Baidu share price down more than 16 per cent after disappointing earnings
Shares in Baidu, often dubbed "China's answer to Google", plummeted 16.8 per cent to $164.99 this afternoon, after less-than-encouraging results were released.
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During the second quarter, the Nasdaq-listed company's revenues went up 38 per cent from a year earlier to $2.7bn (£1.7bn), resulting in a fourth consecutive quarter of decelerating growth.
Earnings-per-share of $1.64 were also disappointing, failing to meet the $1.71 analysts predicted.
The outlook for the rest of the year didn't stir any optimism, either – the tech giant expects third-quarter revenue to be between $2.9bn and $3bn. This falls shy of the $3bn investors were hoping for.
Move to mobile
Baidu blamed its performance on its transition from “online to offline”. By following its users onto mobiles and away from PCs, the firm has had to cope with a resulting loss of traditional search-based advertising.
In January, Baidu revealed its plan to invest $3.2bn in the shift over the next three years. This includes offering online-to-offline (O2O) services, such as buying movie tickets and getting restaurant deals.
Robin Li, chairman and chief executive of the company, said the performance reflected a shift to accommodate people's changing habits:
As we continue to connect people with services and enable closed loop transactions, we are creating a transactional business model as Baidu grows and evolves in the age of mobile.
On a more positive note for the company, it's number of users has been steadily increasing. Over the course of June, around 629m people used Baidu's mobile search – a 24 per cent increase from June 2014.