Baidu (BIDU) released its financial results for Q3. It reported total revenues of $994.6 million, representing a 49.7% increase from the corresponding period in 2011. Net income attributable to Baidu was $478.6 million, representing a 59.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2011.
Baidu managed to increase the active online marketing customers to 390.000. It was a 28.3% increase from the corresponding period in 2011 and a 10.8% increase from the second quarter of 2012. Another positive fact is the increase in revenue per online marketing customer (16.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2011) and a 3.2% increase compared to the second quarter of 2012.
Baidu has invested heavily in the mobile (mobile browser, mobile maps with LBS functionality) and cloud related services (cloud infrastructure to third-party app developers). These areas may be key for future growth of the company.
Baidu subsidiary iQiyi (China’s leading online television and movie portal, launched only two years ago in 2010) has grown rapidly. Monthly unique visitors reached 407 million (last quarter it was 250 million), and monthly user time spent increased by over 100% year on year in August.
Major negative news was lower-than-expected guidelines for Q4 — analysts expected revenue of $1.03 billion, while the company announced expectations of total revenues in an amount ranging from $979.3 million
Source: Seeking Alpha
