Sohu.com Reports US$2.9m Revenue for Second Quarter 2001Sohu.com reported Tuesday its record total revenues of US$2.9 million for its second fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2001.Gross margins exceeded Company Guidance by almost doubling from 12% in the first quarter 2001 to 22% in the second quarter. Pro forma net loss was US$3.3 million or US$0.09 per share for the second quarter 2001, a 22% improvement from the previous quarter. For the second quarter of 2001, advertising revenue grew 7% to US$2.2 million while its pro forma gross margins enjoyed a 100% improvement to reach 22%. Non-advertising revenue (including e-technology, e-subscriptions and e- commerce) rose 78% to US$651,000 or 23% of total revenues, already in excess of Sohu's year-end target for diversified revenues to reach 20% of total revenues. Pro forma operating expenses decreased from US$5.3 million in first quarter 2001 to US$4.5 million in second quarter 2001. Sohu continued its drive to profitability by reducing its pro forma net loss by US$944,000 from the first quarter of 2001. In addition, Sohu's monthly burn rate in the three months ended June 30, 2001 dropped 31% from the previous quarter to US$1.0 million, a substantial improvement on Sohu's own target of US$1.4 million for Q2 set in April this year. During the second quarter of 2001, Sohu, through its group of websites, has been ranked the No 1 China Web Property for each of the prior six months by iamasia, the Hong-Kong based Internet measurement company. In iamasia's latest monthly report, Sohu's reach among general Internet users was 53%. In a similar survey in May, NetValue confirmed Sohu's Web Property leadership. During the second quarter of 2001, Sohu added 6.8 million registered users, driving the total up to 25.4 million, a 37% increase. Traffic rose 17% to 127 million average daily page views for the month of June, compared to 107 million averaged in March 2001. In addition, Sohu expects total revenues for the third quarter 2001 to be between US$3.4 million and US$3.6 million on pro forma gross margins of not less than 23%. |
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