Baidu quarterly profit slips 22% despite growth in AI Cloud business

Search engine giant Baidu quarterly net income dropped 22% to 3.8 billion yuan (US$565 million), despite continued growth in its AI Cloud business.

Robin Li, Baidu’s founder and CEO / Photo credit: Baidu

Baidu’s quarterly revenue ticked up 1% from the US$4.18 billion it posted a year ago to US$4.22 billion.

The firm’s AI businesses saw a 35% growth in revenue, contributing US$847 million to the firm’s topline. However, its online marketing revenue saw a 4% decline to US$2.33 billion.

Baidu’s video-streaming service, iQiyi, also continued to show a slowdown in revenue, dropping 9% to 7.3 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) due to a lower number of subscriptions.

Still, Baidu said its leadership remained optimistic for the future, backed by the strong growth in the AI Cloud division and by Baidu’s self-driving vehicle division, Apollo Go, receiving the first permit in China to provide driverless ride-hailing services on public roads in Beijing.

“Although challenges related to the virus continue to pressure our near-term business operations, we remain confident that our new AI businesses will boost the long-term growth of Baidu and contribute to China’s innovation-driven economy and sustainable development,” said Robin Li, co-founder and CEO of Baidu.

Currency converted from yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 6.73 yuan

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