Robin Li, the billionaire founder of the popular Baidu search engine in China, visited Stanford University campus on Wednesday and a huge crowd thronged to catch a glimpse of Li in the lecture room. Li, 40, holds special rights over Google and its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; and is currently serving as the Chief Executive of Baidu Inc - an internet search provider, like Google, that mainly operates in China.

China native Li, who did his graduation from the University of New York at Buffalo, was accorded an esteemed welcome at the Stanford, the same place where Page and Brin did their graduation and conceived the idea of forming the world famous internet search giant in 1998.

He is the man who eclipsed Google in China by providing efficient search experience through Baidu, started with just $1.2 million in venture capital. Li said that time has come for search companies to shift their focus from internet search to mobile search, in the era of smart phones and 3G networks.

Baidu Chief Technology Officer Li Yinan said: "For the mobile search market, the number is still small but the growth potential is extremely high. It is an important area."