As expected, Google’s late March exit from China is benefiting Baidu, China’s number one search engine.

This Reuters story has some stats the Chinese company’s rapid growth:

Baidu posted first-quarter net profit of 481 million renminbi, or $70.4 million, up from 181 million renminbi a year ago. Analysts expected profit of 366 million renminbi, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Baidu is, unsurprisingly, reluctant to credit its growth solely to Google’s departure:

“We saw marginal benefit from this so-called semi-exit of Google,” Robin Li, Baidu’s charismatic chief executive, said during a conference call to discuss his company’s results.

“We are certainly benefiting from this. But at the end of the day, the China search market is still in its very early stage,” Mr. Li said. “The performance of Baidu is largely driven by our own execution, not the competitive landscape change.”