-Baidu benefits from Google's partial retreat from China.(Financial report)(Brief article)

CORPORATE IT UPDATE-(C)1995-2011 M2 COMMUNICATIONS

1 February 2011 -- Chinese online search engine Baidu (FRA:B1C) has benefited from Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) partial withdrawal from the mainland market, snatching big advertising clients, which buoyed its fourth-quarter profits and revenues, the Financial Times reports.

On Monday, the Chinese company announced revenues of CNY2.451bn (USD372m/EUR271m) for the final quarter of 2010, up by 94.4% year-on-year. Net income surged by 171% to CNY1.161bn.

The results, ahead of expectations, reflected partially Google's decision to redirect its mainland searches to its Hong Kong website, a move that shrank its share of Internet search revenues in China, while Baidu expanded its grip to 75.5% in the final quarter of 2010.

The company expects to keep the pace of growth in the current quarter.

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