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Business momentum in China is building in the absence of lockdowns, with consumers and businesses reviving spending as the economy shows signs of stabilizing.
China’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate of 4.5% year-on-year in the three months through March, according to the latest official data. Revenue for Baidu rose 10% to 31.14 billion yuan ($4.54 billion) in the quarter to March 31, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 29.97 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.
Revenue from Baidu Core, which includes search-based ad sales, cloud offerings and its autonomous driving initiatives, grew 8% to 23 billion yuan.
Of this, revenue from Baidu’s largest segment, online marketing, accounted for 16.6 billion yuan, rising 6% in the reported quarter. Revenue at its streaming service iQIYI rose 15% to 8.3 billion yuan, driven by 28% growth in its subscriber base.
U.S.-listed shares of the company rose as much as 5% in premarket trading.
Baidu reported net income of 5.83 billion yuan, compared to net loss in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, it earned 16.10 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS), higher than Wall Street’s estimate of 12.46 yuan.
The company’s much-touted rival to ChatGPT, Ernie bot, has yet to be officially launched, despite having been partially unveiled to the public in mid-March.
CEO Robin Li said in a press release on Tuesday that the company plans to “steadily incorporate” the generative AI-driven chatbot into all of the search engine giant’s businesses, without giving a specific timeline.
