Chinese search leader Baidu increased its Q1 net 23.5% even as advertisers cut their spending, the company announced Monday.
It posted income of 810.7 million yuan ($118.6 million). Although revenue grew a healthy 41.5% to 810.2 million yuan, average ad spend per customer decreased 22.2% to 4,400 yuan.
"Despite the typical seasonality associated with the Chinese New Year holiday and overall macro economic challenges, we were able to deliver strong results," said Baidu CEO Robin Li.
"In this uncertain economic environment, we see tremendous opportunity to reinforce to our customers the inherent advantages of our pay-for-performance platform."
Traffic acquisition costs grew to 15.3% of revenues, compared to 13.3% last year. The customer base grew to 185,000,
Baidu expects to generate 1.07-1.110 billion yuan in revenue in Q2, a sequential increase of between 32% and 36%.