Baidu Hammers Earnings

I guess Baidu is well on the way to being the Google of China even though Google has admitted that they are going to stay in China.

Sales rose 39.8% to $184.7 million, 2.6% over views, as customers adopted Baidu's new "Phoenix Nest," advertising platform.

"This year ended on a positive note as Phoenix Nest's better-than-anticipated performance helped us to exceed expectations for the fourth quarter," said Baidu CEO Robin Li, in a statement released after the market closed.

For its first quarter Baidu said it expects sales of between $176 million and $181 million. Analysts expected $170.23 million.

I like that revenue estimate increase as well. What was really interesting was how various Chinese interviewed about Google said that they wouldn't miss it or barely use it. It would be interesting to see the market share break down going forward.