-- Baidu Inc.’s revenue grew at the slowest pace in more than a year, as China’s flagging economy put pressure on its core advertising business.Xi Tells Putin China-Russia Ties Should Last ‘Generations’
But it could take years before Baidu can comfortably reduce its reliance on search ads, one of the biggest casualties of China’s economic downturn. After an initial rally around the time Ernie emerged, Baidu’s shares have struggled to sustain their momentum. Still, Baidu expects Ernie to contribute several billion yuan of additional sales through advertising and cloud services this year. With 200 million registered users, its offering is one of China’s most popular and advanced AI models among some 100 domestic competitors, founder Robin Li said at a Shenzhen event last month. That’s thanks to “countless trials and errors” over the past year, he said.