Tom Online, a mainland wireless internet service provider, yesterday said its third-quarter net profit fell 59 per cent, hit by the government's new rules to monitor the mobile value-added service market.
Net profit for the three months to September dropped to US$5.28 million from a year earlier and was down 55 per cent from the second quarter.
Revenue declined 15.2 per cent year on year to US$38.95 million, beating the US$32.5 million to US$34.5 million guideline it provided in August.
Like other mobile value-added service providers, Tom Online's earnings were hurt by government rules such as double confirmation in July to protect subscribers from unfair charges.
As a result, the company's wireless internet service revenue, which accounted for 89 per cent of total revenue, fell 19.6 per cent in the quarter to US$34.71 million.
'We do think the market is more stable this quarter but we are still in a very difficult market situation,' chief executive Wang Lei-lei said yesterday.