Reading special draft | Ten years of "smashing money" exceeding 100 billion yuan, what is the gain of Baidu AI?

Baidu continues to make investment in R & D investment, with a proportion of core R & D expenses in the seven consecutive quarters of more than 20%. Why is it so willing to smash money?

In this issue, let's talk about the technology research and development of Baidu AI.

Baidu's foundation comes from the financial report in the second quarter. The report showed that revenue was 29.6 billion yuan, an increase of 3%year -on -year, and 43%month -on -month, super market expectations. Goldman Sachs analysis believes that advertisements focusing on transactions are more flexible, and it is better to resist the adverse factors of advertising downward than other peers.

At the first quarter of 2021, Li Yanhong once set the goal of "Baidu's non -advertising revenue will exceed advertising revenue in the next three years." Judging from this year, Baidu's advertising revenue is still in the core position. But the situation changes: advertising revenue accounted for 58%of the revenue ratio in the second quarter, lower than 60%of the same period last year; non -advertising revenue accounted for nearly 21%, an increase of 5%year -on -year. These 5%of the increasing non -advertising revenue are mainly due to the intelligent cloud business that shoulders the heavy responsibility of Baidu's second growth curve.

At the Baidu World Conference held in July this year, Baidu released the sixth generation of production unmanned vehicles. Picture source: Baidu

Looking back, Baidu has cultivated in the field of artificial intelligence for ten years, with a cumulative investment in R & D billion yuan, and its annual R & D cost rate is above 15%. The scale of Baidu's revenue also increased from 22.3 billion yuan in 2012 to 124.5 billion yuan in 2021. But in the past ten years, Baidu's market value has not risen, which is lower than many super Internet platforms. One of the important reasons is that the prospect of profitability in the field of artificial intelligence is unclear, but investment is a bottomless hole. According to Baidu Li Yanhong's words, in the field of artificial intelligence, for a long time and high amount of investment, in exchange for "not grounding."

However, with the siege of Baidu Smart Cloud, the market smells opportunities. In the past ten years, Baidu has established the entire AI service center of Baidu's brain, and relies on this center to release the ability of AI technology to serve in manufacturing enterprises. Although the smallest share of the "China Four Clouds" composed of Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, and Tencent Cloud, the growth rate has led the peers. In the past eight quarters, Baidu's smart cloud revenue rate has remained above 30%. The initial results of this strategic change have also made the commercialization route of non -advertising business such as Baidu Smart Cloud+Autonomous Driving gradually clearly clear.

Baidu "Radish Running" is driving on the streets of Shenzhen. Picture source: Shenzhen Business Daily

In the automotive manufacturing industry, from head companies such as Geely and SAIC to Weilai and ideal new vehicle construction forces, they have established in -depth cooperation with Baidu Smart Cloud. In the field of intelligent transportation, Baidu has won multiple highway projects and urban road projects, and has been approved to become a pilot unit of the Ministry of Transportation. In terms of intelligent driving business, the cumulative order volume of "radish fast running" reached 1 million orders, steadily sitting in the world's largest autonomous driving service provider.

If Baidu wants to realize what Li Yanhong said in 2024, "non -advertising income exceeds advertising income", this year is probably a major turnaround!

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