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Excerpt from ca.movies.yahoo.com
(Reuters) – Search engine giant Baidu Inc beat first-quarter revenue and profit estimates on Tuesday as businesses spent more on advertising amid China’s post-COVID reopening, and said it was awaiting regulatory approval to launch its ChatGPT-like Ernie bot.
Business momentum in China is building after it dropped most of its strict COVID-19 curbs late last year, with consumers and companies reviving spending.
China’s economy grew a faster-than-expected 4.5% year-on-year in the three months through March, according to the latest official data.
Baidu CEO Robin Li said on Tuesday that after the Lunar New Year in late January, there was a quick economic recovery that especially benefited the company’s advertisers in offline sectors such as travel and healthcare.
“Some of these verticals have already rebounded to above pre-pandemic levels, indicating solid signs of recovery,” Li said. Baidu’s revenue rose 10% to 31.14 billion yuan ($4.54 billion) in the quarter to March 31, surpassing analysts’ estimates of 29.97 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.
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