Baidu.com, the country’s No. 1 search engine, reported impressive earnings growth for the first quarter. Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and chairman, predicted more good times to come which pushed the stock price up 23%.
Baidu’s good news comes at a time when its two main rivals, the Chinese versions of Google and Yahoo, are struggling to keep up with their high-powered local competition. Baidu commands over half (57%) of the Chinese search market, with Google controlling 18.7% and Yahoo 13.6%.
That dominance helped Baidu increase its profit for the three months through March by 143%, to $11.1 million, compared with the same quarter in 2006. Quarterly revenue also grew, doubling to $35.7 million.
Duncan Clark, managing director of Beijing-based consulting firm BDA China, said, ‘Baidu is just better in Chinese.’
Google has announced it had reached a deal with state-owned operator China Telecom to share revenue from online ads. Last month, Google announced a similar partnership with China Mobile, the dominant cellular operator, to collaborate on mobile search.
Such deals provide some hope for Baidu’s rivals that Li won’t be able to gobble up the whole market.
Source: Business Week
You must log in to post a comment.