Baidu reports strong growth in third quarter

China's Internet search giant Baidu Inc reported strong growth in the third quarter of the year. But its mobile business, despite rapid growth, still lags behind computers in terms of monetization.

Baidu's revenue in Q3 2013 increased 42.3 percent year-on-year to 8.89 billion yuan ($1.45 billion). The company's operating profit in the third quarter increased 1.2 percent year-on-year to 3.34 billion yuan. Net income in the quarter that ended on Sept 30 was 3.05 billion yuan, an increase of 1.3 percent from the corresponding period in 2012.

Baidu said it expects to generate total revenues ranging from 9.22 billion to 9.48 billion yuan in the fourth quarter, which would be a year-on-year increase of between 45.5 percent and 49.6 percent.

Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu, said that the company was delighted to maintain strong momentum in Q3. "We were pleased to see strong results in the third quarter as revenue remained on a solid growth trajectory," Li said.

"Mobile search revenues in particular continued to grow at an exciting pace as more of our customers recognize the benefits of mobile marketing on the Baidu platform," he said.

He said mobile monetization still lags behind Baidu's PC business.

"We see the gap is closing quickly. But we don't know for sure exactly when (mobile business) will catch up with PC business. The top priority for now is to provide best user experience so more people will use the Baidu search app to find information and services," Li said.