LeTV now China’s 2nd most popular video portal, posts big profits and revenue gains

Chinese video site LeTV posted a 56 percent year-on-year increase in net profits and a 122 percent rise in revenue in its Q3 report (PDF in Chinese), raking in RMB 68 million ($11 million) and RMB 613 million ($100 million), respectively. The Innovation Works-backed, Hulu-like site said the gains came mostly from a 106 percent increase in advertising revenue, bringing the total to RMB 540 million ($89 million).

LeTV says its biggest challenges are competition for more licensed content and acquiring more users. According to comScore’s and iUserTracker’s September statistics cited in the Q3 report, 172 million unique visitors clicked on LeTV, more than 20 million daily.

LeTV now ranks second in number of daily and monthly unique visitors, edging out both iQiyi and Sohu but still far behind Youku. In terms of total monthly watch time for all users, it also lags behind Youku. However, LeTV has the longest per capita watching time of any Chinese online video portal.

LeTV’s Q3 report didn’t mention how much revenue came from its C1S set-top box or smart TV models.

To boost its original content selection, LeTV recently bought production studio Flower TV, which has made several popular Chinese TV series over the years.

LeTV received $32.5 million in funding this summer, its first round of funding since going public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2010.

(Hat-tip to China Tech News for spotting)

(Editing by Steven Millward)