Chinese search giant Baidu's income up 83%
28 July 2017 5:03 PM GMT
Chinese internet giant Baidu said on Friday that its net income had soared 83 per cent in the second quarter -- a strong recovery from tumbling profits in 2016 thanks to drastic spending cuts.
Though Baidu's profit had fallen by two-thirds in 2016 and dropped even further in the first quarter of 2017, "China's Google" pulled itself together in quarter two, attaining a net income of 4.4 billion yuan ($652 million) in the period from April to June -- an 82.9 per cent increase year-on-year, the company's unaudited financial results stated.
The figure far exceeds analysts' estimates of 2.9 billion yuan, and is a sign of Baidu's recovery after authorities cracked down on its online advertising business, the company's primary revenue stream.
Total revenues in the second quarter were 20.9 billion yuan ($3.08 billion), a 14.3 per cent increase from the same period in 2016. Mobile revenue represented 72 per cent of total revenues, up from 62 per cent the same period last year.
"We will execute on two strategic pillars: to strengthen our mobile foundation and lead in AI," Baidu's billionaire founder and chief executive Robin Li said in a statement.
Major new initiatives include developing cloud storage capabilities and partnering with car manufacturers like Ford and computing giant Microsoft to create self-driving cars.
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