Weibo smashes Q2 estimates with 516pc jump in profit
China’s Twitter sees monthly active users swell 33pc to a new high of 282 million, as total revenues soar 36pc to US$146.9 million
Social media giant Weibo Corp is looking at more vigorous expansion after its second-quarter earnings roared past market estimates on the back of hefty advertising growth and adoption by mobile users and small businesses.
“User growth continues to be robust, especially coming from mobile, where we are seeing short video and live video taking off,” Weibo chief executive Wang Gaofei said in a conference call on Tuesday. “You’re seeing a lot of our growth [come] from second, third and fourth-tier [Chinese] cities. We’re trying to aggregate more video-related content from various industries to help us acquire more user growth from tier-1 cities and from the younger generation.”
Beijing-based Weibo, the microblogging service considered as China’s Twitter, reported a 516 per cent jump in net income for the second quarter to US$25.9 million, up from US$4.2 million in the same period last year, as advertising and marketing revenue increased 45 per cent year on year to US$127.2 million.
That marked the company’s highest year on year net profit increase for a quarter since it was listed on the Nasdaq stock market in April 2014.
Revenue rose 36 per cent to US$146.9 million from US$107.8 million a year earlier.
Weibo’s share price rose 3.65 per cent to 37.17 at the close of trading on Monday in the United States.