(Yicai Global) May 19 -- Baidu logged a 25 percent leap in revenue for the first quarter from the same period last year. The Chinese internet giant had previously said it expected revenue to grow between 15 percent and 26 percent that quarter, driven by its core search business and cloud services.

The company raked in USD4.29 billion in revenue in the three months ended March 31, the Beijing-based firm said in its latest earnings report released yesterday. Profit surged 39 percent over the period to USD6.56 million.

For the second quarter, Baidu anticipates revenue to grow between 14 percent and 25 percent year on year to between USD4.5 billion and USD5 billion, it said.

“We are delighted to bring innovation to many sectors, including marketing clouds, enterprise clouds, intelligent transportation, autonomous driving, smart assistants and artificial intelligence chips, through our decade-long investment in AI,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Robin Li.

“With AI powering the next stage of technology growth, many Baidu alumni have rejoined us, and our employees are energized from working on intelligent computing that can improve daily life and make the complex world simpler,” he added.

Baidu Core, which includes its core search engine services and products from the firm’s new AI initiatives, delivered a strong first quarter with revenue growing 34 percent year over year to USD3.13 billion, the report said. Its non-advertising revenue saw a 70 percent leap.

Online marketing revenue advanced 27 percent to USD2.48 billion. Non-marketing revenue jumped 70 percent to USD646 million, driven by its cloud business and other services. Short video platform iQIYI brought in USD1.22 billion, a gain of 4 percent.

The Baidu app had 558 million monthly active users, over 75 percent of which logged in daily. BJH publisher accounts grew 40 percent to 4.2 million. Its Smart Mini Programs had 416 million MAUs, and the number of smart mini programs increased by 74 percent from a year ago.

Baidu’s US stock [NASDAQ:BIDU] closed down 0.17 percent yesterday at USD188.88. Its Hong Kong share price [HKG:9888] closed up 2.02 percent yesterday at HKD186.70 (USD24). The Hong Kong bourse is closed for trading today.

Editor: Kim Taylor