Chinese Internet media company Sina Corp  said its quarterly profit nearly doubled because of a 58 percent rise in advertising revenue ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games this month.

Second-quarter net income was $25.2 million, or 42 cents a share, the company said on Wednesday, compared with $14.5 million, or 25 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding special items, profit rose to 33 cents a share. Analysts polled by Reuters Estimates were expecting profit of 40 cents a share. It was not immediately clear that those two figures were comparable.

Revenue rose 53 percent to $91.3 million, beating the average analysts' forecast of $89.4 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Advertising revenue rose to $64.9 million in the second quarter, at the high end of the company's own forecast.

Advertising at its China business grew 59 percent over last year, and the company said it expects momentum to accelerate in the third quarter as it prepares for its online media coverage of the Olympic games.

Sina forecast third quarter revenue of $100 million to $104 million, while analysts' average forecast was for $99.9 million. It expects advertising revenue of $75 million to $77 million. It forecast third-quarter non-advertising revenue of $25 million to $27 million.

Source:Reuters