By Sherry Qin


Baidu's third-quarter revenue rose 6% from a year earlier, thanks to growth in online-marketing services and streaming services.

The Chinese tech company said Tuesday that net profit for the quarter ended September was 6.68 billion yuan ($931.8 million), compared with net loss of CNY146 million a year earlier. Quarterly profit beat the estimate of CNY4.89 billion taken from an analyst poll by FactSet.

The company's bottom line swung to a profit as it recognized a CNY338 million gain from fair value changes in long-term investments, while it registered a loss of CNY3.1 billion in the year-earlier period. Meanwhile, Baidu's impairment of long-term investments fell by CNY1.4 billion in the third quarter.

Baidu said revenue rose 6% to CNY34.45 billion, while operating income expanded 18% to CNY6.27 billion.

Revenue from its online-marketing services grew 5% to CNY19.7 billion as the number of monthly active users for its flagship Baidu app rose 5% to 663 million in September from a year earlier.

Third-quarter revenue from its iQIYI video-streaming service was up 7% to CNY8 billion from a year earlier as the average daily number of total subscribing members increased to 107.5 million, compared with 101.0 million for the third quarter of 2022.

"Moving forward, while we will continue prioritizing investments in AI, especially in generative AI and foundation models, we will do so with an unrelenting focus on efficiency and strategic resource allocation," Baidu Chief Financial Officer Rong Luo said.


Write to Sherry Qin at sherry.qin@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-21-23 0502ET