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The Chinese Internet portal Sina.com has achieved its first ever positive cash flow and is expected to break even by the end of this year, the firm's chief executive said yesterday.
Chief Executive Officer Daniel Mao said: "It is very encouraging that Sina saw another record-high growth in the past three months and we will achieve pro forma profits by the end of this year."
Mao was speaking after the release of his company's results for its fourth financial quarter from April to June and the 2002 financial year, which ended on June 30.
The NASDAQ-listed company said it harvested a record-high revenue of US$8.6 million in the quarter, 20 percent higher than the figure for the previous quarter. Its pro forma net losses narrowed by 46 per cent to US$950,000 from the previous quarter.
Sina's cash flow from operations also achieved a positive US$400,000 in its fourth quarter for the first time in its history.
Advertising revenue reached US$5.8 million or 67 percent of its total revenue, boosted by the football World Cup in the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Short messaging services (SMS) formed the biggest non-advertising revenue pool for Sina and contributed 20 percent to the total revenue of US$8.6 million.
Sina's revenue in the 2002 financial year was US$28.5 million and its pro forma net losses narrowed by 61 per cent year-on-year to US$7.9 million.
By the end of June, Sina had US$93.2 million in cash or cash equivalents.
Daniel Mao said he believed that, with profitability just ahead, the most critical task for Sina was to expand the scale of the business.
"Our goal in the next fiscal year is to generate profits in the whole of the 2003 calendar year and, more importantly, make the business bigger," said Mao.
He said he believed that present businesses such as advertising, SMS and paid services for corporate and individual users, will continue to grow quickly and that his company will also take advantage of the cash reserve to enter new areas to widen the scope of the business.
"We will make aggressive acquisitions to achieve the goal," he said.
Sina formed a joint venture with the Huicong International Information Co Ltd on Monday to promote its classified advertisements.
The joint venture will have 3 million yuan (US$360,000) in registered capital and each party will contribute half of that amount.
The new business will share client and market information accumulated by Huicong, which is one of the biggest classified-advertisement agents in China.
Charles Cao, Sina's chief financial officer, also said his company suffered US$440,000 in losses from its investment in Hong Kong-based Sun Television. Sina still holds 21.8 per cent of the shares in the television broadcaster.
(China Daily August 9, 2002)
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