Baidu.com Inc., China's most popular Internet search engine, posted a 91 percent increase in third- quarter profit after surging Web usage in the country persuaded businesses to buy more advertising.

Net income climbed to 347.9 million yuan ($50.9 million), or 10 yuan per American depositary receipt, from 181.7 million yuan, or 5.23 yuan, Baidu said today in a statement. Sales rose 85 percent to 919.1 million yuan from 496.5 million yuan. The company also forecast sales that topped analysts' estimates.

Chief Executive Officer Robin Li won more users in China by introducing a Web site with games from companies such as Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. and online-chatting software called Baidu Hi. The company's ADRs fell 4.4 percent in U.S. after-hours trading following the announcement, suggesting that investors had higher expectations.

``There's nothing wrong with numbers, but I guess the market wanted a little more,'' said James Lee, an analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. He recommends buying the stock. ``The numbers came in in line for the quarter, and the guidance was slightly above consensus.''

Fourth-quarter revenue will be 1.03 billion yuan to 1.06 billion yuan, Baidu said. That compares with the 1.02 billion yuan average of nine analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Analysts had projected 293.8 million yuan in third-quarter profit, the average of six estimates. They predicted sales of 912.7 million yuan, based on 10 estimates.

Demand Weakened

Baidu this year started operations in Japan, Asia's biggest economy, to diversify from China, where the economy grew at the slowest pace in more than five years during the third quarter as export demand weakened.

``If the economy of China crashes, we'll be affected,'' Chief Executive Li said on a conference call with analysts today. ``If it's only a couple of percentages of fluctuation, we'll be fine.''

Baidu's ADRs have fallen 36 percent this year, outperforming the 56 percent drop for the Bank of New York Mellon China ADR Index, which tracks stocks of Chinese and Hong Kong companies listed in the U.S.

Baidu's share of the Chinese search market rose to 63.4 percent in the third quarter, from 60.5 percent a year earlier, according to Analysys International. Google Inc.'s share increased to 27.8 percent from 23.7 percent, while Yahoo! Inc.'s fell to 4.7 percent from 10.4 percent, the research firm said.

China, which had 253 million Web users at the end of June, has passed the U.S. as the world's biggest Internet market, according to the state-backed China Network Information Center, which licenses online domain names. China may have 406 million Web users by 2010, more than the total population of the U.S., Credit Suisse Group AG estimates.

Source:bloomberg