China's top search engine, Baidu, believes that it is in an ideal position to profit from Google's threat to exit the country.
The company, which already controls more than 60 per cent of its native search market, made the claim as it announced better-than-expected earnings for the last quarter of 2009.
Baidu’s stock has been rising since Google threatened in January to quit China over hacking and censorship concerns.
Alongside the strong results, Baidu also said the outlook for the immediate future was bright, and said that its recently rolled-out Phoenix Nest advertising system had not badly affected revenue.
Shen Haoyu, senior vice president of business operations, was reported by Reuters as saying that the impact of the Phoenix Nest transition had been less than the company previously expected.
Baidu, which grew out of an experimental search engine, Rankdex, was formed by Robin Li in 1999. The company co-operates with Beijing censors and bars politically sensitive results from its search listings.
“We have not factored in any potential material change in the competitive landscape (into our Q1 forecasts), but we are seeing that our customers’ and partners’ confidence in Baidu is certainly higher,” said Li, now the company’s chief executive.
Baidu’s quarterly revenue totaled $184.7 million, above the average $180 million estimated by analysts.