(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-14 16:15

BEIJING -- Baidu.com Inc., China's leading Internet search engine, said in a statement on Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit surged 79 percent year-on-year to 219.8 million yuan (about 30.6 million US dollars).

The performance exceeded analysts' expectations: the average estimate was for fourth-quarter profits of 184.1 million yuan.

Online marketing revenues topped 569.6 million yuan in the quarter, an increase of 111.2 percent from a year earlier. These revenues contributed to the profit surge

For 2007 as a whole, net profit rose 108 percent to 629 million yuan while revenues rose 110 percent to 1.74 billion yuan, according to the statement.

Baidu forecast its first-quarter revenues would reach 533 million yuan to 548 million yuan, which would be up 93 percent to 99 percent from a year earlier.

Nasdaq-listed Baidu is often referred to as China's version of Google due to the Chinese-language search engine's soaring popularity and profits.