Baidu profit edges up 1.3 percent on higher costs
Baidu profit edges up 1.3 percent on higher costs for building mobile business
BEIJING (AP) -- Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular search engine, says its quarterly profit rose 1.3 percent amid higher costs for development and management as its fledgling mobile business grew.
The Beijing-based company said Wednesday it earned 3 billion ($498 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30. Revenue rose 42.3 percent to 8.9 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) but sales and administrative costs more than doubled, due mostly to mobile-related expenses. Development costs rose 77.5 percent.
China's population of Internet users grew 10 percent over the past year to 591 million people as of the end of June. The number of users who surf the Web on wireless devices rose at double that rate, climbing 20 percent to 464 million.
