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Chinese search engine Baidu Inc on Thursday said it benefited from Google's partial exit from the country and anticipates more customer gains in the next few quarters.
Analysts, however, said that Google's bleeding might slow in the second quarter, as mainland users' continued access to the Google Hong Kong site may ease advertisers' concerns.
Robin Lee, chief executive of Baidu, said the company benefited from Google's decision to move its search engine to Hong Kong last month. "We have seen more confidence and higher customer loyalty since the end of last quarter," Lee said during a conference call on Thursday.
Baidu also benefited from the overall market growth and the deployment of its new online advertising platform "Phoenix Nest".
The company said on Wednesday that its profit more than doubled in the first three months of this year. Net income for the period rose to 480.5 million yuan ($70.4 million), from 181.1 million yuan a year ago.
Incidentally, this is the first earnings report from Baidu after its closest rival Google said in March that it was moving its search engine on the mainland to Hong Kong.
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