Baidu also disclosed the progress of its strategic cooperation with Geely.
Baidu released its unaudited financial report for 4Q 2020 and fiscal 2020 on February 17. Data shows that Baidu achieved a revenue of CNY 30.3 billion in the fourth quarter and net profit (non US GAAP) attributable to Baidu reached CNY 6.9 billion, exceeding market expectations for four consecutive quarters. Baidu's total revenue was CNY 107.1 billion, and its net profit (non US GAAP) was CNY 22 billion in fiscal 2020.
Baidu's CEO Robin Li said that the new brand in collaboration with Geely's electric vehicle and its CEO have been confirmed.
At present, Baidu and Geely hope to manufacture an electric vehicle that is integrated with the latest technology to benefit the market and break the conservative view from traditional automobile manufacturers.
Baidu said it hired a management team with strong background and plan to register a brand for a new car. At present, it is estimated that it will take about three years from the research and development stage to the official launch of the car;
Baidu expects the electric vehicle co-developed with Geely to bring great benefits to Apollo's automatic driving technology.
At the same time, Baidu said the gross profit margin of its cloud products has been generally improved. Some products have a stable user base, and the degree of systematization of products is stronger.
According to Shen Dou, the Senior Vice President, one of Baidu's major intelligent cloud services is enterprise intelligent cloud service. The factors that affect gross margin include business price, patent price and so on. The gross margin will gradually increase as the products become more mature. Another major cloud business is intelligent transportation. Gross profit rate will also be affected by many factors, such as product cycle and software integration.