The top Chinese Internet portal Sina Corp, a frequent target of reports of personnel changes, has appointed a new chief executive officer (CEO).

It also announced first quarter profit is down from the same period of last year.

The Beijing-headquartered Internet firm said yesterday that Wang Yan has resigned from the post of CEO and taken over as vice-chairman. Charles Cao, former president and chief financial officer, was appointed CEO.

It has often been said that Wang, one of the first employees of Sina 10 years ago, would resign as CEO due to being at the firm a long time and 'hardship' at Sina since his appointment in 2003.

However, yesterday he said he probably would not leave Sina for at least three years and even if he did, his new position would be helpful to the company.

"It may be true that I will want to seek other opportunities in the future, but I will always stay with Sina and be a member of the company," Wang said.

Sina is the largest online advertising company in China, but it has also diversified since 2002 into such things as online games and mobile value-added services. However, hasty entry into these businesses -- when they were more popular -- have not proven too successful.

In the first quarter of this year, the company sold its stake in an online game joint venture to its South Korean partner. The sharp decline in wireless value-added services has also led to a fall in Sina's financial results.

The NASDAQ-listed firm said yesterday its revenue in the first quarter was US$46.7 million, compared with US$45.8 million in the same period of 2005 and US$52 million in the previous year.

Sina's net profit stood at US$7 million for the first quarter of this year, while the figures for the same period of 2005 and the last quarter of that year were US$10.3 million and US$13.8 million respectively.

The first quarter is usually a weak quarter for online advertising business.

The company's wireless value-added services revenue fell by 14 per cent year-on-year to US$22.7 million.

Duan Yongji, chairman of Sina, said yesterday the company had expected revenue to fall sharply this year, but the fall in the first quarter was not too drastic.

In the past year, three senior executives including co-chairman, chief operating officer and senior vice-president of online advertising have left Sina.

Peter Lu, a senior Internet industry analyst in Beijing, said the personnel transition in Sina will be smooth, since Wang will remain with Sina and Cao has been working at Sina for seven years.

"The more pressing problem for Sina is how to maintain its growth in online advertising with competitors catching up and new technologies popping up, while continuing to find new growth engines," he said.

Source: China Daily