BENGALURU China's Baidu Inc beat revenue estimates for the fourth quarter on Wednesday, bolstered by strength in its advertising, cloud and artificial intelligence businesses.

The search engine giant, which generates most of its revenue from online ads, is seeing advertisers return after China lifted its zero-Covid policies last year in a boost to the country's economic prospects.

The company also announced a new share repurchase program of up to US$5 billion.

Quarterly revenue came in at 33.08 billion yuan (US$4.80 billion), inching past analysts' estimates of 32.01 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

Revenue from Baidu Core, which includes search-based ad sales, cloud offerings and its autonomous driving initiatives, fell 1% to 25.7 billion yuan.

  - Reuters