Earnings: Baidu’s Profits Triple; Shares Drop on Costs

Baidu.com, China’s biggest search engine, said net income almost tripled after it sold more ads, but the shares dropped 15 percent on concern expenses are rising too quickly. Net income rose to 8.5 million yuan ($1.05 million) from 2.94 million yuan a year earlier. Sales more than doubled to 88.9 million yuan.

But because of fierce competition against the likes of Google and Yahoo, costs surged 43 percent from Q2, causing profit to drop 29 percent.

In a related story, the site has added a disclaimer to MP3 music search following lawsuits accusing the company of helping visitors illegally obtain copyright music. A Beijing court ordered Baidu.com last month to pay $8,400 and block links to pirated copies of songs copyrighted by recording company Shanghai Push.

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