Baidu’s U.S.-listed shares were down 4.8% on the U.S. market opening.
During the earnings call on Thursday, Li said daily usage of Ernie by cloud clients had reached 200 million, up from 50 million in the last quarter of 2023.
AI-related revenue contributed 6.9% of the total reported by the cloud business, which rose by 12% to 4.7 billion yuan.
Last month, the company said its AI chatbot Ernie Bot had garnered more than 200 million users, roughly doubling since the company’s last update in December.
Baidu started charging users 59.9 yuan per month in November and also seeks to use AI to augment its online search and cloud computing services.
The company’s online marketing revenue increased by 3% to 17 billion yuan for the quarter.
In addition to AI, Baidu’s diversification efforts away from online search also involve ramping up its autonomous driving business.
Baidu this week announced the launch of a new version of its robotaxi service, the sixth generation, in Wuhan. CEO Li reiterated that the firm aims to achieve profitability next year with its autonomous vehicle business.
The company reported adjusted net income of 7 billion yuan for the quarter, beating the analysts’ average estimate of 5.57 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.
($1 = 7.22 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Source from Reuters : https://www.reuters.com/technology/chinas-baidu-beats-quarterly-revenue-estimates-2024-05-16/