Baidu released its financial report for the third quarter of 2024, with total revenue reaching 33.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3%, and net profit of 7.6 billion yuan. During the financial report conference call, Baidu executives gave a detailed interpretation of the financial report and focused on the latest progress and future plans of the Wenxin model. This financial report interpretation not only covers financial data, but also deeply discusses Baidu's technological breakthroughs and strategic layout in the field of artificial intelligence, providing valuable reference information for investors and the industry.
Baidu announced its financial report for the third quarter of 2024 yesterday, showing that total revenue reached 33.6 billion yuan, a 3% decrease from the same period last year. In terms of net profit, the net profit attributable to Baidu was RMB 7.6 billion, while the net profit calculated according to non-GAAP was RMB 5.9 billion.
In the subsequent financial report conference call, Baidu's top managers, including Chairman and CEO Robin Li, Mobile Ecosystem Business Group President Luo Rong, Intelligent Cloud Business Group President Shen Dou, and Acting CFO He Junjie, gave a detailed interpretation of the key points of the financial report. and answered questions from analysts.
Robin Li emphasized Baidu's continuous improvement in basic model capabilities during the meeting, especially the development of flagship models. He mentioned that since the launch of Wen Xinyiyan in March last year, Baidu has been continuously optimizing its basic model capabilities. In October last year, Baidu launched Wenxin 4.0, China’s first GPT-4-like model with world-leading capabilities. In June this year, Baidu further launched Wenxin 4.0 Turbo with better performance. Robin Li said that Baidu plans to launch a new version of Wenxin (Ernie) early next year to further consolidate the company's leadership in the field of basic models.
Baidu's model development strategy is obviously application-oriented. Robin Li believes that basic models only have real value when they can support a wide range of applications that meet user needs. Over the past 18 months, Baidu's model development has been focused on solving market needs and practical problems, which has enabled Baidu to make significant progress in reducing model "illusions" and improving accuracy. Baidu also launched a series of customized models designed to make Wenxin models easier to use and less expensive, while improving performance, reducing inference costs, and increasing response speed.
Robin Li also mentioned that Baidu has expanded its visual basic model capabilities to the field of autonomous driving to further consolidate the company's leading position in this field. Currently, Baidu is also actively exploring multi-modal capabilities and applications based on the Wenxin language model, with a view to creating more collaborative value and opening up new possibilities in various fields. In terms of resource allocation, Baidu is very cautious and optimizes its basic model to maximize the impact on the business, which helps Baidu maintain its market leadership.
All in all, Baidu demonstrated its continued investment and technical strength in the field of artificial intelligence in its financial report, and is confident in its future development. The continuous iteration and application implementation of the Wenxin large model will become a key factor in Baidu's future competitiveness. Baidu will continue to focus on technological innovation and commercialization to provide users with better services.