China’s Baidu surpasses quarterly revenue estimates in ad recovery and cloud demand

China’s Baidu beat analysts’ expectations for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, driven by a recovery in advertising sales and stronger demand for its AI-powered cloud products.

The company, China’s largest search engine provider, reported revenue of 31.51 billion yuan ($4.37 billion) for the three months ended March 31, compared with the average analyst estimate of 31.21 billion yuan according to LSEG data .

U.S.-listed shares of the company rose about 3% in pre-market trading.

Baidu has recently intensified its efforts to boost sales of its AI-related products and services.

This strategic move is part of an image rebranding initiative, despite the fact that the company still makes the majority of its revenue from advertising sales.

Baidu Cores’ online marketing revenue remained stable, while the end-to-end optimization of our AI technology continued to drive our AI Cloud revenue growth during the quarter, co-founder and CEO Robin Li said in an earnings release.

Baidu Core’s revenue, which includes search-based ad sales, cloud offerings and autonomous driving initiatives, grew 4% to 23.8 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, revenue from its streaming service iQIYI fell 5% to 7.9 billion yuan.

Baidu reported adjusted net income of 7 billion yuan for the quarter, surpassing analysts’ average estimate of 5.57 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.

First print: May 16, 2024 | 4:09 pm IST

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