Baidu falls further behind among China’s biggest tech firms as Meituan, NetEase overtake in market value

Baidu has seen its market valuation stagnate even as Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings – which, along with Baidu are referred to by the acronym BAT – surged ahead as China’s Internet population embraced mobile payments and shopped, messaged and sought entertainment on their smartphones. — Reuters

Baidu Inc. has fallen out of the top five most valuable publicly traded Chinese Internet companies after its market capitalisation slid below that of gaming and e-commerce pioneer NetEase Inc.

After a 40% slide in its share price this year, Baidu’s market valuation stood at US$33.2bil (RM139.18bil) at the close of trading on Wednesday, compared with US$33.5bil (RM140.44bil) for NetEase, whose shares have risen by 11.4% in the same period. Meituan Dianping has surged 45% this year to be valued at US$46.7bil (RM195.78bil). Baidu declined to comment on its market valuation.