| SINA's Q3 profits up 18 percent on strong advertising |
BEIJING, Nov. 3 (AP) -- Sina.com Corp., China's most popular Web portal, said Friday its third-quarter profits rose 18 percent on strong advertising growth in the booming Chinese market.
Quarterly earnings were US$10.7 million (€7.7 million), or 19 cents (13.5 euro cents) per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had forecast a profit of 18 cents per share.
Revenue rose 13 percent to US$56.1 million (€40.3 million), beating analyst expectations of US$52.8 million (€38 million). Advertising revenue rose 42 percent compared with the same period last year to US$32.7 million (€23.5 million).
"We are increasingly becoming the best media platform to reach high-end customers in China," Sina CEO Charles Chao said in a conference call with analysts. "We generate most of our traffic from our high-quality content channels, which is very different from most Internet portals around the world."
Chao said Sina expects the advertising market to continue to grow strongly in coming years as China's economy surges ahead.
China has the world's second-largest number of Internet users after the United States, with more than 123 million people online. But in financial terms, its market is smaller than the United States, Japan and South Korea.
Sina launched a broadband video service in the third quarter with 30 channels and will expand popular sports offerings, with plans to launch a channel devoted to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Chao said.
Revenue from wireless value-added services and other non-advertising services fell 12 percent to US$23.4 million (€16.8 million). That came amid billing changes by Chinese mobile phone companies that have hit all of China's wireless services.
Wireless services face continued uncertainty due to possible additional policy changes by the mobile phone carriers, and Sina plans to limit new investment in that business, Chao said. He said wireless revenues might fall further in the fourth quarter.
Sina shares rose 4.1 percent to US$27.78 in after-hours U.S. trading after rising 3.3 percent to close at US$26.68 on the Nasdaq market.
Sina's leading competitor, Web portal Sohu.com Inc., said last week its third quarter earnings fell 18 percent to US$6.6 million (€5.2 million) due to stock options costs. But it also said it had strong advertising growth, with revenues up 29 percent.
|
|
