SINA Reports Mixed Earnings; Shares Rise

Shares of SINA

are trading higher in the after-hours following the release of the company's Q3 earnings results. Currently, shares are higher by 1.30%, trading at $88.07; they ended the regular session higher by 2.26%, at $86.94. SINA reported Q3 EPS of $0.26 on revenues of $125.6 million; the Street was looking for $0.23 per share on revenues of $126.95 million. Revenues increased 21.2% year over year. Advertising revenues grew 25% year over year to a historical high of $101.0 million, within the Company's guidance of between $100 million and $102 million. "Since the official launch of Weibo.com v4.0 in September, over half of the existing users have upgraded, and we continue to see rapid growth of new users. Our focus now turns to adding more social networking features to Weibo to increase user stickiness," said Charles Chao, CEO of SINA. "For the third quarter, SINA's online brand advertising revenues reached a new high, for the first time exceeding over $100 million per quarter," Mr. Chao added. SINA Corporation is an online media company and MVAS provider in the People's Republic of China and the global Chinese communities. The Company provides services through five business lines, including SINA.com, SINA Mobile, SINA Community, SINA.net, and SINA E-Commerce.