About SINA.com.hk | PressRoom

SUNNYVALE, Calif. - October 19, 2000 - SINA.com (Nasdaq: SINA), a leading Internet media and services company for Chinese communities worldwide, today announced results for the first fiscal quarter of fiscal 2001 ended September 30, 2000.

"We are excited to report another outstanding quarter to our shareholders," said Zhidong Wang, President and Chief Executive Officer of SINA. "We are especially pleased that our financial performance continues to exceed expectations for the third successive earnings announcement since our IPO. Our focus on revenue growth and tightened cost control helped improve our gross margin and narrow the loss gap over the previous quarter. At the same time, we continued to focus on delivering services and value to our loyal users and advertising clients."

SINA reported consolidated net revenues of $7.2 million for the first fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2000, an increase of 296% compared to net revenues of $1.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2000, and a sequential increase of 24% over net revenues of $5.8 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2000 ended June 30, 2000. Advertising revenues for the first quarter ended September 30, 2000 amounted to $6.3 million, an increase of 580% compared to advertising revenues of $0.9 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2000, and a sequential increase of 28% over advertising revenues of $4.9 million for the last quarter

Pro forma net loss for the quarter was $6.0 million or $0.15 loss per share, $0.07 ahead of street consensus of $0.22 loss per share and $0.03 lower than the immediate prior quarter. Pro forma net loss was $5.3 million or $0.21 loss per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 and $6.9 million or $0.18 loss per share last quarter. Pro forma net loss excludes non-cash charges for amortization of intangibles and stock-based deferred compensation. Including the non-cash charges, net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2001 was $10.2 million or $0.26 loss per share. This compares to the net loss of $15.4 million or $2.07 loss per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 and the net loss of $12.1 million or $0.35 loss per share for the last quarter.

At the end of September, SINA global registered users numbered approximately 11 million and the month's average daily pageviews on its portal network increased to about 46 million, a 35% growth over the previous quarter.

"Our solid financial performance speaks to the increasing maturity of our sales and marketing organization and our ability to monetize our traffic," said Daniel Mao, COO of SINA. "We continued to diversify our advertising client base to increase monetization of our growing portal user traffic. During the past quarter, we successfully delivered unprecedented, China-focused Internet Olympics coverage throughout our four portals, offering valued services to our growing user base while reaching new traditional advertisers. Our success positions us well for continued leadership in the Chinese Internet market in Asia and beyond."

Selected as the official online sponsor of the Chinese Olympics team for the 2000 Summer Olympics, SINA delivered China's first-ever Olympics online, offering comprehensive, real-time, China-specific coverage from each of its four sites in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and North America. During the Olympics, Chinese users worldwide visited SINA's portal network in unprecedented numbers. At its peak, SINA's Olympics coverage contributed an additional record-breaking 18 million pageviews per day. It also helped SINA break new ground in reaching a greater number of traditional consumer products advertisers. New bricks and mortar clients included Ford Motor Company, Kodak, Nestle USA and Panasonic.

During the past quarter, SINA continued to leverage its global reach and strong local presence in each of its markets to offer a "one-stop shop" for reaching Chinese online audiences worldwide. Through multiple service platforms such as the business center and venture capitalist channel in America, as well as the IT marketplace in China, SINA continues to provide information resources and services, connecting Chinese web users and enterprises across the globe, while delivering added value to advertisers and business partners alike.

SINA.com is a leading Internet media and services company for Chinese communities worldwide, offering on-line news, entertainment, community and e-commerce. SINA.com offers a Chinese-language network of four localized Web sites that are produced and updated daily by local teams in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and North America.
As of September 2000, SINA.com enjoyed 46 million average daily pageviews and 11 million registered users.

To learn more about SINA.com, visit the company's corporate site at http://www.sina.com/corp , or regional sites at http://www.sina.com.cn, http://sina.com.hk and http://www.sina.com.tw

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, SINA.com's historical and future losses, limited operating history, uncertain regulatory landscape in the People's Republic of China, fluctuations in quarterly operating results and our reliance on advertising sales for revenue. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in SINA.com's prospectus dated April 12, 2000, in its 10-K filing and in its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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