VisionChina: revenue, ad minutes, screen numbers all up
VisionChina Media, a major operator of digital signage on China's buses which is now moving into the subway market too, more than quadrupled its revenue in the second quarter.
At $20.3m in the quarter ending on 30 June, revenue was 332 percent up on the same period in the previous year. Operating profit, at $7.8m in the second quarter, rose from $4.5m in the first quarter; it had been negligible a year ago.
By the end of the quarter, said VisionChina, it had installed 60,160 displays on buses, subway trains and subway platforms, up from 48,719 at the close of the first quarter. It was present on bus networks in 16 cities and subways in three – and has since then added a fourth subway city, Shanghai.
During the quarter, VisionChina's cash reserves were depleted by a net $10m as it paid deposits on contracts allowing it to advertise on transport networks, and on the acquisition of several media-planning firms
Advertising sales went well in the quarter too, despite the impact of the 12 May Sichuan earthquake. VisionChina sold an average of 8.14 ad minutes per broadcasting hour, up from 6.59 minutes in the same quarter a year ago, and ratecard increases helped boost advertising revenue per broadcasting hour to $661 – 175 percent up year-on-year.
The company has since made further ratecard increases in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
VisionChina said it lost about 540 advertising hours, or $2.6m in revenue, as a result of the earthquake.
For the next quarter, VisionChina expects revenue to reach $34-36m, aided by its status as a Class B medium in Beijing – one which is not restricted during the Olympics to showing ads from the games' sponsors, but can also air commercials from other non-competing brands.
The earnings news and outlook pushed VisionChina stock, traded on the U.S. NASDAQ market with the ticker symbol VISN, up about 22 percent in late-afternoon trading to nearly touch its 52-week high.
www.visionchina.cn
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