Sina says quarterly profit triples

(AP) Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp. says its quarterly earnings tripled compared with a year earlier but has warned its fast-growing Weibo microblog service is unlikely to produce significant operating profit this year.

Sina said Thursday its profit for the three months ended June 30 was $33.2 million, or 49 cents per share, on revenue of $131.6 million.

CEO Charles Chao said Sina Weibo is unlikely to produce "significant operating profits" in the second half. Chao said Sina still is investing in the service and plans to start larger-scale monetization of the service next year.

Chao said the number of registered Sina Weibo accounts reached 368 million by the end of June, up 13.6 percent from March.