(Reuters) -Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc reported quarterly revenue above Wall Street estimates on Tuesday, powered by high demand for its cloud and self-driving taxi services.
Baidu has been doubling down on self-driving vehicles by leveraging the company’s capabilities in artificial intelligence as it looks for alternative revenue streams to maintain its blistering pace of growth.
That, coupled with its highly reliable cloud services and advertising business, helped drive revenue growth.
The company said total revenue was 33.09 billion yuan ($5.24 billion) in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ average estimate of 32.22 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Baidu said it incurred a 27% increase in selling, general and administrative expenses due to higher spending, promotional marketing and personnel costs.
Net income attributable to Baidu fell to 1.72 billion yuan, or 4.51 yuan per American Depository Share (ADS) in the quarter, from 5.17 billion yuan, or 15.05 yuan per ADS, a year earlier.
($1 = 6.3121 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
