Baidu jumps after strong earnings

Baidu.com is hoping to exploit growing use of the internet in China

Chinese search engine Baidu.com has seen its shares rise 12.4% in late New York trade after posting better-than-expected quarterly profits.

Baidu, dubbed the Chinese Google, said earnings over the third quarter were 24.5m yuan ($3m; £1.75m), compared with 6.4m yuan a year previously.

The firm also recorded a 167% rise in revenues to 114.9m yuan.

In October Baidu, facing competition from Yahoo and Google, said fourth quarter revenues would be 102m yuan.

'Growing competition'

In after-the-bell trading on Wall Street on Monday evening, Baidu saw its shares rise by $6.39 to trade at $58.08.

Baidu is well placed to benefit from the increasing number of Chinese people logging on to the internet, despite growing competition from Google and Yahoo in its home market.

Since Baidu's flotation in August, the US pair have attempted to grab a bigger chunk of China's growing internet market, which has more than 100 million people online.

"Not only did they [Baidu] grow their revenues more than people expected, but I think the earnings that they delivered were particularly strong, especially given that the company is facing growing competition," said analyst Jason Brueschke of Citigroup in Hong Kong.