Chinese microblogging giant Weibo beats estimates with strong third quarter
Solid financial results provide big boost to parent Sina’s own quarterly earnings
Chinese social media titan Weibo Corp plans to ramp up its short video and live content streaming initiatives after it posted third-quarter financial results that soundly beat market estimates.
“Our efforts to build a content ecosystem that attracts premium user-generated content and our relentless focus on user experience have led to strong traffic growth,” Weibo chief executive Wang Gaofei said in a conference call on Tuesday.
“Short video and live streaming represent a very big market opportunity for Weibo since content creation is moving in that direction.”
Beijing-based Weibo reported a 147 per cent jump in net profit for the third quarter to US$54.59 million, up from US$22.14 million in the same period last year, as adverting and marketing revenue increased 48 per cent year on year to US$156.69 million.
That beat the US$43.8 million analysts’ consensus estimate for third-quarter net profit as of November 7.
Revenue climbed 42 per cent to US$176.88 million from US$124.73 million a year ago, ahead of the US$173.5 million market estimate.