China’s Baidu posts 3% fall in third-quarter revenue, meeting market view
Baidu sign is seen at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China July 6, 2023. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Baidu (9888.HK), reported a 3% fall in third-quarter revenue on Thursday, meeting market estimates, as China’s biggest internet search provider grappled with weak spending on its advertising services in a sluggish economy.
Baidu’s U.S.-listed shares rose about 1% in premarket trade.
Baidu, like tech peers, has diversified into autonomous driving as well as artificial intelligence, with its Ernie large-language model powering products such as a ChatGPT-like chatbot.
Still, online advertising tied to its core search business accounts for more than half of its revenue.
Advertisers on its platforms include a large number of small and mid-sized enterprises making Baidu highly sensitive to tepid economic growth and weak consumption, which pressures businesses to curb advertising spend.
Revenue in Baidu’s online marketing division fell 4% to 18.8 billion yuan in the quarter versus analysts’ 18.89 billion yuan estimate.
Revenue reached 33.56 billion yuan ($4.64 billion) for the three months ended Sept. 30. That compared with the 33.43 billion yuan average of 20 analysts’ estimates compiled by LSEG.
Net income climbed 14% to 7.63 billion yuan versus a consensus estimate of 4.67 billion yuan.
Baidu has been able to offset some weakness in advertising revenue thanks to momentum in its non-online marketing business, largely boosted by its AI Cloud segment
Last week, Baidu unveiled new AI products including smart glasses and a no-code software development tool.
Baidu has also launched a paid version of its chatbot for public use, while offering Ernie’s AI capabilities to developers through its cloud computing platform.
It has reported its Ernie platform now handles 1.5 billion daily user queries and interactions versus 200 million in May.
But its mobile chatbot Wenxiaoyan, previously known as Ernie bot, has been overshadowed by ByteDance’s Doubao. Wenxiaoyan recorded 3.8 million monthly active users in October 2023, data from consultancy SensorTower showed. Doubao registered 19.4 million.
($1 = 7.2370 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Source: https://www.reuters.com/
Read Next
November 21, 2024
Google must divest Chrome to restore competition in online search, DOJ says
November 21, 2024
US watchdog issues final rule to supervise Big Tech payments, digital wallets
November 20, 2024
Indian news agency ANI sues OpenAI for unsanctioned content use in AI training
November 20, 2024
Australia critical infrastructure faces cyber threats, report says
November 20, 2024
Bitcoin breaches $94,000 for the first time
November 19, 2024
itel A80, to be launched
November 18, 2024
Netflix back up for most users in US after outage, Downdetector shows
November 18, 2024
Crypto exchange OKX launches Singapore dollar funds transfer service for local customers
November 18, 2024
China’s Huawei starts taking pre-orders for Mate 70 smartphone
November 15, 2024
Netflix hopes for live sports knockout with Paul-Tyson fight
