TMTPOST -- The American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Baidu, Inc. slumped 5.9% to their two-month low on Thursday even though artificial intelligence (AI) technology helped China’s top search engine operator report better-than-expected sales.

Credit：Baidu

Baidu said its revenue for three months ended September 30, 2024 came in RMB33.56 billion (US$4.6 billion). That represented a year-over-year (YoY) decrease of 3%, the biggest yearly drop in more than two years, but still topping analysts’ projection of RMB33.53 billion. Decline in the top line accelerated as the previous quarter saw Baidu revenue edged down about 0.4% from a year ago, the company’s first YoY decline since the third quarter of 2022.

Baidu’s quarterly bottom line first missed Wall Street anticipation this year, highlighting how China’s economic slowdown dragged companies as its key advertisers span indutries from property devlopers to automakers. Net income for the third quarter jumped 14% YoY to RMB7.63 billion, or US$1.09 billion, less than analysts expected US$857.17 millon. On non-GAAP basis, adjusted net income dipped 19% YoY to RMB5.89 billion, compared with a 8% YoY fall three months earlier. Adjusted earnings per American depositary share (ADS) was RMB16.6 with a 19% YoY decrease, versus analysts projected RMB17.73. Adjusted operating income dropped 8% YoY to RMB7.01 billion, compared with a 2% YoY increase for the previous quarter. That was still better than projection of RMB6.36 billion.

Baidu Core, which accounts for nearly 79% of overall revenue for the third quarter, stagnated for the September quarter. The segment generated RMB26.52 billion with almost no growth compared with a year earlier. The mainstay segment decelerated as it had eked out a 1% YoY gain for the second quarter, down from a quarterly growth rate of 4% in the start of this year. Net income of Baidu Core added 17% YoY to RMB7.54 billion, while non-GAAP adjusted net income fell 18% YoY to RMB5.68 billion.

Online marketing, a major part of Baidu Core, brought RMB18.8 billion with a 4% YoY decrease, versus a 2% drop from April to June. Non-online marketing revenue was RMB7.7 billion with a 12% YoY gain, mainly driven by AI Cloud business. That division accelerated from a 10% increase for the previous quarter.

“Baidu Core's flattish third quarter top line reflected the ongoing weakness in our online marketing business, offset by the growth of our AI Cloud business. Our strong AI capabilities are gaining broader market recognition, as evidenced by increasing adoption of Ernie,” Baidu CEO RObin Li said.

For the third quarter, Baidu expanded the Ernie family with two enhanced lightweight models, Speed Pro and Lite Pro. Baidu’s flagship model, ERNIE 4.0 Turbo, has achieved notable improvements in inference efficiency, with throughput increasing by 48% compared to its debut in June. Thanks to Erine's enhanced capabilities, wide-ranging applications, and improved cost efficiencies, Baidu has seen a substantial increase in API calls, Li said. He noted Ernie handled approximately 1.5 billion API calls daily in November, a significant jump from 600 million in August. Meanwhile, over 1.7 trillion tokens were generated on a daily basis.

Li underscore momentum of AI Cloud. Revenue from AI Cloud reached RMB4.9 billion for the third quarter, maintaining double-digit YoY increase at 11% while sustaining non-GAAP operating profitability. Generative AI-related revenue maintained strong growth momentum and remained a key growth driver, accounting for about 11% of Baidu’s total AI Cloud revenue in the third quarter, up from 9% in the preceding quarter, Li said. He commemted that this trend reflected increasing recognition of Ernie's value among enterprise customers.

Apollo Go, Baidu's autonomous ride-hailing service, provided 988,000 rides in the third quarter, up 20% YoY. As of October 28, the cumulative rides provided to the public by Apollo Go surpassed 8 million. During the third quarter, rides provided by Apollo Go's fully driverless vehicles accounted for over 70% of total rides nationwide. The proportion of fully driverless rides further increased to 80% in October.

“Apollo Go continues to lead the global autonomous ride-hailing market, hitting another milestone with our sixth-generation autonomous vehicle now operating on public roads across multiple cities in China,” Li said.”Despite the near-term pressures, we remain steadfast in our AI-focused strategy and are confident in our long-term trajectory. As we further scale AI, we are emboldened to find how it can drive innovations and create value for consumers, enterprises and society at large.”