STRONG advertising sales boosted Chinese portal Sina.com's third quarter earnings 61 percent which helped offset a decline in wireless services revenue.

The strong growth in ad sales was fueled by a sharp rise in financial service ads and the portal's commercializing bloggers' space has also contributed to the sterling results.

Net income hit US$17.2 million, or 28 US cents per diluted share, compared to US$10.7 million, or 19 US cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenues grew 15 percent to US$64.3 million, Shanghai-based Sina Corp said in a statement yesterday.

Sina, China's largest portal, is relying increasingly heavily on ad sales as the non-ad business shrank in the quarter, mostly due to a decline in mobile value added services as a result of a tougher regulatory environment.

Ad revenue swelled 40 percent in the quarter to US$45.8 million, while non-ad sales fell 21 percent to US$18.5 million, which met company guidance.

Besides au...

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