The company, whose search engine dominates the country's market, forecast current-quarter revenue between 21 billion yuan ($2.99 billion) and 22.9 billion yuan, while analysts had expected 23.08 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

"The coronavirus situation in China is evolving, and business visibility is very limited," Baidu said.

The virus, believed to have originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has infected about 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.

The outbreak, which is expected to pile more pressure on the country's economy, has resulted in companies laying off workers and seek cheaper funding. It has also disrupted supply chains ranging from the car industry to smartphones.

Baidu's revenue forecast represents a decline of 5% to 13% and assumes core business revenue to be lower by 10% to 18%.

CICC analyst Natalie Wu expects the impact of the outbreak to be controllable and short term, according to a preview note.

Earlier this month, China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd warned of a drop in fourth-quarter revenue at its key e-commerce businesses.

FORECAST OVERSHADOWS Q4 BEAT

Last month, Baidu delayed the announcement of its quarterly results by more than two weeks and advised employees in the country to work from home for a time period after the Lunar New Year holiday due to the outbreak.

Total revenue rose to 28.88 billion yuan during the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, from 27.2 billion yuan a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected revenue of 28.42 billion yuan.

Sales from iQIYI ? a Netflix-like video service which competes with Alibaba-backed Youku and Tencent Holdings' Tencent Video ? jumped 7% to 7.5 billion yuan. iQIYI had 106.9 million subscribers as of Dec. 31.

On an adjusted basis, Baidu earned 26.54 yuan per American depository share. Analysts were expecting 24.24 yuan per ADS.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Yingzhi Yang in Beijing; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shounak Dasgupta)