Despite a slowdown in advertising revenues, Chinese technology firm Sina Corp (NASDAQ: SINA) posted second-quarter results that topped Street expectations. Net revenues edged down 1% to $533.1 million, pulled down by a 5% decline in ad revenues. Analysts were expecting Q2 revenues of $510.18 million.
Adverting revenues in Q2 were hurt primarily due to a decline in portal advertising revenues and negative forex impact.
Non-advertising revenues, meanwhile, rose 19% year-over-year to $99.4 million, mainly attributable to the revenues derived from Weibo’s (NASDAQ: WB) live streaming business acquired last year.
Net income, excluding one-off items, came in at $0.76 per share, which was 29 cents higher than the Wall Street projection.
SINA shares gained 5.3% during pre-market hours. The stock has declined 31% in the year-to-date period.
Sina has been experiencing slower growth in the portal website due to the shift of brand advertisers’ budget to mobile applications that attract more user traffic. The development of mobile technology and the increasing penetration of internet have brought China into a new era where people are turning away from traditional portal websites to mobile applications.
Earlier today, Weibo said it surpassed analysts’ expectations for revenue and earnings in the second quarter of 2019, sending shares climbing 5.9% in premarket hours.