Baidu, China’s largest internet search engine, cut its revenue outlook for the fourth quarter by 14 per cent on Thursday, pointing to the economic slowdown in China and to changes in its customer base following controversy over paid search listings of unlicensed medical websites.

Revenue for the three months to December 31 was now expected to be between Rmb890m and Rmb900m ($130m-$131m) instead of the Rmb1.025bn to Rmb1.055bn given earlier.