(Yicai Global) Aug. 1 -- Baidu's profit jumped a better-than-expected 45 percent in the second quarter thanks to robust advertising sales growth at the company's search engine business.

Net income was CNY6.4 billion (USD3.81 billion) in the three months ended June, compared with a year earlier, the Beijing-based tech giant said in a statement today. Revenue climbed 32 percent to CNY26 billion on the back of a 28 percent gain in sales at Baidu Core, the firm's combined search and transaction services, to CNY20 billion.

The results highlighted Baidu's recovery as revenue gained for a sixth consecutive quarter. Despite a number of senior managers having left the firm over the last two years, ad sales, internet traffic and artificial intelligence programs helped buoy performance. The company expects the positive momentum to continue into the third quarter, forecasting revenue of between CNY27.4 billion and CNY28.8 billion, representing an annual increase of 23 percent to 30 percent.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robin Li cited "significant revenue growth at our search business" for the strong earnings performance and identified "AI-driven monetization capabilities and strong traffic and commercialization momentum" as drivers.

Net income per American depositary share stood at CNY18.14 (USD2.66) in the second quarter. Twenty Wall Street analysts predicted average earnings per share of USD2.62, Yahoo Finance reported.

Baidu's shares fell 1.7 percent to USD247.18 on the Nasdaq market yesterday as investors cashed out before the company released its earnings report. The stock started rising in after-hours trading, gaining as much as 4.5 percent.

Referring to the DuerOs digital assistant, one of Baidu's AI programs, Li said "we are glad to see that our Xiaodu series smart speakers and relevant products are acclaimed by consumers and DuerOS voice queries exceeded 400 million in June, almost doubling the level three months ago." He also said the firm had rolled out two level four commercial vehicles under its Apollo driverless car program in collaboration with King Long Motor and Neolix Technology.

"These strong developments indicate that we have been successful in implementing our strategies," Li added.

Editor: Emmi Laine