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Baidu’s Q4 Profit Plunges 66% as Sales Decline for a Third Straight Quarter

Management is leaning on fast-growing AI businesses plus shareholder returns to counter a weak advertising market.

A sign of Baidu is pictured at the company's headquarters in Beijing, China March 16, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo

Overview

  • Net profit fell to 1.78 billion yuan, missing estimates, on revenue of 32.74 billion yuan; full-year revenue slipped 3% and net profit dropped 76% to 5.59 billion yuan.
  • AI-powered revenue rose 48% year over year to 11.3 billion yuan, lifting its share of the mix to 43%, with AI cloud up 34% to 5.8 billion yuan.
  • Apollo Go completed 3.4 million rides in the quarter, more than tripling year over year, as the service began overseas testing programs.
  • Ernie, Baidu’s AI assistant, reached about 202 million monthly active users in December.
  • The board authorized up to $5 billion in share repurchases and set a dividend framework targeting payments by end-2026; ADRs fell about 2.7% in premarket trading as Baidu reported a cash and investments balance of 294.1 billion yuan.