Chinese Search Engine Giant, Baidu Surpasses its Revenue and Profit Estimates, with Ernie, the Company’s Chatbot Awaiting Approval
Baidu, the Chinese search engine giant outperforms and beats its revenue and profit estimates recording a 10% rise in its revenue. The company is also working on its chatbot, Ernie, and is waiting for its approval from Chinese regulators for its rollout.
Baidu Beats its Revenue and Profit Estimates
The Chinese economy is fast recovering from the Covid-19 impact which had seriously affected many businesses following the strict measures which were issued by the government. The Chinese government, by the end of last year, had withdrawn all the strict protocols that were adopted to tackle the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic and in the next three months, a significant rise of 4.5% year-on-year economic growth was witnessed by the country as per official reports.
Baidu’s CEO, Robin Li stated that, at the start of this year itself, many businesses in sectors including travel and healthcare recovered at a very fast pace, going all the way to reach a growth of more than that of the pre-pandemic times. He further elaborated how Baidu was also able to recover quickly marking a total revenue that had surpassed its estimates.
Baidu made a revenue of 31.14 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, which is above the estimated 29.97 billion yuan the company was supposed to make. Its revenue from Baidu Core also marked a growth of 8% to reach a revenue of 23 billion yuan. Of its total revenue, the revenue from online marketing was 16.6 billion yuan, which is again a 6% growth of revenue. iQIYI, the company’s streaming service had also received a revenue of 8.3 billion yuan(15% growth), with a 28% increase in its subscriber base. The company’s shares have also marked growth and on Tuesday, the 16th of May 2023, its US-listed shares were 3% up in intra-day sales.
All these contributed to the net income of 5.83 billion of the company and are far better than the net loss the company had to endure in the last few quarters of 2022. The company had also received 16.10 yuan per its American Depository shares(ADS), which again was an added income for the company.
Currently, Baidu is waiting for the approval of its very own chatbot dubbed “Ernie” and the company had already partially unveiled it to the general public in the mid-half of March 2023. Once they receive the greenlight from the Chinese regulators, Baidu will rollout its chatbot which might become a serious rival to many other companies.
Chinese search engine giant Baidu said it was awaiting regulatory approval to fully launch its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot, as it reported first-quarter revenue and profit estimates that beat market expectations https://t.co/S3naqVmJCn pic.twitter.com/e8drupiVU5
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 16, 2023
