Flat sales growth in the quarter and working in a relatively weak economy are weighing on baidu (BIDU -4.40%) Stock on Thursday. The veteran Chinese technology company’s American Depositary Shares (ADS) fell more than 4% after its latest quarterly results hit the headlines. For comparison: S&P500 The index fell relatively slightly by 0.9% during the day.

Sales and profit decline in the second quarter

In the second quarter, Baidu reported revenue of 33.9 billion yuan ($4.8 billion), slightly lower than the just over 34 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) it generated in the same period in 2023. Not helping matters was a decline in revenue from online marketing, a key business line for the company, which fell 2% to just over 19 billion yuan ($2.7 billion).

Non-GAAP net income (adjusted) saw a sharper decline than these two items, falling 8% year-on-year to just under 7.4 billion yuan ($1 billion). According to ADS, the company’s adjusted profitability was 21.02 yuan ($2.95).

This meant a mixed quarter for the expanding technology company. The consensus estimate among analysts for revenue was 34.14 billion yuan (4.8 billion dollars) and for adjusted net profit was 18.54 (2.60 dollars) per ADS.

About AI and robot taxis

Baidu devoted much of its earnings release to the hot technology of 2024, artificial intelligence (AI). However, progress in this segment was not enough to offset the slack in other business areas. On a positive note, its robotaxi service Apollo Go saw a jump in volume. The roughly 899,000 rides in the quarter represented a 26% year-over-year improvement.