Quick Take: Baidu Posts Strong Growth in Second Quarter

Chinese internet search giant Baidu Inc. said Tuesday its revenue for the second quarter of 2018 rose 32% year-on-year to 26 billion yuan ($3.81 billion), beating market expectations.

Net income attributable to Baidu was 6.4 billion yuan, up 45% from the same period last year. Baidu had non-GAAP diluted earnings of 21 yuan per American depositary share, exceeding analysts’ projection of 16.46 yuan, according to the company statement.

The company’s non-GAAP operating profit rose 31% to 6.5 billion yuan, Baidu said.

“We had another strong quarter in Q2 with search exhibiting robust revenue growth driven by AI-powered monetization capabilities and Baidu feed continuing strong traffic and monetization momentum,” Baidu Chairman and CEO Robin Li said in a news release.

“These strong results are testament of our ability to focus and execute on our strategy to solidify Baidu’s mobile foundation and lead in AI,” Li said.

Mobile revenue represented 77% of total net revenues, compared to 72% for the second quarter of 2017, according to Baidu.

In June, Baidu said it had reached 150 million daily active users on its main search and news-feed application.

U.S.-listed Baidu shares rose 1.3% in after-hours trading after the results announcement. The stock has climbed nearly 6 percent so far this year.

For the third quarter of 2018, Baidu expects revenue to be between 27.37 billion yuan and 28.77 billion yuan, representing a 23% to 30% increase year-on-year.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)