Baidu's entertainment platform, iQiyi, was a key driver behind the Chinese tech giant's success in beating analyst expectations of revenue during the fourth quarter of 2018.
According to The Drum, Baidu reported Q4 total revenues of $3.96 billion, which is equivalent to a 22 percent increase year-on-year. These figures were particularly boosted by the company's online marketing department earnings including news, search, and video apps on iQiyi.
While iQiyi also pushed content costs for Baidu, analysts pointed out that the popular video platform helped push the search engine mammoth's other arms to account for an increase of 104 percent in earnings compared to 2017.
The latest data revealed that Baidu's online video arm added over 36 million subscribers last year. The platform now boasts of over 87 million subscribers to date.
Tech Crunch pointed out that the video platform's burn out in costs has paid off in the form of paying subscribers. 98.5 percent of the platform's users are paying for content despite the fact that Chinese consumers have been enjoying free content for many years.
In total, China's leading search engine hauled in $14.88 billion or 102.3 billion yuan in total revenues last year. The figures account for a significant 28 percent increase from 2017's records.
Aside from iQiyi's success last year, financial experts said Baidu's strong figures during the fourth quarter were propelled by the tech firm's continued focus on artificial intelligence (AI) investments, particularly in smart transportation and autonomous driving.
CEO Robin Li said of the developments, "2018 was a pivotal year for Baidu, as we worked on deploying AI technologies beyond search to feed, voice assistant, AI solutions and autonomous driving, to enable more users, customers and partners to benefit from Baidu's AI."
Last week, CB Insights released a report on companies that invested heavily on AI last year. According to Quartz, Baidu Ventures was 2018's most active venture capital investor in the sect. The Beijing-based tech company invested an estimated $1.2 billion in 53 different companies. 13 of the said deals were projects centered on AI.
Among the companies, Baidu Ventures invested in last year are Engine Biosciences and Atomwise. The former is a firm that works on discovering new drugs through machine learning application. Atomwise, on the other hand, focuses on deep learning to produce drug discovery systems that will benefit the biotech industry.
Chief Financial Officer, Herman Yu stressed the importance of investing in diversified projects. He said the company's investments over the past months will "give Baidu a balanced portfolio."
