Chinese Internet Platform Sina Reports Massive Jump in Profits

Fourth quarter report released amid reports of a spin-off of Sina's microblogging service Weibo

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Nelson Ching / Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Sina Corp. weibo microblog website is displayed on a computer in Beijing, China, on Friday, Dec. 16, 2011.

Boosted by a surge in ad revenue, Chinese internet platform Sina has reported a $44.5 million profit in the fourth quarter, up from $2.4 million the year before.

The figures were released Monday after news broke that the company was in the process of spinning out its immensely popular micro-blogging site Weibo in a separate New York IPO.

“The strong performance of Weibo’s advertising and value-added services in the fourth quarter allowed us to end 2013 with strong top line and bottom line growth,” said Sina chief executive Charles Chao.

Sina’s latest numbers show a 163 percent jump in ad revenues at Weibo compared to a year ago, even though the site also recorded its first drop in usage in 2013. The China Internet Information Center noted that almost 28 million people abandoned Weibo in their annual report, amid a government crackdown on so-called online “rumor-mongers,”

[BBC]