Financial Report Shows Sina.com Struggled In China Last Year

Chinese online and mobile media company Sina Corporation announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2009.

Net revenues decreased 3% year-over-year and increased 2% quarter-over-quarter to USD98.2 million for the last quarter of 2009. Advertising revenues decreased 9% year-over-year and 1% quarter-over-quarter to USD63.2 million. Non-advertising revenues also increased 9% year-over-year and 7% quarter-over-quarter to USD35.0 million.

For the 2009 fiscal year, net revenues decreased 3% year-over-year to USD358.6 million, and advertising revenues decreased 12% year-over-year to USD227.9 million.

“The solid performance of our online brand advertising in the fourth quarter allowed us to end 2009 on a high note, despite a very tough start exacerbated by the global financial crisis. Excluding the adjusted results of Sina real estate online advertising business, our online advertising business in the fourth quarter of 2009 grew double digits sequentially and year-over-year. With China’s economy expected to continue its recovery, we plan to leverage our position as the market leader in China’s online media platform to accelerate the growth rate of our online advertising business,” stated Charles Chao, CEO of Sina.

Sina estimates that its non-GAAP net revenues for the first quarter of 2010 will be between USD78.0 million and USD80.0 million, with non-GAAP advertising revenues to be between USD53.0 million and USD54.0 million, or an increase of 43% to 46% year-over-year, and non-GAAP non-advertising revenues to be between USD25.0 million and USD26.0 million, or a decrease of 15% to 18 % year-over-year.