SINA

Sina Corporation

SINA Corporation (“SINA”, “we” or the “Company”) is an online media company and value-added information service provider in the People’s Republic of China (the “PRC” or “China”) and the global Chinese communities. With a branded network of localized web sites targeting Greater China and overseas Chinese, the Company provides services through five major business lines including SINA.com (online news and content), SINA Mobile (mobile value-added services or “MVAS”), SINA Community (Web 2.0-based services and games), SINA.net (search and enterprise services) and SINA E-Commerce (online shopping). Together these business lines provide an array of services including region-focused online portals, MVAS, search and directory, interest-based and community-building channels, free and premium email, blog services, audio and video streaming, online games, classified listings, fee-based services, e-commerce and enterprise e-solutions. The Company generates the majority of its revenues from online advertising and MVAS offerings, and, to a lesser extent, from search and other fee-based services.
The Company was founded in March 1999 through the merger of Beijing SINA Information Technology Co. Ltd. and California-based SINANET.com. In April 2000, the Company completed its initial public offering and was listed on the NASDAQ market. Incorporated in the Cayman Islands, SINA is headquartered in Shanghai, China and has offices in seven cities and a network of four web sites around the world.

SINA offers distinct and targeted content on each of its region-specific web sites and a range of complementary offerings designed to broaden its user base and increase user traffic. Through its efforts, the Company has established large scale and audience reach and has built a leading position in the online media market in China. As of December 31, 2006, SINA had over 200 million registered users worldwide. The Company aims to become the media platform of choice for Internet users to research and retrieve information and for businesses to market and promote their products. SINA offers a range of complementary offerings, all centered on its core content business that are intended to enhance the attractiveness of its portal business and strengthen its reach in the community.
In 2006, the Company under new leadership re-positioned some of its business segments in an effort to better align its corporate strategies and objectives. Community-based products and services such as Blog and BBS, previously housed under SINA Online, have been re-organized under SINA Community.
Also in 2006, the Company released additional online content and product offerings. SINA provided coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, which attracted the highest page view for this event among its peers in China. The Company established new content partnerships, such as obtaining content rights for several major European football teams, as well as launched new products across its major business segments. In the Web 2.0 space, the Company introduced SINA Video and SINA Podcast. In the mobile area, Mobile Search, Mobile Blog and Mobile Video were launched.

trategic Relationships
SINA has developed strategic relationships with a range of content, service, application and distribution partners in order to serve users more effectively and to extend its brand and services to a broader audience.
Content Partnerships
The goal of SINA’s content partnerships is to provide its users with a large offering of Chinese-language content. SINA contracts with content partners to display their content on one or more of its web sites free of charge or in exchange for a share of revenue, a licensing fee, and access to SINA-generated content or a combination of these arrangements. Some of SINA’s leading content providers include Xinhua News Agency, China National Radio, AFP, Associated Press, Nanfang Daily Group and Beijing Zhongxin Net. For its mobile content, SINA has established content partnerships with certain international record label companies to provide image and music downloads.
Application and Service Partnership
The goal of SINA’s application and service partnerships is to ensure that its users have access to user-friendly, reliable and scalable communication and search tools. Because many of the Company’s prospective partners have traditionally focused on non-Chinese speaking markets, SINA’s internal engineering and development teams often work closely with them to localize their solutions for the Chinese-language market.

Technology Infrastructure
SINA’s operating infrastructure is designed to deliver hundreds of millions of page views per day to its users. This scalable infrastructure allows SINA’s users to access its products and services, regardless of their geographical location. SINA’s infrastructure is also designed to provide high-speed access by forwarding queries to its web hosting sites with greater resources or lower loads. The Company’s web pages are generated, served and cached by servers hosted at various co-location web hosting sites in China, U.S., Taiwan and Hong Kong.
SINA’s servers run on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Windows platforms using Apache and IIS servers. These servers are primarily maintained at China Telecommunications Corporation and China Network Communications Group Corporation in Beijing and Tianjin, China, TNN in Taipei, Taiwan, X.O. Communication in Fremont, California, as well as iAdvantage and Wharf T&T in Hong Kong. The Company believes that these hosting partners provide operating advantages, including an enhanced ability to protect their systems from power loss, break-ins and other potential external causes of service interruption. They provide continuous customer service, multiple connections to the Internet and a continuous power supply to their systems. In addition, SINA conducts online monitoring of all its systems for accessibility, load, system resources, network-server intrusion and timeliness of content. SINA’s mobile applications in China leverage the aforementioned web operation resources by utilizing the wireless infrastructure of China Mobile and China Unicom to provide MVAS to SINA’s users.
Seasonality
The Company experiences seasonality in its online advertising business. Traditionally, in the China market, the fourth calendar quarter represents the best season for general advertising markets. This is followed by the third and second calendar quarters. The first calendar quarter is usually the worst season in China due to the Chinese New Year. There is little seasonality in the Company’s MVAS and other offerings.

Employees
As of December 31, 2006, we had approximately 1,900 full-time employees, approximately 1,850 of whom are employed in China with the remaining employed in the United States of America, Hong Kong and Taiwan. From time to time we employ independent contractors to support our production, engineering, marketing, and sales departments. Our Chinese employees are members of a labor association that represents employees with respect to labor disputes and other employee matters. To date, we have not experienced a work stoppage or a labor dispute that has interfered with our operations.