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Sina posts 15% drop in Q4 profit

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

Sina had been expected to report profit of US$10 million on sales of US$55 million, according to the median estimate of nine analysts in a Bloomberg survey. The company said in November it expected fourth-quarter sales of between US$53 million and US$56million.

Sina forecast sales for the current quarter to be between US$48 million and US$50 million. That compares with the US$50.7 million median estimate of 13 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Fourth-quarter online advertising sales rose 43 percent to US$35.7 million, Sina said. Non-advertising revenue, mostly from the sale of ring tones and games to cell-phone users, fell 23 percent to US$20.7 million.

The company said it expected first-quarter online ad sales to be between US$31 million and US$32 million, and non-advertising revenue of US$17 million to US$18 million.

Sina's fourth-quarter gross margin, or the percentage of sales left after deducting production costs, fell to 62 percent from 66 percent a year earlier. Operating expenses rose 5 percent to US$24.5 million. Development spending rose 16 percent to US$4.9 million.

Baidu had a 57 percent share of the Chinese search market in the third quarter, ahead of Google Inc's 16.4 percent, and Yahoo! Inc's 13 percent, according to Analysys. Sina's share of the market fell to 1.7 percent from 2.7 percent in the previous quarter, the researcher said.