Baidu beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates as its revenue grew more than 80 percent year-on-year in the fourth-quarter. Baidu said it expects first-quarter revenue of $666.5 million to $688 million..
Baidu has expanded its dominant position in China’s Internet search market ever since Google decided in 2010 to relocate its search engine to Hong Kong following a standoff with the Chinese government over Internet censorship. In the fourth quarter, China’s online search market grew 70.2 percent to 568 billion yuan, according to technology consulting firm iResearch. For 2011, Baidu had a 76.1 percent share of the market, while Google had 19.8 percent.
With more than half a billion users, China is the world’s largest Internet market. Yet, Internet penetration is only at 38.3 percent and user sophistication outside the big cities remains low. Baidu has made efforts to expand into mobile, travel and online video sectors to boost growth. Baidu is also in the midst of launching its own browser, Baidu Liuluanqi. Source: cnbc.com
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