The soccer World Cup boosted online advertising revenue for mainland portal Sohu.com, giving it positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation two quarters ahead of schedule.
The Nasdaq-listed firm reported second-quarter revenues of US$6.13 million, 35 per cent up on the first quarter's US$4.53 million. Its second-quarter net loss was US$870,000, down from US$2.2 million in the first quarter.
China's participation in the World Cup soccer finals for the first time last month helped boost advertising revenues and growth in fee-based downloads and messaging services for handsets.
Chief operating officer Victor Koo said Sohu generated more than 15 million messages from the World Cup as soccer fans downloaded World Cup-related logos and subscribed to goal alerts.
For the quarter to June, Sohu's advertising revenues were up 34 per cent at US$3.36 million from US$2.51 million.
About 81 per cent of the advertising revenue was from domestic firms, including technology vendor TCL, beverage company Ye Shu, electronics manufacturer Amoisonic and financial institutions such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Fujian Development Bank.
International advertising clients include Procter & Gamble, Volkswagen andIntel.