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(Yicai Global) March 18 -- The stock of China Literature, a user-generated publishing platform spun off from Tencent Holdings, has celebrated better-than-expected earnings by advancing.
China Literature's stock [HKG: 0772] has risen almost 10 percent to HKD38.90 (USD5.0) by 10.41 a.m. The Tencent-backed platform's operating profit soared over 81 percent to CNY1.1 billion (USD163.8 million) last year, its earnings report that was published yesterday shows. Gains from copyright royalties majorly contributed to the success. The firm's revenue rose 23 percent to CNY5 billion (USD750 million).
The company will further develop its online literary ecosystem and accelerate its copyright business, while creating popular content in different forms of entertainment, Co-chief Executive Wu Wenhui said in the report.
The platform's monthly active users exceeded 214 million, up almost 12 percent annually. Each user paid CNY24.1 (USD3.60), up 8 percent, for content monthly. Some 25 of the top 30 online literary works searched on Baidu last December were from the company. It had over 11 million works from nearly 8 million writers.
China Literature bought New Classics Media for CNY15.5 billion last August so that the latter would turn some of the books into TV series and movies. Last year, the buyer authorized some 130 publications to be adapted to videos, games and comics.
The company has translated 300 Chinese texts to English and published over 13,000 original works from foreign writers on its English-language website called WebNovel. The site had over 20 million visits.
Editor: Emmi Laine