Baidu said on Aug. 18 that second-quarter revenue fell 4% year on year to 31.3 billion yuan (US$4.64 billion), below analysts’ estimate of 31.6 billion yuan (US$4.69 billion). Net profit for the quarter was 2.3 billion yuan (US$341 million).

Online marketing revenue, Baidu’s main business, dropped 19% to 13.1 billion yuan (US$1.94 billion) as advertisers remained cautious amid a weak economy.

AI-related revenue from cloud, applications, and marketing services rose 25% to 12.5 billion yuan (US$1.86 billion), including a 50% increase in AI cloud revenue to 7.3 billion yuan (US$1.08 billion).

The results continued a longer shift in Baidu’s revenue mix. In the second quarter of 2025, online marketing services revenue was 17.5 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion), while revenue from other businesses was 15.2 billion yuan (US$2.26 billion).

In the first half of 2025, non-advertising revenue approached parity with advertising revenue.

Baidu’s cloud growth came as China’s AI cloud services market expanded. Research firm Omdia estimated the market would more than double in 2025.

Omdia said Baidu Cloud held a 6.1% market share, while Alibaba Cloud led with 35.8%.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

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