Chinese Search Engine Baidu’s Q4 Revenue Up 82.5 Percent To $711M; Net Income Up 77 Percent

Chinese search engine Baidu posted Q4 earnings today. Revenues in the fourth quarter of 2011 were RMB4.474 billion ($710.9 million), an 82.5% increase from the same period in 2010. Net income for the quarter was RMB2.054 billion ($326.3 million), a 76.9% increase from 2010. GAAP earnings came in at $0.93; with non-GAAP earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 $0.95. Baidu beat Wall Street expectations, with analysts expecting earnings of $0.91, up from 50 cents in Q4 2010.
For the full year in 2011, total revenues were $2.304 billion, representing an 83.2% increase from 2010. Net income for 2011 came in at $1.055 billion, up 88.3% from 2010.
Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu said in a release, “I’m pleased to report that we closed the year with solid financial results as strong execution allowed us to benefit from exceptional market opportunities…Over the course of 2011, we made great progress on the Baidu Open Data and Open Application platforms, executed effectively on our landing page strategy, and rolled out several new initiatives, including our personalized homepage and the Baidu Yi mobile platform…In 2012, we will continue to innovate and to solidify Baidu’s central position in China’s Internet ecosystem.”
Online marketing revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 were $709.7 million, representing an 82.3% increase. Baidu had about 311,000 active online marketing customers in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 12.7%.
As of Q3 2011, Baidu had 77 percent of the search market share in China. And in the fourth quarter, Dell and Baidu unveiled a new smartphone.