Chinese portal Sohu reports USD45 million loss

Sohu.com Inc., operator of a popular Chinese Internet portal, said yesterday it lost USD45 million in the latest quarter while revenue rose 18 percent to $400 million.
The loss for the three months ended June 30 compared with a $69 million loss in the previous quarter and an operating profit of $64 million in the same period of 2013.
Profits at China’s Internet companies have been squeezed by heavy spending to build a mobile presence as Chinese Web surfers shift quickly to going online wirelessly through smartphones and tablet computers.
Sohu operates online media, search, gaming, community and mobile services.
“For our news and video businesses, we made solid progress in mobile monetization as our large user base successfully attracted a growing number of advertisers,” said chairman Charles Zhang in a statement.
Zhang said Sohu’s Sogou search engine and browser unit achieved profitability faster than expected.
Operating expenses rose 82 percent over a year earlier to $292 million due to an increase in spending on marketing and a bigger workforce.
China is the world’s most populous Internet market, with 632 million people online as of June 30, according to an industry group, the China Internet Network Information Center. Among them, 527 million went online using mobile devices. AP