SINA Corp intends to monetize its Twitter-like microblog platform as soon as next year through advertising displays and value-added services, Chief Executive Officer Charles Chao said yesterday.

The country's largest web portal posted an 87 percent annual jump in profit to US$31.3 million in the third quarter, or 48 cents per share, the company said in a statement.

Revenue rose 12 percent year on year to US$108.2 million, with online advertising income jumping 50 percent to US$81 million, as spending during the Shanghai World Expo and the World Cup rose.

Non-advertising revenue, which are mainly wireless value-added services, fell 16 percent from a year ago to US$27.3 million in the period.

Chao said the portal's microblog platform attracted an extra 20 million users in the past two months. By the end of October there were 50 million registered users.

He told analysts during a conference call yesterday that third-party software developers are set to benefit from the open platform.

Sina expects revenue between US$103 million and US$106 million in the fourth quarter, lower than Reuters's average forecast of U$108.7 million. Sina projects advertising income at between US$81 million and US$83 million.