China's Baidu doubles profits in second quarter

Released on - Thursday,22 July , 2010 -01:27

Chinese Internet search giant Baidu on Wednesday reported its profits more than doubled in the second quarter, topping 837 million yuan, or 126 million dollars.

Net income soared nearly 120 percent versus the same period a year before, as the search engine's customer base widened at the expense of rival Google.

The company said profits were kicked upward by increase in online marketing revenues, which rose almost 75 percent to 1.9 billion yuan or 282 million dollars.

Chief executive Robin Li said the results underscored "the vast Internet market opportunities for us and the growing appreciation for search engine marketing in China."

Baidu is locked in a fierce battle with Google for a stake in country's lucrative and still-emerging Internet market.

The number of web users in China now stands at around 420 million, according to official figures released last week.

The figure, almost a third of the population, marks an increase of 36 million -- more than the population of Canada -- since the number of users was last given at the end of 2009.

Baidu currently dominates the market, holding a 70 percent share against Google's 24 percent.

The US Internet titan had boasted a 31 percent share in the first three months of the year, before a tussle with the Chinese authorities.

In March, Google said it would no longer bow to government censors and effectively shut down its Chinese search engine, automatically re-routing mainland users to its uncensored site in Hong Kong.

The web giant has since tweaked the way it re-routes users in order to gain the renewal of its business license in China.