A Baidu Apollo robotaxi passes by a Baidu place of work making in Beijing on Aug. 21, 2023.
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BEIJING — Chinese tech business Baidu reported greater-than-expected earnings, up by 15% 12 months-on-12 months in the second quarter and bolstered by growth in advertising and marketing.
This is how Baidu did in the June quarter as opposed to Refinitiv consensus estimates:
- Income: 34.1 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) versus 33.28 billion yuan expected.
“In the 2nd quarter of 2023, Baidu Core accelerated revenue and revenue growth, pushed by the sound functionality of online marketing and advertising enterprise and operating leverage,” said Robin Li, Co-founder and CEO of Baidu, stated in a release.
“Generative AI and substantial language models hold enormous transformative electric power in various industries, presenting a important marketplace possibility for us,” he claimed.
Baidu has been earning progress with a Chinese-language ChatGPT alternative known as Ernie bot, which is open to the general public and was introduced in March. OpenAI’s wildly well-liked rival chatbot isn’t really simply accessible in the region.
Previous 7 days, Baidu declared that 5 Ernie bot plugins — which include types for rapidly changing text to video and for PDF search — would turn out to be extra commonly out there to users. A few of the plugins can also be made use of concurrently, according to the company.
Baidu last 7 days also revealed an AI-run assistant that could aid with tasks which include reserving conferences, air tickets and lodges. It was not right away clear how people could get hold of the assistant solution.
The business is also searching to broaden the reach of AI into the auto sector. This thirty day period, the business declared a strategic agreement with condition-owned Changan Car to develop autonomous driving capabilities dependent on the AI model powering Baidu’s Ernie bot.
Baidu is not on your own in its foray, as other Chinese tech giants are also pushing into AI-relevant merchandise. Previously this month, e-commerce big Alibaba claimed that “robust demand from customers” for instruction artificial intelligence styles on the cloud and the connected enterprise option was just commencing.
Web titan Tencent explained through its earnings launch previous week that it ideas to start its have AI product later on this calendar year, for use in items such as gaming and promotion.
Robotaxi company
Baidu also operates self-driving taxis underneath the Apollo Go brand name in China. In the 2nd quarter, Baidu mentioned it ran roughly 714,000 robotaxi rides, up from 660,000 in the to start with quarter.
The enterprise was permitted to start charging fares for community robotaxi rides in Beijing in November 2021. Travellers can e-book the rides, which are normally extremely backed, through an app.
Most of the robotaxis, which are obtainable in pieces of several major Chinese cities, continue to have human staff inside.
In June, the company said it been given approval to operate robotaxis with no staff members in a suburb of Shenzhen. That followed very similar approval in August 2022 to take out human staff members in some robotaxis in parts of Wuhan and Chongqing.