China's Baidu reports 15% revenue growth, beating expectations

cnbc.com:

BEIJING — Chinese tech company Baidu on Tuesday reported better-than-expected revenue, up by 15% year-on-year in the second quarter and bolstered by growth in advertising.

This was the fastest quarterly year-on-year growth pace in two years, according to Refinitiv data.

Baidu's U.S.-traded shares were up by more than 4% in pre-market trading.

Here's how Baidu did in the June quarter versus Refinitiv consensus estimates:

Within Baidu's core businesses, online marketing revenue rose by 15% to 19.6 billion yuan in the second quarter, and non-online marketing revenue added 12% to 6.8 billion yuan.

Earnings per American Depositary Share on a non-GAAP basis were 22.55 yuan, versus 15.79 yuan in the year-ago period.

«In the second quarter of 2023, Baidu Core accelerated revenue and profit growth, driven by the solid performance of online marketing business and operating leverage,» said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, said in a release.

«Generative AI and large language models hold immense transformative power in numerous industries, presenting a significant market opportunity for us,» he said.

Baidu has been making progress with a Chinese-language ChatGPT alternative called Ernie bot, which is open to the public and was launched in March. OpenAI's wildly popular rival chatbot isn't easily accessible in the country.

Last week, Baidu announced that five Ernie bot plugins — including ones for quickly converting text to video and for PDF search — would become more widely available to users. Three of the plugins can also be used simultaneously, according to the company.

Baidu last week also revealed an AI-powered assistant that could help with tasks including booking meetings, air tickets and hotels. It was not immediately