Business

Advertising, AI help China's Baidu beat expectations for revenue

China's Baidu Inc reported quarterly revenue above Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, bolstered by a rise in advertising on its core search and video-streaming platforms in an economy that is recovering from the pandemic-induced slump.

FILE PHOTO: Employees wearing face masks are seen next to a Baidu AI robot, in front of a sign of B
FILE PHOTO: Employees wearing face masks are seen next to a Baidu AI robot, in front of a sign of Baidu at the company's headquarters in Beijing, following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, China May 18, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

Bookmark

REUTERS: China's Baidu Inc reported quarterly revenue above Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, bolstered by a rise in advertising on its core search and video-streaming platforms in an economy that is recovering from the pandemic-induced slump.

Its push into cloud services, artificial intelligence and autonomous car technology has also helped grow its non-advertising revenue and offset competition to its core search platform from rivals Alibaba, Tencent Holdings and ByteDance.

The Beijing-based company's total revenue rose 5per cent to 30.26 billion yuan (US$4.69 billion) in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, topping analysts' average estimate of 30.06 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

U.S. listed shares of the company, which have gained more than 70per cent in 2020, rose 3.4per cent to US$317 in after-market trading.

Net income attributable to Baidu fell to 5.17 billion yuan or 15.05 yuan per American depository share (ADS) from 6.35 billion yuan or 18.25 yuan per ADS, a year earlier.

(US$1 = 6.4542 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Source: Reuters