Sina to Accelerate Monetization Efforts in Q2 2012

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SINA: Sina logo
SINA
Sina

Sina (NASDAQ:SINA), which is one of the largest Internet giants in China, announced its plans to focus on the monetization of its online properties like its microblogging service – Weibo.com, and its gaming platform in Q2 2012. Sina plans to monetize the Weibo microblogging service, which has around 250 million registered users, by launching new display advertising units. [1]

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Advertising to Drive Sina’s Revenues

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Sina plans to launch a new display ad system in Q2 2012, and will also unveil another advertising offering with precise user targeting based on user data and interests later this year. It also plans to focus on the enterprise by offering premium features for enterprise users, and monetizing them with a subscription based plan. Sina currently has a 7% market share in the Chinese display ad market.

The company also plans to launch a self-serve advertising platform for small businesses later this year, which will enable businesses to reach customers using advanced targeting methods. In addition, it plans to incorporate ad models for mobile terminals as most microblog users access the service using their mobile devices. Sina also plans to start monetizing its online gaming platform, which is currently being used for free by game developers and users.

In other news, Baidu (NYSE:BIDU), the largest Chinese search engine, started indexing microblog updates on Sina and Tencent, and is now display tweets as search results. This could drive additional traffic to Sina’s web platform, resulting in a direct increase in its display advertising revenues.

Display advertising accounts for nearly 60% of Sina’s $50 Trefis price estimate while other paid services like games account for 5%. Our current Trefis price estimate for Sina stands nearly 30% below its market price.

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Notes:
  1. Sina Microblog to Start Monetizing in Q2 2012, Marbridge []