Baidu Inc (百度), which operates China’s most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth.
Baidu earned US$62.7 million, or US$1.80 per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with US$42.3 million, or US$1.22 per share, a year earlier.
Excluding stock-based compensation expenses, Beijing-based Baidu earned US$1.88 per share in the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 40 percent to US$184.7 million.
On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected profit of US$1.68 per share on revenue of US$180 million.
The results exceeded Baidu’s expectations and were driven by the success of a new system for advertisers to bid on paid links to search words, chief executive officer Robin Li (李彥宏) said.
“With a solid base of users and customers, our foundation is stronger than ever and we will continue to drive innovation to capture market opportunities ahead,” Li said in a statement.
Chinese Internet companies have seen profits grow even as the global economic crisis hurt China’s exports. Domestic growth and consumer spending have benefited from a 4 trillion yuan (US$586 billion) government stimulus.
Rival Google Inc announced on Jan. 12 that it no longer wanted to cooperate with Chinese censorship and might shut down its China-based site Google.cn.
The company also complained about China-based hacking of its e-mail service.
Industry analysts say that if Google leaves, Baidu should be able to pick up the bulk of its Chinese advertisers. But they say the Chinese service also might suffer if former Google users switch to Baidu and are unsatisfied with its service.
Chinese officials defended the government’s censorship and denied the government was involved in the cyber-attacks.
“We have not factored in any potential material change in the competitive landscape,” Li said in a conference call on the results yesterday, while not mentioning Google by name.
“But what we have seen in the market is that our customers’ and partners’ confidence level in Baidu is certainly higher —- we think we would benefit from that,” he said.
Baidu had 58.4 percent of China’s search market in the fourth quarter, while Google had 35.6 percent, said Analysys International, a Beijing research firm.
Google has steadily gained market share from smaller rivals but has failed to dent Baidu’s lead.
Baidu has begun to expand abroad with the launch of a Japan-based search site in 2007 and said costs related to that service were US$6.3 million for the quarter, which reduced diluted earnings per share by US$0.18.
For the first quarter of this year, Baidu forecast revenue of US$176 million to US$181 million.
Analysts predict revenue of US$170.2 million.
For the year, Baidu’s net income rose 42 percent to US$217.6 million, or US$6.26 per share. Revenue climbed 39 percent to US$651.6 million.
Shares of Baidu rose US$38.14, or 8.8 percent, to US$473.15 in after-hours trading. The stock earlier slid US$8.22 to end regular trading at US$435.01. It has ranged from US$119.65 to US$470.25 over the past year.
SILICON ISLAND: When asked about geopolitical tensions, Lisa Su said that ‘Taiwan is absolutely critical to the semiconductor supply chain, and very, very critical for AMD’ Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) yesterday said the company plans to “substantially” increase manufacturing capacity next year through its Taiwanese supply chain, particularly with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related processors continues to outstrip supply. “It is a very exciting time right now for all kinds of compute, and especially on the CPU [central processing unit] side,” Su said during a visit to Taiwan. “The overall market has increased a lot in 2026, and so we have also increased our own supply and capacity in 2026, but I can
INFRINGEMENT: The investigation comes after a complaint from Vicor Corp, with the company seeking a limited exclusion order as well as cease-and-desist orders, the ITA said The US International Trade Commission (USITC) has launched a Section 337 investigation naming Taiwanese technology companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), as respondents. The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) pledged assistance if needed. The USITC said on Friday in a statement that it had voted to institute an investigation under Section 337 of the US Tariff Act of 1930 into certain vertical power delivery systems, related components and computing devices incorporating such systems. The investigation covers 20 companies from Taiwan, China, Germany and the US, the commission said, adding that it
INDUSTRY STANDARD: Most global semiconductor companies have tied employee bonuses directly to corporate profits, the union said, urging Micron to do the same Micron Memory Taiwan Co’s (台灣美光) Taoyuan union secured strike authorization yesterday after a six-day vote, ramping up pressure on management to build a reasonable profit-sharing mechanism. Before the strike, the Taoyuan union “encourages” members to join a protest in Taipei on Oct. 19, union chairman Jerry Lin (林哲瑞) told a news conference in Taipei. The union did not rule out staging a snap strike, Lin said. The union has 2,258 registered members, with 88.3 percent backing the strike, he said. The vote comes as Micron’s board of directors is meeting today and tomorrow in the US. The union expects the board to respond
Elon Musk said his business empire would build and operate Terafab independently, quashing speculation about industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) swooping in to run his ambitious chipmaking venture. Based in Texas, the Terafab project is Musk’s effort to break into the business of fabricating chips, in service of his companies Tesla Inc and SpaceXAI. While Musk had said that he was in discussions with TSMC, the trillionaire clarified in an X post yesterday that the only matter under consideration is for TSMC potentially leasing some part of the planned site and would not involve any operational role. “Maybe TSMC
RSS