Sohu.com, a popular Chinese web portal, said its quarterly profit rose 600% over the same period last year on strong advertising and online games revenues ahead of August's Beijing Olympics.

Sohu, the official web portal for the games, also announced plans for an initial public stock offering for its online games unit, Changyou.com.

Earnings for the three months ended June 30 were $40.2 million, or $1.02 per share, the Beijing-based company said. It gave no comparative figures for the earlier period but said the latest quarter represented a 604% increase. It said revenues rose 162% from the year-earlier period to $102 million, exceeding its highest forecasts.

"We expect that penetration of the internet in China will be escalated to an even higher level with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and that, combined with our technological advancements and portal strength, will help us to continue our success for the remainder of 2008 and beyond," Belinda Wang, co-president and chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Quarterly advertising revenues were up 53% over the year-earlier period at $41.7 million, while games revenues rose 11.5 times to $47.9 million, the company said.

Sohu offers online media, communications, search, mobile value-added services and games.

Source:AP News