Baidu’s US$66bil dive knocks it out of China’s top five Internet companies

Baidu has struggled to fend off competition from the likes of Tencent and ByteDance Inc, both of which are luring smartphone-savvy consumers and advertisers to their popular mini-video and social media apps. — Bloomberg

Baidu Inc has dropped off the list of China’s five most valuable Internet companies, underscoring the challenges facing the search giant from a weakening economy to intensifying competition.

NetEase Inc, China’s second-largest gaming house, has overtaken Baidu in market value after posting better-than-expected quarterly earnings last week. Shares of NetEase have gained 11% this year, while Baidu’s plunged 40%. The latter company, once touted as a member of China’s internet triumvirate alongside Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd, has bled US$66bil (RM276.82bil) of capitalisation since its peak in May 2018 – the equivalent of one Morgan Stanley.