Late last year, China's major wireless operators suspended billing for some third-party wireless services as part of an anti-pornography crackdown by the government, thereby affecting mobile revenue of Internet portals such as Sina and Sohu.
Sina competes with Tencent Holdings and Sohu in China's portal advertising market, worth about $160 million in revenue in the third quarter. Sina was the leader with 34 percent market share.
Sina's first-quarter net income was $24.4 million, or 37 cents per share, compared with $9.7 million, or 17 cents a share, a year ago.
Excluding special items, the company earned 34 cents a share.
Net revenue, excluding revenue from its carved-out real estate advertising business, was $80.3 million, up $12.7 million, and beat the company's forecast of $78 million to $80 million.
Sina forecast adjusted second-quarter revenue at $90 million to $93 million.
China is the world's largest Internet market by users with more than 400 million netizens.Sina shares have fallen 22 percent so far this year versus a 3 percent rise in Nasdaq, on concerns over lost revenue from the pornography crackdown and stiff competition in the portal business. They closed at $34.85 Monday on Nasdaq.
