Information Technology News
- Sina posts 15% fall in Q4 earnings
Date: 9-Feb-2007 Sources: (Xinhua Online)
Sina Corp, China's most popular Web portal, said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit fell 15 percent from a year ago due to a lower wireless service income and higher expenses despite a bigger total revenue for the period.
Net profit for the quarter totaled 11.7 million U.S. dollars, or 20 US cents per share, on revenue of 56.4 million dollars, which rose by nine percent from the same period of 2005.
Profit for 2006 fell seven percent year on year to 39.9 million dollars, although revenue jumped 10 percent to 212.9 million dollars, said Shanghai-based Sina in its earnings report.
Sina and other Chinese mobile content providers were hit hard by new billing policies that went into effect last July.
Sina's revenue from selling ring tones, text messages and other mobile value added services dropped 22 percent in the quarter to 19.3 million dollars, resulting in a 23 percent decline in Sina's non-advertising revenue.
Meanwhile, the portal's operating costs in the quarter, such as stock-based compensation to its staff, rose five percent year on year.
Charles Chao, chief executive officer of Sina, said the portal's strategy is to focus on advertising.
'During 2007 we believe advertising will continue to account for a majority of our revenue and further growth in this area will be less impacted by the uncertainty of the wireless operation in 2008 and beyond,' Chao told analysts in a conference call.
In the quarter, advertising revenue soared 43 percent to 35.7 million dollars.
Sina ranks as China's No. 1 portal with a market share of 20 percent last year, said a report by the Internet Society of China last month.
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