Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) COO Peng Ye is leaving the Chinese internet giant. Baidu says Ye is leaving due to “personal reasons;” somewhat suspiciously, the news of his departure is buried in a press release, which plays up the promotion of two other executives. Ye had been at Baidu for two years. Before joining in April 2008, he had been the country general manager for Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in China.

During its most recent earnings report, Baidu once again posted big increases in profit and revenue but also said it expected its sales during the fourth quarter to be below analyst forecasts as it switched to its new Phoenix Nest ad system; earlier this week, it announced it would launch a Hulu-like online video service.