(Yicai Global) Dec. 29 -- Weibo’s share price sank after the Chinese social media platform operator said profit fell 77 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier.

Weibo [NASDAQ: WB] closed 13.5 percent lower at USD38.33 in New York yesterday, trimming its market capitalization to USD8.68 billion.

Net profit was USD33.8 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Beijing-based company said in an earnings report yesterday, attributing the decline to an investment impairment loss and fair value change. Revenue was flat at USD466 million, but down 4 percent based on a constant currency basis.

“We are pleased with Weibo’s recovery trend, despite challenges [that] still persisted,” Chief Executive Officer Gaofei Wang said in a statement.

For the current quarter, the firm said it expects revenue to have gained between 1 percent and 3 percent from a year ago, less than the 4.5 percent analysts forecast.

Advertising and marketing, which accounted for more than 80 percent of Weibo’s revenue in the past three years, rose 1 percent to USD417 million in the third quarter. Value-added service revenue fell 11 percent to USD49.1 million, mainly due to lower income from live broadcasting and partially offset by revenue growth from membership.

Weibo had 511 million MAUs in September, down 11 million from June. The ranks of its daily active users tallied 224 million in a 5 million slide from the previous quarter, the second straight quarter in which MAUs and DAUs fell from the period before.

The company “faced incremental headwinds in terms of user growth for the second half of the year mainly due to negative impact from cutbacks in investments for variety shows and entertainment industries as well as back-to-school seasonality,” Wang said on an conference call with analysts after the earnings report came out.

Editor: Ben Armour, Xiao Yi