In its fourth quarter, Baidu reported its slowest profit growth since 2009 and its revenue growth rate was about half that of the previous year. The results, which sent shares down 6.7 per cent immediately after their publication, underline Baidu's need to expand internationally as the Chinese search market becomes increasingly crowded. Baidu launched its first English language site for web developers last month as it looked to increase the amount of non-Chinese speakers able to tap into its search, maps, cloud storage, commerce and app capabilities.