Sina Weibo sees 77% rise in revenue

Visitors stand next to a signage of Weibo.com, the Twitter-like Chinese microblog platform, at the Shanghai Book Fair 2014 on Aug 18, 2014. [Photo/IC]

China's Twitter-like microblog platform Sina Weibo reported a 77 percent surge in net revenue to $334.2 million in 2014, said the company on Tuesday.

Weibo ended last year with a net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of $63.4 million, which was in part due to the change in fair value of investor option liability and Alibaba's investment in the company, said its latest earnings report.

Its stock was down 5.8 percent to $14.02 per share in after-hours trading after the company released the results.

The microblog platform reported a 78 percent year-on-year increase in advertising and marketing revenues to $264.8 million in 2014.

"On the monetization front, mobile ad revenues now make up more than half of Weibo's total ad revenues," said Wang Gaofei, the company's CEO in the statement, adding that "2015 will be another high growth year for mobile and social marketing in China, and we are well positioned to take advantage of this trend."

For the fourth quarter of 2014, Weibo reported a net revenue increase of 47 percent year-on-year to $105.2 million and a sharp decrease in net income attributable to ordinary shareholders from $21.6 million same period in 2013 to $4.6 million.

The social media projects its net revenues in the first quarter to be between $93 million and $96 million, according to the financial report.

The Beijing-based company debuted on the Nasdaq in April last year with a $286 million initial public offering. It introduced Alibaba as a stakeholder in 2013.