Here are 1-3 brief analogies for Baidu:

• The Google of China: This highlights Baidu's foundational role as the dominant search engine and online advertising platform in China.
• China's Alphabet (Google's parent company): This analogy captures Baidu's broader ecosystem, including its significant investments and operations in AI, cloud computing, and autonomous driving, mirroring Alphabet's diversified tech portfolio.
• Like Google, but with a major focus on AI and autonomous driving for the Chinese market: This emphasizes Baidu's core search business while also highlighting its aggressive pursuit of artificial intelligence and self-driving car technology, similar to how Google's parent company has Waymo.

• Baidu Search Engine: A leading search engine in China providing web, image, video, and news search capabilities.
• Baidu AI Cloud: Enterprise-grade cloud computing services primarily focused on artificial intelligence capabilities, including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
• Apollo Autonomous Driving: A comprehensive platform for autonomous driving technology, including software, hardware, and data services for various vehicle types.
• Xiaodu Smart Devices: A line of smart speakers and displays powered by Baidu's DuerOS AI assistant, offering voice interaction and smart home control.
• Baidu Maps: A popular mapping, navigation, and location-based service application offering real-time traffic, public transport, and street view.
• Online Advertising Services: Provides a platform for businesses to place targeted advertisements across Baidu's search results, news feeds, and other properties.

Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) primarily sells its services and solutions to other companies (B2B), rather than primarily to individuals. Its largest revenue streams come from online marketing services and AI Cloud.

Major Customer Categories and Examples of Partner Companies:

• Online Marketing Customers (Advertisers):

  Baidu serves a vast and diverse base of businesses across virtually all industries in China. These include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large corporations that utilize Baidu's search engine, feed, and other platforms for online advertising. Due to the highly fragmented nature of this customer base, no single advertiser represents a major portion of Baidu's overall revenue.

• Baidu AI Cloud Customers:

  Baidu's AI Cloud provides cloud computing services, artificial intelligence platforms, and industry-specific solutions to enterprise clients. Its customers span various sectors, including:

  • Financial Services (e.g., banks, insurance companies)
  • Automotive Manufacturers
  • Manufacturing and Industrial Companies
  • Public Sector and Government entities (e.g., smart city initiatives)
  • Healthcare providers

  Specific customer names in this segment are typically not publicly disclosed by Baidu due to competitive reasons, but they are large enterprises utilizing advanced cloud and AI infrastructure.

• Intelligent Driving (Apollo) Partners/Customers:

  For its autonomous driving platform (Apollo) and intelligent vehicle solutions, Baidu partners directly with leading automakers and mobility service providers. These companies integrate Baidu's technology into their vehicles and services.

  • Geely Automobile Holdings Limited (HKG: 0175)
  • Great Wall Motor Company Limited (HKG: 2333, SHA: 601633)
  • FAW Group (A large state-owned automotive manufacturer in China; while the group itself isn't directly listed with one symbol, it has several listed subsidiaries like FAW Car Co., Ltd. (SHA: 000800))
  • Other domestic and international automotive brands and ride-hailing companies.

• Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSM)
• NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)
• Intel Corporation (INTC)

Robin Li, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Robin Li co-founded Baidu with Eric Xu in January 2000. Prior to founding Baidu, he created RankDex, a site-scoring algorithm for search engine page ranking, in 1996. He worked as an engineer for Infoseek, an early internet search engine company, from July 1997 to December 1999, and as a senior consultant for IDD Information Services, a division of Dow Jones and Company. Li has been the CEO of Baidu since January 2004.

Haijian He, Chief Financial Officer

Haijian He was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Baidu, effective July 1, 2025. Before joining Baidu, he served as executive director and CFO at Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited from January 2020. His professional background also includes roles as an executive director in the TMT and mergers and acquisitions groups at Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. from September 2015 to January 2020, and positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. from 2010 to 2015. He is currently an independent non-executive director of Sipai Health Technology Co., Ltd. and Sunwoda EVB Co., Ltd.

Haifeng Wang, Chief Technology Officer

Haifeng Wang has served as Baidu's Chief Technology Officer since May 2019. He joined Baidu in 2010, overseeing the company's AI efforts in machine learning, big data, computer vision, natural language processing, speech technology, knowledge graph, robotics, and augmented reality. From 2014 to 2017, Dr. Wang managed Baidu's core search products. Before his tenure at Baidu, he held the position of chief research scientist at Toshiba's R&D Center.

Dou Shen, Executive Vice President, President of Baidu AI Cloud Group

Dou Shen has served as Executive Vice President of Baidu and President of Baidu AI Cloud Group since May 2022, having joined Baidu in 2012. Prior to Baidu, Dr. Shen worked at the headquarters of Microsoft Corporation, where he was responsible for R&D management related to search behavior and semantic advertising. He founded BuzzLabs, Inc. in the United States, which was subsequently acquired by CityGrid Media in 2011. Dr. Shen also serves as a director of iQIYI, Inc., COSCO Shipping Holdings Co., Ltd., and China United Network Communications Limited.

Rong Luo, Executive Vice President

Rong Luo has served as Baidu's Executive Vice President in charge of the Baidu Mobile Ecosystem Group since October 2024. He previously served as Baidu's Chief Financial Officer from November 2021 to October 2024. Before joining Baidu in 2021, Dr. Luo was the chief financial officer of TAL Education Group, an NYSE-listed company, from November 2014 to October 2021, and before that, the CFO of eLong Inc. from 2013 to 2014. His career also includes various financial management positions at Lenovo Group and Microsoft.

