China's largest search engine Baidu said net profit in the first quarter more than doubled with solid traffic growth.

Profit surged 123 percent in the first quarter to US$164 million and sales jumped 88.3 percent to US$372 million, beating the higher end of its previous estimate, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Chief Executive Officer Robin Li also refuted earlier rumors that Baidu had entered into an agreement with the world's most popular social networking service Facebook to establish an independent social network site in China.

Li's wealth more than doubled last year - he was ranked China's richest man by Forbes magazine - as Baidu's gained market share after Google redirected its site to Hong Kong last March.

Baidu's market share rose to 75.8 percent in the first quarter from the 75.5 percent in the previous three months as Google's share fell to 19.2 percent, according to Analysys International.

Baidu estimates Q2 sales to be between US$493.3 million to US$503.9 million.