Baidu beats quarterly revenue estimates on cloud business boom

CHINA’S search engine giant Baidu beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday (Aug 30), underpinned by demand for its cloud and artificial intelligence-powered offerings.

US-listed shares of the company rose 3.2 per cent in pre-market trade.

Even as Baidu’s core advertising sales continue to be soft, customers are signing up for its cloud services - a key area of growth globally - as demand for internet applications increase.

Total revenue stood at 29.65 billion yuan (S$5.98 billion) in the second quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 29.30 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

Revenue at Baidu’s AI Cloud unit grew 31 per cent year-on-year in the reported quarter.

Compared with year-ago numbers, the topline came in 5 per cent lower, its first quarterly de-growth in two years.

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Baidu posted a net profit of 3.64 billion yuan, or 1.49 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS). AFP