Baidu’s revenue fell 1% last year. Robin Li: I believe AI-related investments will bring greater results this year.

Baidu's revenue and net profit both fell last year. On the evening of February 18, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU, 09888.HK) released its fourth quarter and full-year financial reports for 2024, showing that total revenue in 2024 will reach 133.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1%; net revenue attributable to Baidu Profit was 23.76 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%. Not according to U.S. GAAP, net profit attributable to Baidu was 27 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6%. Diluted earnings per American depositary share was 76.85 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5%.

In 2024, Baidu Core (BaiduCore, a combination of search services and transaction services) revenue will be 104.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1%, of which online marketing revenue will be 73 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3%, and non-online marketing revenue will be 31.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12%, mainly driven by the intelligent cloud business. Revenue from iQiyi was 29.2 billion yuan, down 8% year-on-year.

In terms of fourth quarter results, Baidu's revenue was 34.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2%; not according to U.S. GAAP, net profit attributable to Baidu was 6.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13%; diluted earnings per American depositary share was 19.18 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12%.

Baidu's revenue from Baidu Core in the fourth quarter reached 27.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1%. Among them, online marketing revenue was 17.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7%, and non-online marketing revenue was 9.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18%, mainly due to the promotion of AI cloud business.

In the fourth quarter, Baidu's R&D expenditures were 5.5 billion yuan, down 12% year-on-year, mainly due to a decrease in personnel-related expenses, partially offset by an increase in server depreciation expenses and server rack expenses to support generative artificial intelligence R&D investment.

"2024 is a critical year for us to shift from being Internet-centric to artificial intelligence-first. As our full-stack AI technology has been widely recognized by the market, the growth trend of intelligent cloud has become stronger. In the mobile ecosystem, we have been firmly promoting the AI-native reconstruction of search to improve user experience." Baidu founder, chairman and CEO Robin Li said, "As our AI strategy continues to be verified, we believe that AI-related investments will bring greater results in 2025."

"Our intelligent cloud business has shown strong momentum, with fourth-quarter revenue growing 26% year-on-year, offsetting the weakness in our online marketing business." Baidu's acting chief financial officer Junjie He said that while dealing with short-term pressure, he firmly believes that Baidu's strategic investment in the field of artificial intelligence will drive substantial progress and lay the foundation for long-term success.

According to the financial report, in 2024, the average daily calls of Wenxin large models will continue to grow rapidly. Compared with 50 million times in the same period last year, it will increase 33 times a year to 1.65 billion. Recently, Baidu announced that it will launch the Wenxin large model 4.5 series in the next few months, and will officially open source it from June 30; Wenxin Yiyan will be completely free from April 1st, and all PC and APP users can experience the latest models of the Wenxin series.

The financial report shows that in December, Baidu Wenku’s AIMAU (average monthly active users) reached 94 million, a year-on-year increase of 216% and a month-on-month increase of 83%. Public information shows that Baidu Wenku has more than 40 million paying users, ranking second in the world and first in China.

In December 2024, the monthly active users of Baidu APP reached 679 million, a year-on-year increase of 2%.

As of January 2025, Baidu's self-driving travel service has provided more than 9 million rides across the country; in the fourth quarter, it provided 1.1 million rides, a year-on-year increase of 36%; in November 2024, Baidu was approved for Hong Kong's first self-driving license, entering the right-hand-left-hand drive market for the first time; in February 2025, Luobo Kuaipao has achieved 100% fully driverless operations across China.

In terms of the stock repurchase plan, the financial report disclosed that since the fourth quarter of 2024, Baidu has returned US$356 million to shareholders, bringing the cumulative repurchase amount in 2024 to more than US$1 billion, and also bringing the cumulative repurchase amount under the 2023 stock repurchase plan to US$1.7 billion.

As of December 31, 2024, the total value of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments held by Baidu was 139.1 billion yuan. If iQiyi is excluded, the total value of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments held by Baidu as of December 31, 2024 is 134.7 billion yuan.

According to Big Wisdom VIP, as of press time, Baidu’s US stocks fell 1.78% before the market opened. In terms of Hong Kong stocks, as of the close of trading on February 18, Baidu rose 0.39% to HK$90.200 per share.