suited for popular mobile games and applications in thecurrent Android app market.
Partners can take advantage of improved support tools and a wider range of open 		capabilities that allow customers to achieve high concurrency management.
Baidu enables enterprises to configure resources flexibly according to business needs anddeploy customized services. Baidu “cloud mobile” helps ensure users never drop off,
never lay-off, and never get hot.

Wonderful Future of Android Cloud by Baidu and Arm
After the commercial use of the first global Arm server in 2013, Baidu has become an
important partner in the Arm ecosystem, actively exploring the application of Arm-based
servers. The application of cloud mobile expands the Arm platform from mobile consumption
to server infrastructure. Baidu use cases for cloud mobile services include cloud gaming,
playable ads, and smart displays. Now, Baidu is an active participant in the Arm ecosystemdeveloping the foundation to support cloud mobile solutions and the growth of the industry.
Cloud Gaming
The concept of cloud gaming has been gaining popularity for many years. With the maturityof network and hardware infrastructure, global industry giants have launched cloud gameproducts in succession in the past two years.
With 4G networks, cloud games were able to run smoothly. With the arrival of 5G, the cloud
game experience is elevated to next level. The increased bandwidth and low latency benefitsof 5G adds significant improvement in the way the games are delivered and consumed.
Games can be directly streamed from the cloud, eliminating the need for downloads andultimately reducing the cost of customer acquisition for game developers.
At the same time, this model allows for low-and middle-end mobile phone users to run
complex and compute intense mobile games smoothly, which greatly increases the range
of users that can play cloud-based games.
Since the official launch of the Baidu cloud gaming platform in 2017, Baidu has distributed
cloud games based on the traffic of its APP, running a total of 80 popular mobile games.
It also has close collaborations with the “Duoku” and “Guopan” game platforms.

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Playable Ads
After years of development, the mobile advertising market has developed a mature modelthat combines information flow, video, and other ad schemes, with video advertising gradually
becoming mainstream in the mobile game market. As the cost of customer acquisition
through the playable ads mode increases, users can choose whether or not to download
after experiencing the game content at a low cost. These interactive ads can greatly enhance
the attraction of advertisements to users, which in turn helps stimulate growth for mobile
advertising.
Domestic mainstream media continues to conduct research, development, and testing related
to playable ads. According to Baidu’s research, playable ads have significantly improved
the corresponding data: advertising CTR (exposure-click) increased by up to 30 percent;advertising CVR (click-conversion) increased by up to 50 percent.
Since the Baidu Playable Ads Service’s official launch in 2017, the company has conducteda significant number of technical R&D and launch tests based on many platforms such as
information flow ads, interstitial, incentive video ads, and application store ads. Baidu has
accumulated masses of data and experience, and has a unique plan to continually increase
conversion rates.
Smart Speakers and Smart Displays
Over the last several years, smart speakers and smart displays have been a key consumer
entertainment product, but have achieved limited adoption due to high product pricing andlimited hardware performance. The cooperation between Baidu and “MiguPlay” brings cloudgames into the smart display. Through the empowerment of Baidu “cloud mobile”, the “XiaoDu”
smart display delivers advanced AI-powered interaction capabilities so users can interface
seamlessly with the device. The future “XiaoDu” will not only be a smart display, but also an
Internet service portal with rich and powerful interactive functions. As a result, the “XiaoDu”
smart display will continue its rapid growth in the first half of the year and still occupy firstplace in the smart display market, according to a recent report released by IDC (IDC Market
Glance: Smart Home, 1Q2020).

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Technical Architecture
Baidu has invested in the expansion of Arm-based solutions for its strong cloud services
business, and has developed a solid foundation for Android cloud innovation. Moving forward,
Baidu plans to continue more in-depth exploration and innovation for the Android cloudservice market based on Arm, and will also explore other use cases and growth opportunities.

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© Arm Ltd. 2020 | 05.20

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