China's Baidu says revenue fell 1% in 2022

Chinese search giant Baidu reported Wednesday that revenue fell by one per cent in 2022, after a gruelling year that hit tech-sector profits and slowed the world's second-largest economy.

The firm posted revenue of 123.7 billion yuan ($17.9 billion) for the latest fiscal year, down from 124.5 billion in 2021.

"2022 was a challenging year, but we used this period to prepare the company for better times," CEO Robin Li said.

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"In 2023, we believe we have a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue growth and we are now well positioned to make use of the opportunities that China's economic recovery offers us," he said.

The company, which operates China's biggest online search engine, identified long-term investments in artificial intelligence (AI) as part of its growth plans.

"We are poised to capitalise on the imminent inflection point in AI, unlocking exciting new opportunities across our entire business portfolio - from mobile ecosystem to AI Cloud, autonomous driving, smart devices, and beyond," Li said.

Baidu said this month it was developing an AI-powered chatbot as tech giants rush to match the success of ChatGPT, a hugely popular language app that has sparked a gold rush in AI technology.

Internal testing of the service, named "Ernie Bot", is expected to be completed in March.

Baidu has diversified in recent years into artificial intelligence, cloud computing and autonomous driving technologies as advertising revenue remained sluggish.

It is one of several Chinese tech titans, including Alibaba, Tencent and Netease, racing to expand after Beijing abruptly dropped its strict Covid rules in December and began easing a bruising crackdown on the sector.

Beijing had gotten tough on the tech industry since late 2020 as part of an effort to curb monopolistic practices and promote competition between internet platforms.

The strategy of record fines, torched IPOs and probes into major firms hit revenues and placed further strain on the ailing economy.

Combined revenue at China's internet companies shrank by just over one per cent to 1.46 trillion yuan in 2022, the first contraction in almost a decade, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.