BEIJING — On Thursday, Baidu, the Chinese technology giant, announced a 3% year-over-year decline in its third-quarter revenue, yet still managed to surpass market expectations, largely due to growth in its AI cloud services.
For the quarter ending September 30, Baidu reported revenue of $4.78 billion, with net income rising 14% to $1.09 billion. The company also highlighted a 12% increase in its non-online marketing revenue, which reached approximately $1.1 billion, primarily driven by its expanding artificial intelligence cloud business.
Analysts had projected the following figures for the quarter, based on estimates from LSEG:
- Revenue: $4.63 billion
- Net Income: $857.17 million
For context, Baidu’s revenue for the third quarter of 2023 was reported at 34.45 billion yuan (about $4.75 billion), with a net income of 6.68 billion yuan.
Baidu, headquartered in Beijing, operates one of the leading web search engines in China and offers a widely used mapping application. A significant portion of the company’s revenue is derived from online marketing services.
In the field of artificial intelligence, Baidu has positioned its Ernie chatbot as a domestic alternative to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which is unavailable in China. The Ernie bot now boasts 430 million users, as reported by the company last week.
Additionally, Baidu announced plans to launch its Xiaodu AI Glasses in the first half of next year. These wearable devices, which feature at least one camera, will utilize Ernie’s AI capabilities in conjunction with Baidu’s mapping and search functionalities. While the pricing details have yet to be disclosed, the product is anticipated to be a Chinese alternative to Meta’s popular Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Last month, Baidu also underwent a management reshuffle, appointing Junjie He, previously the head of the mobile ecosystem group, as the interim Chief Financial Officer. Former CFO Rong Luo has transitioned to lead the mobile division.
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