Chinese search giant Baidu says quarterly profit up 16 percent

BEIJING (AP) — Baidu Inc., which operates China’s most popular Internet search engine, says its quarterly profit rose 16 percent but growth slowed as it spent more to attract users.

The Beijing-based company said Thursday it earned 3.2 billion yuan ($520.4 million) in the three months ending Dec. 31. Revenue rose 47.5 percent to 14 billion yuan ($2.3 billion).

Profit growth declined from the previous quarter’s 27 percent as Baidu’s spending on promoting mobile services soared by 89.2 percent over a year earlier.

Chinese Internet companies are spending heavily to attract users as they shift quickly to going online with smartphones and other wireless devices.

Baidu said revenue from mobile services passed that of its traditional desktop personal computer business for the first time in December.