 "Baidu")
China's Baidu beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, driven by a recovery in advertising sales and higher demand for its AI-powered cloud products.
The company, China's largest search engine provider, reported revenue of 31.51 billion yuan ($4.37 billion) for the three months ended March 31, compared to analysts' average estimate of 31.21 billion yuan as per LSEG data.
U.S.-listed shares of the company rose about 3% in premarket trade.
Baidu has recently intensified its efforts to boost sales from its AI-related products and services.
This strategic move is part of an image rebranding initiative, despite the fact that the company still derives the majority of its revenue from advertising sales.
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Baidu Cores online marketing revenue remained stable, while the end-to-end optimization of our AI technology stack continued to propel the growth of our AI Cloud revenue during the quarter, said co-founder and CEO Robin Li in an earnings release.
Revenue from Baidu Core, which includes its search-based ad sales, cloud offerings and autonomous driving initiatives, grew 4% to 23.8 billion yuan.
Meanwhile, revenue at its streaming service iQIYI fell 5% to 7.9 billion yuan.
Baidu reported adjusted net income of 7 billion yuan for the quarter, beating the analysts' average estimate of 5.57 billion yuan, according to LSEG data.
