Profit up 3.3% at Baidu but Q3 revenue projection disappoints

Higher expenses offset a 38% rise in second-quarter revenue at Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ), limiting quarterly earnings growth to 3.3%, The Wall Street Journal reported. The search-engine company is in the middle of a bold (if expensive) foray into online-to-offline services such as food delivery and movie ticketing, part of an attempt to adapt to consumers shifting to mobile devices. Baidu’s American depository shares fell 7.7% to US$182.51 in after-hours trading on Monday after it projected third-quarter revenue of between RMB18.17-18.58 billion (US$2.93-3 billion), short of analysts’ estimates of RMB18.79 billion, according to a Reuters survey.