did anyone expect bidu to release their earnings this early?
here it is:
Baidu Profit Jumps as Chinese Internet Use Surges (Update3
By John Liu
April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Baidu.com Inc., operator of China's most-used search Web site, posted a 71 percent increase in first- quarter profit after surging Internet use in the nation spurred companies to buy more online advertising.
Net income rose to 146.6 million yuan ($21 million), or 4.22 yuan per American depositary receipt, from 85.5 million yuan, or 2.47 yuan, a year earlier, Beijing-based Baidu said today in a statement. Sales more than doubled to 574.4 million yuan, topping the 519.9 million yuan average of 13 analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Robin Li lured more users to the company's Web site by adding services such as the ``Baidu Hi'' Internet chat software to maintain its twofold market share lead in China over rival Google Inc. Baidu and Google together had almost 90 percent of the Chinese search market in the first quarter, according to researcher Analysys International.
``They are doing well,'' Walter Price, a portfolio manager at RCM Capital Management in San Francisco who helps oversee $3 billion including Baidu ADRs, said before the release. ``We cut back on the stock in January and then recently began building it up'' after visiting the company in March, he said.
Baidu's ADRs gained 3.2 percent to $353 in extended trading after falling $7.66, or 2.2 percent, to $342 at 4 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 12 percent this year, compared with a 21 percent decline in Google's shares.
Market Share Gains
The company expects customer spending to rise in the current quarter, while the Olympics in Beijing from August may ``negatively impact'' third-quarter sales, Li said in a conference call with analysts.
Baidu's share of the Chinese market rose to 60.7 percent in the first quarter from 60.1 percent in the fourth, Beijing-based Analysys said. Google's share climbed to 26.8 percent from 25.9 percent, while Yahoo! Inc.'s fell to 8.3 percent from 9.6 percent, the researcher said.
China passed the U.S. to become the world's biggest Internet market by users, Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said in Beijing last month. The Asian nation was home to 210 million Internet users at the end of 2007, more than the combined populations of France, Germany and the U.K., according the China Network Information Center, a government agency that licenses online domain names.
Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group Corp. sued Baidu in February, alleging the Internet company infringed copyright by helping users find links to pirated music on third-party sites. Baidu is the ``biggest roadblock'' to creating a market for legal digital music in China, Lachie Rutherford, Asia Pacific Chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said this month.
``Baidu has always been an advocate of improving the protection of copyrights on the Internet,'' the Web company said in an e-mailed statement, declining to comment on the lawsuit. |
