China's Baidu misses quarterly revenue estimates

Chinese search engine giant Baidu's quarterly revenue fell and was just shy of market estimates on Wednesday, signalling persistent weakness in the advertising market amid prolonged economic uncertainty.

US-listed shares of the company fell about 2% in premarket trading.

Slammed by a property market downturn, weak employment rates and choppy consumer demand, companies in the world's second-largest economy have reined in advertising spending to cut costs and protect their margins.


Baidu, which relies heavily on advertising in its search engine, also took a hit. Its core online advertising business, which typically makes up 60% of the overall company revenue, reported a 15% decrease in revenue to ¥16.2 billion during the April-June quarter.

That eclipsed upbeat growth at the company's AI cloud segment, which drove a 34% increase in Baidu's non-online advertising business.

The company reported total revenue of ¥32.71 billion ($4.56 billion) during the second quarter, down 4% from the year earlier. Analysts on average estimated ¥32.76 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. ($1 = 7.1784 Chinese yuan renminbi)