Baidu quarterly revenue beats, to buy JOYY's domestic live streaming business for 3.6 billion

ReutersNov 17, 2020 04:15:16 IST

(Reuters) - China's Baidu Inc reported third-quarter revenue above market expectations on Monday and said it would buy JOYY Inc's video-based live streaming business in China for about $3.6 billion (£2.8 billion), sending its shares up marginally after the bell.

The quarter benefited from higher paid subscribers on Baidu's video streaming service iQIYI and a recovery in ad spending by businesses on its core search engine platform.

As China's economy gradually emerges out of the COVID-19 slump, ad spending by businesses have also picked up from their lows during the peak of the pandemic. In September, China's industrial output rose https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-activity-idUSKBN27W0BB faster than expected and retail sales gained.

Subscribers for iQIYI reached 104.8 million in September and membership revenue rose 7%, from a year earlier, as the pandemic strengthened the consumer shift to streaming platforms from cable or satellite TV.

The company's total revenue rose 1% to 28.23 billion yuan (£3.25 billion) in the quarter ended Sept.30. Analysts on average had expected revenue of 27.45 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Shailesh Kuber)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.