In order to move quickly in the rapidly changing market, Baidu last August bought app store 91 Wireless for $1.9 billion and picked up 59 percent of group-buying website Nuomi the same month. The company moved to gain full control of Nuomi earlier this year.

The US-listed company saw its investment pay off, as mobile accounted for more than 20 percent of Baidu's total revenues in the fourth quarter of last year, the company said in an unaudited 2013 finance report released at the end of February. Apart from shifting to mobile, Li sees opportunities ahead because the Internet has revolutionized many traditional sectors, from retail to finance.

China's online shopping market has grown rapidly to become the world's largest. Many Internet companies, including Baidu, launched financial services last year to offer users better returns than typical bank deposits in a convenient format.

"I don't know much about finance," Li said. "What we do here is to use Internet thinking to improve the efficiency of traditional finance, to simplify purchasing procedures and give better user experience," he added.

Li said that in the future, there will be no dedicated Internet companies, "because every company will somehow embrace the Internet in some way".

Li's self-made Baidu has become involved in finance, online video, tourism and publishing. He said it will certainly expand into new sectors.

"With Internet thinking, there is a lot of room in terms of efficiency improvement in healthcare and education," he said.

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