Baidu, the Chinese Web search provider, posted strong earnings in its latest quarter, doubling net income in only 12 months as it continued to add online marketing customers.
Baidu, the leading search engine in the Chinese language, increased revenues by 76.4% from a year ago to $337.2 million. Essentially all of the increase comes from an extended online marketing customer base, which grew to 272,000, up 25.9% from Q3 2009, and 7.1% on a sequential basis.
Revenue per customer, for the company that dominates 70% of the Chinese search market, totaled $1,241, up an impressive 10.7% from the second quarter of 2010.
"With a company like Baidu, it is important to look at sequential growth [and] the number of people getting Internet access in China," explains RBC Capital Markets analyst Stephen Ju.
Net income grew 112.4% from a year ago to 156.4 million, or 45 cents per American depositary receipt; a 25% jump sequentially. The consensus analyst forecast was for 42 cents.
"The results are very good for me, better than expected," says Ju, especially since the bar was set very high. Baidu drew a benefit from developments earlier in 2010, when Google ( GOOG - news - people ) pulled out of Mainland China due to the government's pressure over censorship of search results and hacking of human rights activists' emails.
Baidu reported traffic acquisition costs as a component of revenue totaled $30.2 million, or 8.9% of total revenue, down 9.7% from Q2 2010, and 15.3% from Q3 2010. Baidu increased its research and development budget by 75.4% to $30.6 million on a yearly basis, mainly due to personnel expenses.
By the end of the third quarter, the Chinese company was sitting on a little over $1 billion in cash. "By focusing on continuously improving our online marketing system and customer engagement while building awareness of search engine marketing, we are successfully enhancing Baidu's position as a key enabler of China's Internet industry," said Robin Li, chairman of CEO and Baidu.
All results were converted from renminbi at the going exchange rate on September 30 at noon, when the quarter was closed. One dollar was valued at RMB 6.6905. In after hours trading following the earnings report Baidu briefly dipped before gaining 1.3%.
Google, which posted impressive earnings Oct. 14, was up $4.01 or 0.7% to $611.99 Thursday, while Yahoo ( YHOO - news - people ), also a search-advertising company, was up 17 cents or 1.1% to $15.97.