Baidu, the leading Chinese language Internet search provider,  announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2011.

Total revenues in the third quarter of 2011 were $654.7 million, an 85.1 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2010. Operating profit for the same time period was $349.1 million, an 88.5 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2010.

Net income attributable to Baidu was $295.0 million, a 79.8 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2010. Diluted earnings were 84 cents a share.

Online marketing revenues for 3Q 2011 were $654.4 million, representing an 85.1 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2010. Baidu had approximately 304,000 active online marketing customers in the third quarter of 2011, representing an 11.8 per cent increase from the corresponding period in 2010 and a 2 per cent increase from the previous quarter.

Traffic acquisition cost (TAC) as a component of cost of revenues was $52.4 million, representing 8 per cent of total revenues.

Outlook for Fourth Quarter 2011: Baidu currently expects to generate total revenues in an amount ranging from $691.4 million to $711.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, representing a 79.9 per cent to 85 per cent year-over-year increase.

Robin Li (Chairman and CEO, Baidu): China’s search industry is still in its early stages, and as the clear industry leader we see enormous room for continuing growth as users and online marketing customers become increasingly sophisticated.