Baidu.com says 3Q profits double

Search engine Baidu.com Inc. said Friday its third-quarter profits more than doubled on strong traffic growth despite search giant Google Inc.'s efforts to expand in China.

Profits were 181.7 million yuan ($24.2 million), up from 85.3 million yuan in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share were 5.23 yuan (70 U.S. cents), up from 2.46 yuan a year earlier. Revenue jumped to 496.5 million yuan ($66.3 million) from 237.6 million yuan.

Analysts, on average, were expecting profit of 63 cents per American depositary share on revenue of $65.5 million.

"During the third quarter, we saw solid revenue and earnings growth driven by an increase in user traffic and active online customers," said Robin Li, Baidu's chairman and chief executive, in a statement.

Baidu had 60.5 percent of China's search engine market in the third quarter, up from 57.6 percent the previous quarter, according to Beijing-based research firm Analysys International.

Google was in second place with 23.7 percent, up from 21 percent the previous quarter, according to Analysys. Yahoo Inc.'s China arm was in third place with 10.4 percent.

Baidu said its number of active online marketing customers grew nearly 12 percent sequentially to about 143,000.

Costs related to Baidu's Japanese operations reduced earnings by 8 cents per share in the latest quarter, the company said.

Despite the better-than-expected results, investors seemed to want more. Baidu's U.S.-traded shares fell $11.12, or 3.3 percent, to $323.18 in after-hours trading.

The stock had closed earlier down $1.70 at $334.30.