Baidu revenue soared 33 per cent during the last quarter.

China’s internet giant, often nicknamed ‘China’s Google’ says the jump was driven by rapidly increasing transactional services as the company continued to diversify away from its core search engine business, where it makes money from advertising. Revenue reached 18.7 billion yuan (US$2.89 billion) in the three months to December 31.

CEO Robin Li described 2015 as a touchstone year for Baidu as it made “significant progress” in broadening its online marketing platform and expanding its reach into transactions services.

“Even as China’s overall growth slows, services and domestic consumption are growing. Services and domestic consumption-related verticals are supported by the government’s Internet+ initiative and hold tremendous potential,” he said in an earnings statement.

“We are very pleased to deliver a strong set of results in the fourth quarter,” added CFO Jennifer Li.

“In 2015, we further executed on our vision to connect people with services and drove strong momentum in this area. We look forward to continuing this journey in 2016 to further build out Baidu’s online marketing and transactions services platform.”