The figures suggest that the controversy late last year about Baidu's business practices may have no lasting impact on its status as a national champion.
After television adverts during the Lunar New Year holiday last month, the company had seen “significant growth in traffic and customer spending”, said Robin Li, chief executive.
The remarks were made as Baidu reported a 31 per cent year-on-year increase in net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2008 and said revenues increased by 58 per cent year-on-year to Rmb902.1m ($132m) in the quarter – markedly slower than the 80 to 100 per cent year-on-year rate of increase rate seen in past quarters.