Chinese technology company Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) has penned better-than-expected second-quarter results, with the company's autonomous taxi business taking off during the period.
Revenue climbed 15% to 34.1 billion yuan (£3.7 billion) in the three months to June, Baidu said in a statement, outdoing Refinitiv estimates of 33.3 billion yuan.
Adjusted pre-tax earnings climbed by 29% to 9.1 billion yuan meanwhile, as margins grew from 24% to 27%, largely thanks to advertising growth, with the company being a key internet search provider in China.
Baidu’s autonomous taxi business, Apollo Go, provided some 714,000 rides during the quarter, up 149% year on year, having now been granted permission to offer a fully driverless service in Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chongqing.
This was up from 660,000 rides carried out during the first quarter, with the company first having been allowed to charge fares for the autonomous service in November 2021.
Baidu has also been developing a chatbot known as Ernie in a bid to rival the likes of ChatGPT, created by American-based OpenAI, offering significant potential in the future, according to chief executive Robin Li.
“Generative AI and large language models hold immense transformative power in numerous industries, presenting a significant market opportunity for us,” he said.
“Baidu has invested in AI for over a decade and is well-positioned to capitalize on the opportunities arising from generative AI and large language models.”
A new version of the bot, dubbed EARNIE 3.5, was released during the quarter, with Baidu ultimately planning to incorporate the language model into its driverless taxi business.
Baidu’s US-listed shares rose 0.8% to US$125.97 in pre-market trading.