Baidu Do Do, De Da Da Da Is All I’ve Got to Say to You
by John Paczkowski
Posted on April 29, 2009 at 5:00 AM PT
Baidu’s shares have gained 72 percent this year, apparently for very good reason. The Chinese search engine is doing to Google what few others have managed to do: dominate it in search. Baidu (BIDU) holds more than 62 percent of China’s online search market, Google (GOOG) less than half of that. Little wonder, then, that Baidu delivered another strong quarter this week.
The company’s first-quarter profit climbed 24 percent on surging advertising sales, handily beating analysts’ estimates. And while the econalypse has troubled it a bit–the company saw a decline in active customers–Baidu is confident in its future performance. Said CEO Robin Li, “With more and more search traffic or inventory to sell and better and better monetization capability, I think this company will be able to maintain a better high growth rate for the years to come.”
