In July, Sina agreed to sell its online real estate business to E-House China Holdings in exchange for a stake in a newly formed company, China Real Estate, which listed on the Nasdaq in October.

To help it expand the number of users, Sina has a number of niche portals catering to sectors such as food, autos and games.

Chao expects advertising sentiment to improve further in 2010 with the World Expo being held in Shanghai next year and major sporting events taking place.

Citigroup analyst Catherine Leung said Sina was poised to deliver robust performance in 2010 as it benefits from an improvement in margins.

Sina’s advertising revenue fell 16 percent in the third quarter, but rose 10 percent from the previous quarter to $63.8 million. The company forecasts advertising revenue between $60 million and $62 million.

Net profit fell to $16.7 million, or 29 cents a share, from $18.85 million, or 31 cents a share, a year ago.

Including advertising revenue from its online real estate business, which was recently merged with another company, it expects fourth quarter revenue to come in between $106 million to $109 million. That tops the average $99.5 million forecast from analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.

After excluding that business, the revenue will range between $93 million to $96 million.

Source : Konaxis