Shares in China’s Nasdaq-listed search engine Baidu fell 8 per cent on Monday after it missed key targets in its quarterly earnings, and amid renewed turmoil in China’s domestic stock markets.
The Chinese internet giant, which has a stake in Uber Technologies, has been under scrutiny by investors as the apps-driven mobile internet threatens the role of traditional search engines. This month Baidu unveiled a bold strategy to invest $3.2bn in “online to offline” services where smartphones are used to hail taxis, buy movie tickets and shop.
However, analysts and traders on Monday were focusing on the bottom line and Baidu’s quarterly numbers disappointed: the company forecast current-quarter revenue would rise 34.4-37.4 per cent to a range of Rmb18.17bn-Rmb18.58bn ($2.9bn-$3bn), falling short of analysts’ average estimate of Rmb18.79bn, according to a Thomson Reuters poll.