“Sohu.com Inc. (SOHU), owner of China’s third-largest search engine, posted first-quarter profit that beat analyst estimates on higher online advertising sales.
Net income rose 14 percent to $23 million, the Beijing- based company said in a statement today. That beat the $18.8 million average of six analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales rose 36 percent to $308 million, compared with the average of analysts’ estimate of $296 million.
Sohu has expanded into online videos and search in competition with Baidu Inc. (BIDU) to diversify its sales channels and depend less on its Web portal business in China, which has more Internet users than the population of any country except India. Revenue from online advertisements rose 41 percent from a year earlier to $116 million, it said.
“Online advertising was better than expected,” Eric Qiu, an analyst at Guosen Securities Co. in Hong Kong, said by telephone before the results. “Most of the ad growth is coming from its portal website and search business,” said Qiu, who recommends buying the stock….”
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