Good morning. Unless you’re Baidu, in which case: You good?
Things have been tough lately for the Chinese Internet pioneer. Its successes in AI during the previous decade have since been overshadowed by a host of new players. Its shares have been on a downward slide since early 2021; Baidu is currently valued lower than any profitable company on the Hang Seng Tech Index.
Baidu is spending like crazy to catch up, in an array of categories—cloud computing, self-driving cars, and of course AI, thanks to its Ernie family. But its core search advertising business is under fire from rivals Douyin and Xiaohongshu. On Thursday, the company posted its worst quarterly revenue drop in three years.
The old adage is building the plane while you’re flying it—but for Baidu, it may be more “rebuilding the plane while you’re putting out an engine fire.” Can it mount a cinematic comeback? For now, investors say: Surely you can’t be serious.
Today’s tech news below. —Andrew Nusca
