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Weibo plans IPO after posting big jump in revenue
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Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, is planning an initial public offering in New York “relatively soon,” a source said yesterday.
The IPO, which will look to raise about US$500 million, is scheduled to happen in the first half of this year, possibly in May, added the source on condition of anonymity.
The news emerged hours after Sina Corp announced its financial results for the fourth quarter.
Its Weibo operations registered a profit for the first time in its history of more than four years in the fourth quarter. Weibo’s revenues reached US$71.4 million in the three months ending on December 31, up 151 percent year on year and 33.7 percent quarter on quarter, resulting in a profit of US$3 million, according to Sina.
Sina’s total revenue in the fourth quarter jumped 42 percent to US$197 million, with profit rising to US$44.5 million from US$2.36 million a year earlier.
The planned listing comes at a tricky time for Weibo, as microblogging is seemingly in decline because of competition from the more private mobile messaging apps like Tencent’s WeChat in China.
Active users of microblogs in China fell by a tenth between 2012 and 2013, the China Internet Network Information Center said.
However, Sina Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Charles Chao told a conference call after the earnings release that Weibo’s average daily active users rose to 61.4 million in December, up from 59 million in September.
The number of messages posted daily by Weibo users increased from 86 million at the end of September 2011 to 130 million at the end of October 2013.
Chao said robust growth of Weibo was the main cause for Sina to achieve overall strong revenues and profits in the fourth quarter. In 2014, Sina will try to increase the number of Weibo users and their user time through innovative products, he added.
Sina has allowed small merchants and online vendors to push notifications or send subscription content to their followers on Weibo while encouraging users to participate in discussion on hot topics, in hopes of boosting user activities.
In January, it also teamed up with China’s largest third-party payment company Alipay and allowed Taobao vendors to open official accounts on Weibo to better connect with online shoppers and complement Weibo’s existing service.
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