China is getting ready for its close-up when the Olympic Games kick off tomorrow in Beijing, but SINA (Nasdaq: SINA) went for its own close-up last night. It's nice to know that the new-media company can still crack a killer smile.
SINA had another robust quarter, with revenue rising 53% to $91.3 million. Earnings soared by 74% to $0.42 a share. The results exceeded Wall Street's expectations, but that's practically a given these days. Not only have most of SINA's Chinese peers obliterated analyst guesstimates lately, but SINA has also finished ahead of Wall Street's profit targets in each of the past 10 quarters.
Online advertising rose sharply, but the real surprise is that even the company's once-moribund mobile value-added services posted a healthy 44% year-over-year advance.
SINA, Sohu.com (Nasdaq: SOHU), and NetEase.com (Nasdaq: NTES) were some of the market's biggest gainers in 2002, fueled by the popularity of the content they would serve up to China's growing number of wireless subscribers. That niche got slammed when the Chinese government began cracking down on the content, just as wireless providers began angling for a bigger piece of the action.
SINA, Sohu, and NetEase scrambled in different directions for diversification. NetEase became a leader in online gaming, while SINA and Sohu beefed up their online portals.
Web-based advertising is still a winner in China. Sohu, Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU), and now SINA have all easily topped the market's bottom-line estimates.
Outdoor-advertising companies such as Focus Media (Nasdaq: FMCN), VisionChina Media (Nasdaq: VISN), and AirMedia (Nasdaq: AMCN) may be the companies that draw investor interest in the coming weeks during the Olympics, but Internet marketing is where growth investors can find the fastest speedsters. SINA has a lot of irons in the fire, but advertising now makes up 71% of its revenue.
The Olympics will come and go, and an improving economy will stick around and help propel the prospects of quality companies such as SINA. I don't know how many gold medals are in Beijing right now, but SINA has certainly earned one.
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