Mainland internet portal Sina.com will further expand into online gaming and e-commerce operations in anticipation of a slowdown in advertising and mobile-related services.
The company, which posted a 375.17 per cent increase in profit for the first quarter due to strong earnings from short messaging services (SMS), is facing new challenges as customers eye products such as interactive voice response and multimedia messaging services.
'It is a transition period and a gradual migration process, Sina chief financial officer Charles Chao said yesterday after the firm released its results. 'Organic growth of SMS service would probably be flat or slightly down going forward. You will see more people adopting new services and they will become [the] growth engine for the entire mobile service.'
The Shanghai-based firm saw net first-quarter profit jump to US$16.04 million, from $3.37 million a year ago. Revenue was up 128.48 per cent to $41.38 million - with more than 60 per cent due to non-advertising services.
Growth in non-advertising sales slowed to 11.6 per cent in the first quarter, compared with more than 20 per cent in the two previous quarters.
The company expects revenue for this quarter to reach US$49.5 million. This would include up to $34.5 million from non-advertising services.