Baidu's Q1 revenue growth of 6.8% in 2017 led the growth and transformation of AI industry
Beijing, April 28 (April 27, EDT), Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), the world's largest Chinese search engine, announced its unaudited financial report for the first quarter of 2017. Baidu's quarterly revenue was 16.9 billion yuan (about US $2.45 billion), up 6.8% year on year, and its operating profit was 2 billion yuan (about US $291 million). Baidu also completed a $200 million stock buyback in the quarter.
Li Yanhong, chairman and CEO of Baidu, said: "In 2017, Baidu's strategic evolution from" mobile first "to" people first "is still strongly promoted." Our investment in AI is a long-term behavior, and AI has always played a great role in the existing platform. With the increasing importance of AI in mainstream industries and Baidu's technological advantages, we are very confident that we can better participate in and promote the development and transformation of China's AI industry.
"I am very happy to see Baidu's strong performance in the first quarter," said Lu Qi, vice president, president and chief operating officer of the bourgeoisie. "Baidu's focus on core businesses and AI driven new businesses, including cloud, financial services, DuerOS, and driving, are all great long-term potential. In the next quarter, we will continue to focus on improving existing products and user experience through AI, and accelerating the development of new human resources businesses“
Li Xin, chief financial officer of Baidu, said: "We will continue to focus on user first and provide a more powerful platform for the company this quarter. We will be included in the search business. In order to better improve our core business, we will continue to invest in the AI field in the future, enhance the user experience of core business, and promote the development of new high potential AI business.
Baidu announced today that Li Zhenzhen will be transferred to the CEO of Baidu Capital, which has been responsible for Baidu's financial business for nine years. Baidu will find and appoint a new CFO in the future. During this period, Li Xin will ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities.
"Jennifer's outstanding leadership and professional ability has made significant contributions to Baidu's development in the past nine years, and thanks Jennifer for establishing a strong financial organization system to lay the foundation for Baidu's future development." Entering the era of life is crucial, and we look forward to working with Jennifer to improve Baidu's healthy national system. “
"I am honored that Baidu's CFO has participated in Baidu's transformation and rapid growth for many years," Li Xin said. "Baidu has a clear vision and a clear strategy, and Baidu will become a new leader in the AI era. CEO, I hope to use my industry experience and vision to help Baidu reduce its technological advantages and integrate with the industry widely.
In the new year, Baidu will pay more attention to its core business and promote AI in more business applications.
In the core business, the traditional search advertising and information flow of dual engine combination have developed rapidly. For search, Baidu uses richer content to improve search results. For example, more than 25% of search results are video content at present. By the end of this month, the number of users of mobile Baidu's information flow had reached 83 million. At the same time, the performance of the content platform shows that the number of creators on the platform has exceeded 450000, double the number of the last quarter.
Baidu Maps, Nuomi and local express trains continue to play an important role in core business. They connect users' local content and services, and help local enterprises connect to users through Baidu search, information flow and advertising products. Through big data technology, Baidu's glutinous rice film industry is profitable in this quarter.
Baidu AI technology capability is to promote industry upgrading. DuerOS is the next generation AI platform for dialogue. It has made great progress in building an ecosystem. It has always cooperated with Xiaoyu at home, Haier, the United States, Lenovo and other giants. Baidu also officially released the DuerOS smart chip, fully launching the era of "dialogue" smart devices.
Baidu's automation commercialization process accelerates the establishment of intelligent driving business group (IDG) through automatic driving department (L4), intelligent vehicle business (L3) and automobile network business. Baidu also released the "Apollo" plan to provide an open, complete and safe software platform for the automotive industry and automated driving partners to help them quickly build their own automated driving system. Baidu has more than 60 car prices in the world, and more than 200 models are cooperated with Baidu Intelligent Car Software.
In terms of finance, Baidu Finance's AI based application has achieved remarkable results, with the total amount of new loans increasing by 90% over the same period last year. Artificial intelligence and big data can effectively prevent financial fraud and properly assess credit risk through intelligent target matching between users and products through constantly upgrading proprietary modeling.
Baidu Cloud ABC (artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing) differentiation strategy has been recognized by the industry, and has received a large number of government enterprise customer cooperation projects, including China Meteorological Administration, Xinhua News Agency Minsheng Bank (7.810, -0.06, -0.76%), etc. Baidu's cloud business is rapidly consolidating and improving the status quo of the industry, among which big data marketing cloud and media cloud solutions are growing rapidly.
Baidu will also be applicable to public welfare AI. In the first quarter, Baidu cooperated with "Baobaojia", the largest tracking platform in China, and the first batch of more than 20000 tracking data were obtained from Baidu's cross age face recognition system. Mr. Fu, 33, was expensive in the 27 years since he was reunited with his relatives, because he used AI technology to help recover the first case of missing children.
Baidu's outlook for the next quarter is expected: In the second quarter of 2017, Baidu's total revenue will reach 20.47 billion yuan (about 2.974 billion dollars) to 20.98 billion yuan (about 3.048 billion dollars), up 12.1% 14.9% year on year. The previous scenario only represents a preliminary forecast based on the current situation, and does not exclude the possibility of future adjustment.
