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Chinese wireless Internet firm Tom Online beat its forecast and
reported record high revenues for the second quarter yesterday.
The Beijing-based company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and
the NASDAQ in New York, said yesterday its revenues in the past quarter
rose by almost 40 per cent year-on-year and over 21 per cent
quarter-on-quarter to US$42.78 million, which exceeded its forecast of
US$37.8-38.88 million.
Net profits reached US$10.24 million, 1.8 per cent higher than the same
period last year and 11.8 per cent higher than the first quarter.
"I am very excited that we set another record," Wang Leilei, chief
executive officer of Tom Online, told China Daily over the phone.
However, the stocks of the Chinese firm backed by the richest Chinese
Li- Ka-shing fell by almost 6 per cent yesterday to HK$1.31 (17 US cents),
before the results were announced.
Peter Lu, a Beijing-based Internet analyst, said wireless value-added
services have been suffering from a market regulatory campaign since late
2003 and a change of revenue-sharing scheme between China Mobile and
service providers like Tom Online. This greatly concerns investors. He
added since Tom Online did not meet its previous forecast for the first
quarter, investors would also prefer to wait and see future trends of the
firm.
Recent changes in the revenue sharing model are actually favourable to
big service providers for Tom Online, Wang explained, because China Mobile
wants to get more revenues from smaller firms, which do not have the
capability to promote their services. For big players like Tom Online,
however, the scheme remained unchanged.
"I understand the market still has a dubious eye on wireless
value-added services, but we will persist in our business and convince
them with our results," said Wang. He pointed out that short messaging
service (SMS) and interactive voice response (IVR) were two big
contributors to the company's growth.
The text-based SMS rose by 22 per cent quarter-on-quarter to US$15.41
million, while the voice-based IVR increased by 24 per cent over the first
quarter to US$13.2 million.
Tom Online tried to break into the online game
market with an imported shooting game Karma Online from South Korea but
was not successful. The company yesterday started the commercial operation
of Karma Online 2, trying to keep apace
with the gaming market for a future take-off.
(China Daily) | 
Updated: 2005-08-12 10:30
