In June, Baidu MAUs reached 580 million and daily logged-in users reaching 77%, according to its latest financial results.
Managed Page reached 40% of Baidu Core Q2 online marketing revenue, as merchants adopted Baidu’s hosted service with marketing cloud for their online storefront.
Total revenues were RMB 31.4 billion ($4.86 billion), increasing 20% year over year. Baidu Core revenue grew 27% year over year in the second quarter, boosted by AI cloud growing 71% year over year.
Net loss attributable to Baidu was RMB 583 million ($90 million), and diluted loss per ADS was RMB 1.70 ($0.26). Net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB 172 million ($27 million). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu was RMB 5.4 billion ($830 million), and non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB 15.41 ($2.39). Non-GAAP net income attributable to Baidu Core was RMB 5.9 billion ($920 million).
AI Cloud
Baidu held the Intelligent Economy Summit on July 29th, featuring speakers from leading enterprises and municipalities highlighting the importance of AI to the development of industrial internet, smart city and digital economy.
Baidu was ranked the No. 1 AI cloud provider again, according to IDC’s 2020 China’s public cloud market report.
Baidu deep learning platform became the most widely used in China, according to an IDC report in June 2021. PaddlePaddle developer community grew to 3.6 million, up 62% year over year, and serves 130,000 businesses.
Baidu signed with Geely Holding, a leading automotive manufacturer, to provide private cloud solution and other cloud applications, to enable Geely to leverage Baidu’s AI to optimize its manufacturing capabilities and provide cloud services to its automotive suppliers and customers.
Quanzhou, Fujian with a resident of 8 million, implemented Baidu AI solutions to remotely monitor its water-treatment plant for equipment malfunction and dynamically adjust water pressure, based on predicted usage, cutting electricity use by 8%.
Coverage of Apollo ACE smart transportation has grown to 20 cities in June 2021, up four folds from a year ago, based on contract amounts over RMB 10 million.
Xiongan, Hebei signed with Apollo ACE to deploy V2X smart highway, to remotely detect highway maintenance needs, assess road closure for poor weather conditions and identify travelers who dodge toll terminals.
Intelligent Driving
Apollo L4 autonomous driving accumulated 7.5 million test miles, up 152% year over year. Apollo has received 278 autonomous driving permits, reflecting Apollo’s piloting in dispersed geographic regions and under wide-ranging test scenarios.
Baidu introduced Apollo’s 5th generation robotaxi vehicles in June, which again saw a 60% drop in cost per mile.
Apollo Go ride hailing expanded into Guangzhou, Guangdong, its fourth city of operation, and provided 47K trips to the public, up 200% sequentially, in Q2. Customer satisfaction has been high, with user rating averaging 4.9 out of 5.0.
Great Wall Motors announced in June that its flagship WEY Mocha SUV will feature Apollo Automated Valet Parking (AVP) in its new release later this year.
Other Growth Initiatives
Xiaodu was ranked No.1 in smart display shipments globally and No.1 in smart speaker shipments in China, according to IDC and Canalys, for Q1 2021.
China’s elderly population is slated to exceed 300 million. Xiaodu smart displays connect elders with immediate senior-community assistance and serve as an always-on virtual companionship through conversational AI, improving their quality of life, while allowing family members to remotely monitor their love ones.
Xiaodu’s Tiantian T10 (10″ smart display with karaoke) was released in May at an MSRP of RMB1,699, exemplifying how hardware can be differentiated with AI features.
Xiaodu services revenue, including advertising and membership, grew 5 folds from last year, accounting for over 10% of Xiaodu Q2 revenue.
Mini Program platforms 2021: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu