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Baidu posts 25 per cent rise in quarterly revenue as it continues pivot into AI and cloud services
- Revenues climbed to 28.1 billion yuan in the first quarter, boosted by ads on its core search and video streaming platforms
- Once part of China’s Big Tech triumvirate, Baidu has fallen behind in the mobile era
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Baidu, the Chinese search giant that is shifting into artificial intelligence, reported quarterly revenue that beat analysts estimates, extending its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Revenue climbed 25 per cent to 28.1 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) in the three months ended March, compared with the average 27.3 billion yuan of estimates. Net income surged to 25.7 billion yuan, mostly boosted by gains in the value of long-term investments, including in recently listed Kuaishou Technology.
The Beijing-based company’s aggressive push into cloud services, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and smart transport technology has helped grow its non-advertising revenue and offset competition to its core search platform from Alibaba Group Holding and ByteDance.
“Baidu’s sales mix is likely to shift further away from its traditional search advertising business as growth at its non-marketing initiatives continues to be much stronger,” said Ling Vey-Sern and Tiffany Tam, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Founder Robin Li has in recent years sought to pivot Baidu away from search to reposition itself as an AI company with autonomous driving ambitions.
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