Baidu profit slides 14pc to 18.8b yuan

Baidu (9888) reported a 14 percent drop year-on-year in adjusted net profit to 18.83 billion yuan (HK$23.32 billion) in 2021, but still above estimates.

Revenue over the same period rose 16 percent to 124.5 billion yuan from an earlier year, with non-advertising revenue surging by 71 percent to 21.2 billion yuan driven by cloud and other AI-powered businesses, it said in the latest filing.

For the fourth quarter to December 31, the internet search engine leader saw a 41 percent slump in adjusted net profit to HK$4.1 billion yuan, with revenue up 9 percent. Revenue from non-advertising businesses also jumped 63 percent in the three months, versus growth of just 1 percent in online marketing.

Baidu has also 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.

Apollo Go, its robotaxi service, provided around 213,000 rides in the quarter, Baidu's chief executive Robin Li said in a statement.

Baidu plans to mass-produce electric vehicles in 2023, with a prototype to be unveiled next month. It's also testing a driverless ride-hailing service in big cities like Beijing and Guangzhou, while expanding a nascent chip business beyond just in-house applications.

IQiyi, meanwhile, reported flat but better than expected revenue last year, which grew 3 percent to 30.6 billion yuan. The video streaming unit predicted it would reach break-even on an adjusted profit operating income basis in fiscal 2022.