Leading domestic social media platform Weibo Corp said on Monday that its net revenue for the second quarter of 2016 soared 36 percent year-on-year to $146.9 million, according to the financial report published on Monday on its website.
Net profit was $25.9 million, a more than fivefold increase, marking a new high for the company.
"Weibo has surpassed its competitors in the Internet industry, like Baidu Inc and Alibaba Group Holding, which generally post year-on-year growth rates of 30 percent to 50 percent," Liu Dingding, an independent industry analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The company's strategic move into live broadcasting and the booming mobile Internet sector contributed to Weibo's robust revenue growth, Liu noted.
"Live broadcasting is a rising sector, and Weibo's market access bolstered advertisers' confidence in the prospects of the -platform," Liu said, noting that the trend led to a surge of revenue in the marketing sector.
Advertising and marketing revenue expanded about 45 percent to $127.2 million, partially driven by the adoption of social marketing by key accounts and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to the financial report by Weibo.
Revenue from key accounts and SMEs increased 73 percent and 107 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The new growth momentum of live broadcasting means Weibo's revenue will experience a similar dramatic increase in the third quarter, experts said.
Weibo's monthly mobile active users grew 40 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of this year, according to a conference call transcript posted on U.S.-based financial information provider seekingalpha.com on Tuesday.
