HONG KONG: Baidu Inc, China’s leading Internet search company, set off alarm bells on Wall Street after a disappointing second-quarter revenue forecast raised doubts on its growth prospects and knocked down its shares more than 10% after hours.
The tepid outlook from Baidu, which had consistently blown past investors’ expectations thus far, brought up questions on whether emerging competition from the likes of Alibaba Group would wear it down and if it could make a success of recent moves into other lucrative Internet sectors such as e-commerce.