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Sina posts 15% drop in Q4 profit

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-02-08 11:11

Sina Corp, China's biggest Web portal, said fourth-quarter profit fell 15 percent after it boosted spending on development in a bid to attract search users from Baidu.com Inc and Google Inc.

Net income dropped to US$11.7 million, or 20 cents a share, from US$13.8 million, or 24 US cents, theShanghai-based company said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. Sales rose 8.6 percent to US$56.4 million, Bloomberg reported today.

Related readings:  Sina.com signs deal with TV channel  Sohu Q4 profit falls 32%  Google, Baidu eye online video business

Chief Executive Charles Chao raised spending to upgrade Sina's search service, as an increasing number of companies choose to advertise on search engines rather than Web portals.

Baidu.com Inc, China's most-used search site, may overtake Sina this year to become the nation's biggest seller of online ads, according toBeijing-based researcher Analysys International.

"Search has become very important because it's what people use to find videos, music, news and everything else,'' Richard Ji, an analyst with Morgan Stanley Asia Ltd inHong Kong, said before the earnings announcement. "Search is becoming the Internet's highway." He rates Sina shares"equal weight."

Shares of Sina rose 1.8 percent in US extended trading to US$33.64 after the earnings release. They fell 4 percent to US$33.05 in regular Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.