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Baidu falls further behind among China’s biggest tech firms as Meituan, NetEase overtake in market value
- Baidu’s market cap has stagnated even as peers like Alibaba and Tencent saw their valuations surge
- Netease’s valuation passed Baidu on Wednesday at US$33.5 billion
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Sarah Daiin Beijing
Baidu Inc. has fallen out of the top five most valuable publicly traded Chinese internet companies after its market capitalisation slid below that of gaming and e-commerce pioneer NetEase Inc.
After a 40 per cent slide in its share price this year, Baidu’s market valuation stood at US$33.2 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday, compared with US$33.5 billion for NetEase, whose shares have risen by 11.4 per cent in the same period. Meituan Dianping has surged 45 per cent this year to be valued at US$46.7 billion. Baidu declined to comment on its market valuation.
Baidu has seen its market valuation stagnate even as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings – which, along with Baidu are referred to by the acronym BAT – surged ahead as China’s internet population embraced mobile payments and shopped, messaged and sought entertainment on their smartphones.
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Alibaba Group, which owns the South China Morning Post and is expected to report its quarterly results on Thursday, had a market cap of US$421.9 billion. Tencent, the gaming and social media giant that reported a better-than-estimated profit on Wednesday, was second at US$405 billion.
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Beijing-based Baidu, which is the dominant search engine operator in China, has struggled as advertising income slowed with the economic uncertainties and its investments in autonomous driving have yet to yield profits. Baidu posted its first quarterly net loss of 327 million yuan since its 2005 IPO in May.
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