Baidu reports a 40% revenue increase further outstripping Google in China

 On Monday top Chinese search engine Baidu reported a 40% increase in its net income. The figures come as the company is further strengthening its competitive position in the face of challenges posed by Google.

"Today more than ever Baidu is the number one search engine in China," said company CEO Robin Li in a call with analysts.

At the moment the rising focus for the company is mobile search. Last week it was announced that Baidu is partnering with local mobile carrier Unicom to invade as much territory of mobile search market as possible, which certainly was a deliberate blow to Google.

Chinese web search market is ¾ dominated by Baidu with the market share increasing further according to the local analysts. And though Google occupies strong second position reports provided by the Chinese government forecast Baidu’s dominance will continue to rise as it is more popular among new Internet users in the country, who often come from rural areas.

For the three months through September Baidu reported net income of 493 million yuan (US$72 million), 42% up from the same period in the previous year with the revenue increase of about 40% to 1.28 billion yuan.