China.com, a 77%-owned subsidiary of CDC Corporation (CHINA), announced its financial results for the three months ended 30 September, 2006.
During the period, the company says it recorded total revenue of HK$132 million, representing an increase of 22% over the same period last year, while gross profit was HK$82 million, up 33% year-on-year. Profit attributable to shareholders was HK$17.5 million, up 251% from Q3 2005. Balance sheet position remained strong with net cash and interest-bearing securities at over HK$949 million as at 30 September 2006.
The company's mobile value-added services (MVAS) business activity was initially negatively impacted at the beginning of the quarter due to new consumer-friedly regulations put in place in China. Its July revenue from mobile
services and applications experienced a 39% month-on-month decline and a 29% decrease compared to the same period last year.
However, the company had already begun a recovery by the middle of the quarter and had shown
continuing growth on a monthly basis since the end of July. In August, China.com says it successfully reversed the downtrend of mobile services and applications revenue, with a 2% month-on-month increase. In September,
it continued the growth trend with a 21% increase in revenue compared to August.
"With more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers, China's mobile market remains the largest in the world and will continue to be the largest in years to come. We have strong confidence in the long-term future of the sector. MVAS has been our core business unit and will continue to provide us with growth opportunities. The Group will employ its strong cash position to selectively acquire synergistic and earnings accretive companies in the industry," said Dr. Xiaowei Chen, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of China.com.
In Q3 2006, the online game revenue increased by 10% to HK$66.8 million as compared to Q2 2006. Yulgang, the company's current online game in China, maintained a stable performance in Q3 2006. After 3 consecutive quarters of robust growth, the peak concurrent users and the average concurrent users of Yulgang remained healthy at 331,000 and 218,000 respectively, a slight drop of 5% and 7% respectively from Q2 2006.
During the quarter, the China.com portal has also been appointed by Jilin Government as the exclusive web sponsor of the 2007 Asian Winter Games. This is the first time that Asian Winter Games athletes will all register online, using China.com's web platform. The company also signed a deal with BDL Media to use the company's content from its popular Xianzai.com and ChinaPulse.com websites.
