Search platform Baidu.com has announced that its earnings nearly quadrupled to US$3 million in the three months ending December 31, despite increasing competition in China's Internet market. Profit growth was helped by a rise in interest income on the US$100 million Baidu raised in its NASDAQ IPO last year. The company's share of search-market traffic rose to 46.5% in 2005 from 33.1% in 2004. Baidu chairman Robin Li said he was not worried by the efforts of Yahoo and Google, arguing that he did not believe that money can buy leadership in the Internet search sector. Full year profits before tax stood at US$5.9 million, up from US$1.5 million the previous year.
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