Baidu Impresses With Great Internet Results In China

Chinese Internet search engine company Baidu Inc. says its third quarter total revenue jumped 85.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2010.

The company announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 201, and stated its total revenues in the third quarter of 2011 were CNY4.175 billion. Operating profit in the third quarter of 2011 was CNY2.226 billion, an 88.5% increase from the corresponding period in 2010.

Net income attributable to Baidu in the third quarter of 2011 was CNY1.882 billion, a 79.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2010.

Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu commented, “Baidu recorded stellar results in the third quarter driven by rapid growth in customer spending and user traffic. In particular, spending by large customers significantly outperformed our expectations as we continued to build strong relationships with high quality companies. China’s search industry is still in its early stages, and as the clear industry leader we see enormous room for continuing growth as users and online marketing customers become increasingly sophisticated.”

Online marketing revenues for the third quarter of 2011 were CNY4.174 billion, representing an 85.1% increase from the corresponding period in 2010. Baidu had approximately 304,000 active online marketing customers in the third quarter of 2011, representing an 11.8% increase from the corresponding period in 2010 and a 2.0% increase from the previous quarter.

Bandwidth costs as a component of cost of revenues were CNY165.7 million, representing 4.0% of total revenues, compared to 3.8% in the corresponding period in 2010. Depreciation costs as a component of cost of revenues were CNY176.9 million, representing 4.2% of total revenues, compared to 3.7% in the corresponding period in 2010. The increase was mainly due to an increase in network infrastructure capacity.

As of September 30, 2011, Baidu had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of CNY11.442 billion. Net operating cash inflow and capital expenditures for the third quarter of 2011 were CNY1.761 billion and CNY489.9 million, respectively.

Baidu currently expects to generate total revenues in an amount ranging from CNY4.410 billion to CNY4.535 billion for the fourth quarter of 2011, representing a 79.9% to 85.0% year-over-year increase.