Baidu: Using AI to Drive a Revaluation of Value

Telecommunications companies are the main entities in the communication industry market and are key carriers of the deep integration of communication technology innovation and industry development. Their strategic layout, technological breakthroughs, and market performance directly reflect the actual industry development and evolution trends. The “Communication Industry News” all-media platform relies on long-term accumulated industry research and comprehensive monitoring capabilities. Based on the “2025 Communication Industry Annual Development Report,” it systematically analyzes the industry development trends for 2025 and creates the “2025 Communication Industry Panorama Map.” The industry report selects 20 representative companies with technological benchmarks and ecological influence as observation samples. It analyzes them from six dimensions: performance fundamentals, technological innovation, market competitiveness, supply chain collaboration, internationalization process, and public opinion and social evaluation, and provides an annual development radar chart. This issue features the benchmark enterprise monitored in the industry report—Baidu.

Company Name: Baidu

Field: AI Platform

Annual Keyword: AI Strategy

Annual Competitiveness: ★★★★

In the Year of the Horse Spring Festival, Baidu launched a Spring Festival red envelope activity with a total amount of 500 million yuan. This activity innovatively linked red envelope collection with AI functions. From January 26 to March 12, users who use Wenxin Assistant on the Baidu APP have the chance to receive cash red envelopes. Data shows that since the launch, nearly 50 million users have participated in grabbing red envelopes through AI features such as “Photo Search for Everything” and “AIGC Video Creation.”

In recent years, AI technology has driven the iteration of the internet entry concept, shifting from “apps that gather traffic” to “multimodal intelligent assistants.” Wenxin Assistant, launched as an AI smart assistant on the Baidu APP, has become an important tool for Baidu to accelerate its AI entry point. Relying on Wenxin Large Model and the “Baidu Orion” AI engine, Wenxin Assistant deeply reconstructs search services and AI functions. It is an intelligent assistant integrating deep thinking, multimodal interaction, and full-scenario services.

By 2025, Baidu’s performance exceeded expectations, showing significant changes. Its core profitability has strengthened, and it has achieved notable results in artificial intelligence, intelligent cloud, and autonomous driving, transitioning from a traditional search company to an enterprise empowering thousands of industries with AI.

Amid the global trend of massive AI investment, Baidu has entered a harvest period thanks to over a decade of persistent AI investment and strategic focus. Since releasing Wenxin Yiyan in March 2023, Baidu’s AI investments have exceeded 100 billion yuan. In the third quarter, its AI business revenue grew rapidly by over 50%. Among them, AI cloud revenue increased by 33% year-on-year; AI application revenue reached 2.6 billion yuan; AI-native marketing services revenue grew by 262% year-on-year to 2.8 billion yuan. Baidu will continue to increase AI investments in the future.

At the Baidu World Conference on November 13, Baidu founder Robin Li mentioned that the first product to undergo reconstruction was search, and among all global search engines, Baidu is the most aggressive in AI transformation. According to the third-quarter report from research firm QuestMobile, as of September, Baidu AI search monthly active users increased by 18.63% quarter-over-quarter to 382 million, ranking first in the domestic AI search industry for three consecutive quarters. The average daily AI-generated content per Baidu search user has exceeded ten million. Currently, 625 vendors have integrated Baidu Search API through Baidu Cloud.

AI-native marketing services, including digital humans and intelligent agents, are opening a new growth curve for Baidu’s online marketing business. During this year’s Double 11 shopping festival, Baidu HuiBo Xing digital human sales GMV increased by 91% year-on-year, the number of live broadcast rooms grew by 119%, and 83% of hosts used digital humans.

As Baidu’s technological potential gradually turns into a definitive competitive advantage, a profound revaluation of value is also underway.

In 2025, Baidu’s autonomous driving business performed outstandingly. Baidu’s robotaxi service, “Luobo Kuaipao,” delivered 3.1 million autonomous driving operation orders in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 212%. By October this year, Luobo Kuaipao covered 22 cities, achieving 100% autonomous driving in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other cities.

Beyond empowering individual users, Baidu AI’s application on the B-side, especially its exploration to support industries, has made further breakthroughs. At the Baidu World Conference, the world’s first commercially available self-evolving intelligent agent, “Baidu Famu,” was officially unveiled. Within hours, over 1,000 companies applied for access and testing, covering industries such as transportation, energy, finance, and logistics.

Baidu’s AI strategy aims far beyond driving current business growth and increasing market share; it is also building an unshakable long-term competitive advantage for the company’s future. As Baidu’s technological potential increasingly translates into a definitive lead, a profound revaluation of value is also unfolding.