Baidu (BIDU) may spin off its online video streaming unit iQiyi

Chinese search engine Baidu (BIDU) may be looking to spin off and list its online video streaming unit iQiyi, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Ticker: IQ 

According to the WSJ, Baidu is looking to raises $1 billion through a Hong Kong or U.S. listing of iQiyi in 2017, which would value the online video platform at roughly $5 billion.

iQiyi is the number one online video platform in China in terms of both market share and the number of paying subscribers.

Spinning off iQiyi would be good news for Baidu’s shareholders as it would to unlock the value of the internet giant’s non-core assets.