Baidu’s quarterly revenue drops 4% as AI cloud surge fails to offset advertising slump
Helping cushion the fall, revenue from AI-related operations jumped 25 per cent year on year to 12.5 billion yuan
Revenue for the three months ended June reached 31.3 billion yuan (US$4.62 billion), slightly missing the 31.6 billion yuan consensus estimate from analysts polled by Bloomberg. Net profit for the quarter was 2.3 billion yuan.
Online marketing revenue, Baidu’s traditional mainstay, declined 19 per cent to 13.1 billion yuan compared to a year earlier as advertisers remained cautious amid a sluggish macroeconomic environment.
Helping cushion the fall, revenue from AI-related operations – spanning cloud, applications and marketing services – jumped 25 per cent year on year to 12.5 billion yuan.
The push underscores Baidu’s rapid revenue shift: in the first quarter, AI-powered operations accounted for more than half of its general business revenue for the first time.
AI cloud revenue grew 50 per cent year on year to 7.3 billion yuan during the second quarter. AI applications rose 3 per cent to 2.5 billion yuan, while AI marketing services were flat at 2.6 billion yuan.