Chinese search and autonomous driving giant Baidu's Q4 2020 revenue rose 5% year on year to 30.3 billion yuan ($4.69 billion), beating analysts' estimates of 30.06 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu for the fourth quarter was RMB 6.9 billion, down 25 percent year-over-year. However, Baidu's earnings per ADS were RMB 20.08, exceeding market expectations of RMB 16.89.
Baidu said it expects revenue for the current quarter to be between 26 billion yuan and 28.5 billion yuan, above expectations of 25.79 billion yuan.
Baidu shares rose 3.1 percent to $318.3 in after-hours trading on Thursday. The stock fell 5.37 percent to $308.68 on Thursday.
In the fourth quarter, Baidu's core business revenue rose 6 percent year on year to 23.1 billion yuan.
Online marketing revenue was RMB 18.9 billion, essentially unchanged from the previous year, while non-marketing revenue reached RMB 4.2 billion, up 52 percent year on year, benefiting from a boost in the cloud and other services.
As of December, the number of monthly active users of the Baidu App reached 544 million, with the percentage of daily logged-in users exceeding 70%, an increase of 18 percentage points year on year.
The number of monthly active users of Baidu's smart mini-programs reached 414 million, with a 124% year-on-year increase in volume. Over 300,000 hosted page customers adopted Baidu's marketing cloud service platform, and revenue from hosted pages increased to one-third of online marketing revenue.
Baidu co-founder and Chief Executive Robin Li said that in the new year Baidu will seize the market opportunities in cloud services, smart transportation, smart driving, and other AI areas.
Baidu's full-year 2020 revenue was RMB 107.1 billion, flat year on year, and non-GAAP net income was RMB 22 billion, up 21% year on year.
For the full year, Baidu's core businesses including mobile ecosystem, search and AI saw a total revenue of RMB 78.7 billion, up 1% year on year.
Online marketing revenue was RMB 66.3 billion, up 5% year on year, and non-marketing revenue reached RMB 12.4 billion, up 28% year on year.
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