{"id":37185,"date":"2017-07-28T06:12:45","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T06:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=37185"},"modified":"2017-07-28T06:12:45","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T06:12:45","slug":"chinas-baidu-profit-jumps-as-focus-on-mobile-ai-narrows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/technology\/chinas-baidu-profit-jumps-as-focus-on-mobile-ai-narrows.html","title":{"rendered":"China’s Baidu profit jumps as focus on mobile, AI narrows"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s Baidu profit jumps as focus on mobile, AI narrows<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Chinese internet search engine provider Baidu Inc has reported a jump in quarterly earnings, recovering from a string of regulatory investigations last year, as sharpened focus on mobile and artificial intelligence (AI) services drives growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result comes as Baidu narrows its attention to just a handful of areas outside its core business, while the other two of China’s big-three tech firms – Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd – spend billions of dollars expanding into sundry sectors in multiple markets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baidu said net profit hit 4.41 billion yuan ($654 million) in the three months through June, 83.5 percent more than a year earlier when profit dropped by a third in what was the firm’s weakest result since listing in New York in 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year’s profit drop coincided with investigations into how third parties used Baidu’s advertising service, prompted by the death of a cancer patient who found ineffectual treatment via ads placed with Baidu.<\/span><\/p>\n

The probe in turn led to restructuring at Baidu which diverted resources from less-profitable ventures into AI, big data, cloud and video services – all of which contributed to its second-quarter profit jump. The firm expects further growth with third-quarter revenue as much as 30 percent over the same period last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baidu stock rose 6.9 percent in extended trade on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s done what it needed to do to make itself less dependent on search,” said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting. “[Tencent and Alibaba] have multiple other segments beyond their core that they’re developing whereas Baidu’s current strategy seems to be quite focused.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The firm has pulled resources from areas including group-buying service Nuomi in a reshuffle that prioritizes the integration of AI into its ads business as well as its video site, autonomous driving platform and financial services.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Last year we went through some significant changes,” said head of subsidiary Baidu Capital Jennifer Li.<\/span><\/p>\n

Its latest change in financial services is a strategic deal announced on Thursday with U.S. payment service provider PayPal Holdings Inc, to give Chinese customers access to PayPal merchants using Baidu’s digital wallets.<\/span><\/p>\n

Breaking down second-quarter results, Baidu said revenue rose 14.3 percent to 20.87 billion yuan. That compared with the 13.8 percent average estimate drawn from 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mobile division – which covers ads, video, games and other services used via mobile devices – contributed the most to revenue with 72 percent of the total, from 62 percent last year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baidu also said active online marketing customers fell 21 percent from the same period a year earlier, but revenue per customer rose 32 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baidu expects third-quarter revenue of 23.13 billion yuan to 23.75 billion yuan, with growth coming from ads and video as financial services and cloud computing, said Baidu Capital’s Li.<\/span><\/p>\n

source:-https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-baidu-results-idUSKBN1AC37H<\/span><\/p>\n

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