Baidu Exceeds Quarterly Revenue Expectations Despite Flat Q2
Baidu has reported a strong financial performance for the second quarter of 2024, with total revenue reaching 33.93 billion yuan ($4.67 billion), surpassing analysts' average estimate of 33.55 billion yuan. This performance signals a recovery in the Chinese advertising market. The company's U.S.-listed shares saw an increase of over 1% in premarket trading.
Despite the overall positive results, Baidu's online marketing business experienced a 2% decline in revenue, totaling 19.2 billion yuan. The company has been focusing on its AI Cloud services, which continued to show accelerated growth, helping to offset the challenges in the online marketing segment. Additionally, Baidu achieved significant milestones with its autonomous driving service, Apollo Go, now offering fully driverless ride-hailing services across almost the entire Wuhan municipality.
The company also returned $301 million to shareholders in Q2 2024, bringing the total repurchase to approximately $1.2 billion under its 2023 share repurchase program. Baidu's net income for the quarter stood at 7.4 billion yuan, surpassing analysts' expectations of 6.45 billion yuan. Investments in AI and autonomous vehicles remain central to Baidu's strategy, with Apollo Go providing about 899,000 rides in Q2 2024, a 26% increase year over year.
