China twitter-like Weibo posts strong Q2 financial performance

APD NEWS

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Chinese social media giant, Sina Weibo reported strong financial performance in the second quarter (Q2) of this year thanks to booming advertising and marketing demand.

The tech firm raked in net revenue of about 253.4 million US dollars, up 72% year on year, according to its unaudited financial results released Wednesday.

Net income attributable to Weibo reached 73.5 million US dollars, an increase of 184% year on year.

Advertising and marketing services remained the major source of income, bringing in 218.3 million US dollars in Q2, a 72% surge over Q2 of 2016.

Weibo boasted about 361 million monthly active users as of the end of June, up 28% year on year, with 92% of them coming from mobile devices.

People walk by the Nasdaq exchange in Times Square moments before China's Weibo began trading on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker symbol WB on April 17, 2014 in New York City.

Stressing the reasons of the strong performance, Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei attributed engaging features. "These strong results give us confidence that our strategy to focus on developing a unique and expansive content ecosystem, launching engaging features like Weibo Stories, and attracting KOLs (key opinion leaders), celebrities and other influencers to increase the social and viral nature of Weibo is boding well for us," Gao said.

Weibo estimated its net revenue will be between 290 and 300 million US dollars for the third quarter of 2017.

Weibo Corp. lost 0.07% on Wednesday to stand at 100.07 on Nasdaq. However, the stock value for the company has surged more than 10% this week and is now twice as valuable as Twitter Inc.

Some companies shared similar outcomes that their stock prices decreased although their financial performance beat estimates.

Bank Of America Merrill Lynch said investors in US stock market might not be rational enough and stock might reach peak soon.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)