In a sign of the strength of the search market in China, Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) first quarter 2009 revenue was up 41 percent year on year, to $118.6 million, and operating profit jumped 32 percent, to $29.1 million. Earnings per share was $0.76. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $115 million and EPS of $0.74.

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Baidu, which controls 64 percent of the Chinese search market, said it expected second-quarter 2009 revenue to grow between 32 percent and 36 percent.

Highlights for the quarter include:

—The number of active marketing customers grew to 185,000, or 15 percent more than the first quarter in 2008.

— Revenue per online marketing customer dropped 4.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008 to $644, indicating ad rates are showing weakness in what is proving to be a softer-than-expected Chinese economy (though the company said the timing of the Chinese New Year versus last year contributed to the decline).

—The company spent more to acquire users: its traffic acquisition costs as a percentage of revenue increased to 15.3 percent versus 13.3 percent during the same period in 2008.