--- title: "Tencent opens Yuanbao Search on the open web as Baidu's ad revenue falls 19%" description: "Tencent's standalone page goes after a market Baidu has held for two decades, where Baidu's online marketing revenue just fell 19% and Google's Q3 miss shows AI answers slowing search ad growth. Tencent earns its money elsewhere; Baidu does not." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Applications" published: 2026-11-12T14:08:25.370Z modified: 2026-11-12T14:08:25.370Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/tencent-opens-yuanbao-search-on-the-open-web-as-baidu-s-ad-revenue-falls-19 language: en keywords: "Tencent, Baidu, Search, AI Search, Advertising" --- # Tencent opens Yuanbao Search on the open web as Baidu's ad revenue falls 19% > Tencent's standalone page goes after a market Baidu has held for two decades, where Baidu's online marketing revenue just fell 19% and Google's Q3 miss shows AI answers slowing search ad growth. Tencent earns its money elsewhere; Baidu does not. ## A search box with no app attached On November 11, [Tencent](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tencent) put Yuanbao Search on the open web: a standalone page that needs no download and searches the open web, WeChat Official Accounts, WeChat Channels and academic papers, with AI assembling the answers [1]. [The page is live](https://yuanbao.tencent.com) [2]. Tencent has not run a standalone search product since Soso was merged into Sogou in 2013; WeChat's search stayed inside the app [1]. ## The door opens onto a shrinking business China counted 782 million search users in December 2025, 69.5% of internet users, down from 878 million a year earlier [1]. [Baidu](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/baidu) App still reaches 644 million monthly users [1], but the business behind the query box is sliding: online marketing revenue fell 19% year over year to ¥13.1 billion in the second quarter of 2026, inside total revenue of ¥31.3 billion, [down 4% and short of estimates](https://ijr.com/discover/baidu-misses-q2-revenue-ai-growth-offsets-ad-declines-ff531cc6) [3][4]. By October 2025, roughly 70% of Baidu's mobile result pages were already AI-generated [1]; as [The Inference reported in September](https://theinference.org/article/baidu-sold-ai-as-the-cure-for-its-search-decline-its-own-table-shows-the-cure-shrinking), the AI cure has been shrinking the patient. *Chart: **Baidu's revenue has gone sideways for three years while profit slid** Line chart of Baidu's quarterly total revenue and net income from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026 in US dollar billions* *Baidu total revenue and net income, US$ billions per quarter, from its SEC filings. Online marketing, not broken out here, fell 19% year over year in Q2 2026. [8]* ## Baidu is holding back the ads as a rival arrives Julius Rong Luo, the executive who runs Baidu's mobile ecosystem, told analysts in August that Baidu is "deliberately holding back on monetizing the AI search," that competition for users' attention has intensified, and that [advertising will remain under pressure](https://theinference.org/article/bofa-cuts-baidu-on-ads-as-four-banks-brace-for-99-ai-cloud-growth) through the second half [3]. Tencent carries none of that conflict. Yuanbao Search product lead Li Ruizhang says the page "does not reject ads, but users should not have to find answers in ads," and Tencent earns its living elsewhere, in WeChat [1]. The index is already built: Tencent Cloud opened it to enterprises in October at trillion scale, with 157 authoritative sources across 13 fields, already serving more than 50 businesses including WorkBuddy and ima [1]. ## Google has priced the shift [Alphabet](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/alphabet) put a number on what AI answers do to search ad money: third-quarter [search advertising grew 12% to $63.4 billion](https://theinference.org/article/a-fifth-of-google-s-searches-happen-in-chatgpt-yet-search-grew-12-the-leak-is-monetization-not-traffic), a second straight miss [5][6], and chief business officer [Philipp Schindler](https://theinference.org/markets/people/philipp-schindler) said strong AI Mode query growth "had an impact because of the lower monetization" there [5]. On October 15, [Google began moving links higher inside AI answers](https://9to5google.com/2026/10/15/google-ai-mode-overviews-links/) [7]. AI Overviews claims more than 2.5 billion monthly users [1]. *Chart: **Baidu's app is smaller than either of Google's AI search doors** Bar chart comparing monthly active users of Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode and Baidu App* *Monthly active users, millions. Google figures per its June 2026 disclosure and Baidu App per its Q2 2026 report, as compiled by 36Kr. [1]* ## Baidu's answer shipped the same day The counterpunch is real. On November 11, Baidu [released ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview](https://cryptobriefing.com/baidu-ernie-5-5-flash-preview-launch/), 280 billion parameters with only 14 billion active, and promised the open weights by November 25 [9]. AI cloud revenue grew 50% last quarter; GPU cloud grew 283% [3]. Tencent's own risk is content: Official Accounts mix rigorous analysis with marketing filler, and more content can amplify the chaos rather than filter it [1]. ## Two dates settle it: ERNIE's weights and Baidu's ad line The race is between Baidu's ad base eroding and AI search being repriced, now that a rival with WeChat's wallet is spending on the entrance itself. Baidu (BIDU) is the exposed ad publisher; Tencent (TCEHY) holds the new door. Watch November 25 for the ERNIE weights, whose $50 million tripwire [we charted on November 5](https://theinference.org/article/baidu-s-open-weights-carry-a-50-million-tripwire-and-its-investors-are-waiting-for-it-to-fire), then Baidu's third-quarter advertising line. Baidu has charged rent on China's front door for twenty years. Tencent just built a second one, and it can afford to leave it unlocked. ## Takeaway Baidu's online marketing revenue fell 19% in Q2 as Tencent put a free, standalone AI search page on the open web. Tencent can run it at a loss out of WeChat; Baidu's ad base cannot. ## Sources 1. [36Kr (EU edition), "Everyone is fixated on the Agent battle, while Tencent has quietly stepped into Baidu's backyard," 12 November 2026](https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/4066325513655939) 2. [Tencent Yuanbao website, accessed 12 November 2026](https://yuanbao.tencent.com) 3. [Yahoo Finance (Quartr transcript), "Baidu Inc. Q2 FY2026 earnings call," 18 August 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/B1C.F/earnings/B1C.F-Q2-2026-earnings_call-673679.html) 4. [IJR News, "Baidu misses Q2 revenue, AI growth offsets ad declines," 18 August 2026](https://ijr.com/discover/baidu-misses-q2-revenue-ai-growth-offsets-ad-declines-ff531cc6) 5. [Marketing Dive, "Google's AI overhaul of search hits snags as ad revenue growth cools," 29 October 2026](https://www.marketingdive.com/news/googles-ai-overhaul-of-search-hits-snags-as-ad-revenue-growth-cools/873150/) 6. [CNBC, "Alphabet sinks 10% as it holds 2026 capex unchanged, expects significant increase in 2027," 28 October 2026](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/28/alphabet-googl-earnings-q3-2026.html) 7. [9to5Google, "Google AI Mode and AI Overview updates work to elevate links," 15 October 2026](https://9to5google.com/2026/10/15/google-ai-mode-overviews-links/) 8. [Baidu, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 12 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001329099) 9. [Crypto Briefing, "Baidu launches ERNIE 5.5 Flash Preview with 280 billion parameters," 11 November 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/baidu-ernie-5-5-flash-preview-launch/) --- Tencent opens Yuanbao Search on the open web as Baidu's ad revenue falls 19% — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/tencent-opens-yuanbao-search-on-the-open-web-as-baidu-s-ad-revenue-falls-19