FILE PHOTO: A sign of Baidu is seen on a glass at its booth during the Digital China exhibition in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China May 5, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer
(Reuters) – China search engine operator Baidu Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit on Monday, as more people signed up for its video streaming service, sending its shares up 8% in extended trading.
Revenue from iQIYI jumped 15% to 7.11 billion yuan ($1.01 billion), as the service crossed the 100 million subscriber mark in June this year, despite stiff competition from rivals including ByteDances’s TikTok.
Online marketing services business revenue, a major contributor to overall sales, fell about 9% to 19.2 billion yuan and came in below estimates, hurt by the impact of a prolonged trade war and tighter ad regulations by the government.
Total revenue rose to 26.33 billion yuan ($3.73 billion) from 25.97 billion yuan a year earlier, beating estimate of 25.77 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Excluding items, Baidu earned 10.11 yuan per American depositary share. Analysts were expecting 6.12 yuan per ADS.
Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru and Yingzhi Yang in Beijing; Editing by Bernard Orr and Anil D’Silva