The aggressive expansion of ByteDance's Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok) into local services, e-commerce, and broader information discovery is an emerging threat. Douyin is actively capturing user attention and transaction volume across categories like food delivery, group buying, hotel bookings, and direct product sales. This directly challenges Baidu's core search advertising revenue by diverting user traffic and advertising spend, and also impacts Baidu's strategic growth initiatives in local services and its "super app" ambitions. Users increasingly turn to Douyin for discovery and transactions in these areas, potentially bypassing Baidu's traditional search engine and mapping products.

Baidu (BIDU) operates in several significant addressable markets, primarily within China, for its main products and services:

Search Engine (Baidu App)

Baidu holds a dominant position in China's search engine market. As of July 2025, Baidu's market share across all platforms in China was 56.23%, with its mobile search market share reaching 71.91%. The country's internet user base is substantial, with nearly 1.1 billion users, and 75% of them utilize search engines for product and service discovery, contributing to one of the world's largest consumer markets. While a specific total market valuation for the search engine market isn't provided, online advertising from its core search business accounts for over half of Baidu's revenue.

AI Cloud Services (Baidu AI Cloud)

The addressable market for Baidu's AI Cloud services is within China. In 2024, China's public cloud services market for AI reached US$2.7 billion, demonstrating a 55% year-on-year growth. Baidu and Alibaba were leading players in this market, each holding approximately a 25% share in 2024. Within AI cloud services, the computer vision segment alone grew 34% to 8.1 billion yuan (approximately US$1.12 billion) in 2024, and machine learning platforms surged 163.8% to 5.29 billion yuan (approximately US$0.73 billion) in the same year.

Autonomous Driving (Apollo Go)

Baidu's autonomous driving initiatives, such as Apollo Go, primarily target the Chinese market, with a significant global outlook. China's self-driving taxi services market is projected to exceed 1.3 trillion yuan (US$181.5 billion) by 2030, representing 60% of the country's ride-hailing market. More broadly, the autonomous vehicle market in China is expected to grow from US$17.23 billion in 2024 to US$170.57 billion by 2033. McKinsey & Company further forecasts China to become the world's largest market for self-driving vehicles, with revenue from vehicles and mobility services surpassing $500 billion by 2030. The global robotaxi market is also anticipated to reach $45.7 billion by 2030.

Video Streaming (iQIYI)

Baidu's video streaming service, iQIYI, operates within the Chinese subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) market. In 2022, China's SVoD market generated over $10 billion in subscription revenue, making it the second country globally, after the USA, to reach this threshold. iQIYI is recognized as one of the largest online video platforms globally, with over 500 million monthly active users and nearly 6 billion hours of content consumed each month. iQIYI's revenue in 2024 was 29.23 billion yuan (approximately US$4 billion).

Baidu (BIDU) is poised for future revenue growth over the next 2-3 years, primarily driven by its strategic investments and advancements in artificial intelligence. The key drivers are:

1. Growth in AI Cloud Services: Baidu's AI Cloud business is a significant and rapidly expanding revenue stream. The company has demonstrated robust growth in this segment, with its AI Cloud revenue surging 42% year-over-year in Q1 2025 and 27% year-over-year in Q2 2025. This growth is fueled by strong enterprise demand for model hosting, inference services, and subscriptions, leveraging Baidu's comprehensive 4-layer AI architecture and cost-effective AI Cloud offerings.

2. Monetization and Global Expansion of Autonomous Driving (Apollo Go): Baidu's autonomous driving platform, Apollo Go, is expected to be a major contributor to future revenue. The company aims for its robotaxi unit economics to break even by the fourth quarter of 2024 and achieve profitability by 2025. Apollo Go is expanding its services both domestically and internationally, with plans to deploy thousands of vehicles and enter new markets such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Germany, and the UK through strategic partnerships. The increasing volume of driverless rides, which grew 148% year-over-year in Q2 2025, and the deployment of cost-efficient RT6 autonomous vehicles, underscore its potential for revenue growth.

3. Revenue Contribution from Generative AI (ERNIE Bot) and AI-powered Search: Baidu's generative AI large language model, ERNIE Bot, and its integration into search are key areas for future revenue generation. ERNIE Bot has rapidly expanded its user base, reaching over 200 million users and 85,000 corporate clients as of April 2024, with its API being used 200 million times daily. CEO Robin Li anticipates ERNIE Bot and other AI models will generate several billion yuan in incremental revenue in 2024. Furthermore, Baidu is fundamentally restructuring its core search engine to incorporate AI-generated content, with approximately 50% of total mobile searches including such content in Q2 2025, enhancing the monetization potential of its mobile ecosystem.

Share Repurchases

• Baidu authorized a new share repurchase program of up to $5 billion in February 2023, effective through December 31, 2025.
• In December 2020, Baidu upsized its 2020 Share Repurchase Program from $3 billion to $4.5 billion, effective through December 31, 2022.
• The 2020 share repurchase program was initially announced at $1 billion in May 2020, and then increased to $3 billion in August 2020.

Outbound Investments

• Baidu acquired Huanju Times Group's live streaming business for $3.6 billion in November 2020.
• Through its investment arms, Baidu has made a significant number of investments, with artificial intelligence (AI) being its most favored sector, accounting for 107 out of 491 total investment deals from 2006 to March 2025.
• Baidu acquired GBI, a provider of drugs data, market research, and patient voice services, in February 2023.

Capital Expenditures

• Baidu's capital expenditures were $782 million in 2020, $1,710 million in 2021, $1,201 million in 2022, $1,576 million in 2023, and $1,114 million in 2024.
• In the second quarter of 2025, capital expenditures rose to $3.8 billion, an increase of over 80% from $2.1 billion a year earlier.
• The primary focus of capital expenditures is on artificial intelligence infrastructure, including cloud computing, AI platforms, chipsets, data centers, and autonomous driving.