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By Clarence Leong
Baidu Inc. swung to a loss in the first quarter, as fair-value losses on investments offset a rise in revenue.
The Chinese search engine giant on Thursday posted a net loss of 885 million yuan ($132.2 million), compared with a net profit of CNY25.65 billion a year earlier. It posted a fair-value loss of CNY3.0 billion from long-term investments, down from a fair-value gain of CNY23.6 billion from long-term investments a year earlier, mainly including a gain from the investment in Kuaishou Technology.
Operating profit for the first three months amounted to CNY2.60 billion, down 7% from a year earlier.
Revenue for the period rose 1% to CNY28.4 billion, even though online marketing revenue from its core businesses fell 4%. Meanwhile, non-online marketing revenue jumped 35%, driven by cloud and other artificial-intelligence-powered businesses, it said.
Baidu Chief Executive Robin Li said the company’s business has been hurt by the resurgence of Covid-19 in China since mid-March. “Although challenges related to the virus continue to pressure our near term business operations, we remain confident that our new AI businesses will boost the long-term growth of Baidu,” he added.
Write to Clarence Leong at clarence.leong@wsj.com
