Chinese social media giant Sina Weibo reported strong revenue growth in 2016 thanks to booming advertising and marketing demand.

The tech firm raked in net revenue of about $655.8 million, up 37 percent year on year, according to its financial statement released on February 23.

Advertising and marketing services remained the major source of income, bringing in $571 million last year, a 42-percent surge over 2015.

Revenue from value-added services (VAS) such as gaming increased 12 percent year on year.

The fourth quarter growth was impressive, outperforming annual growth in many aspects.

Wang Gaofei, Weibo CEO, attributed strong advertising revenue to enterprises' growing interest in using mobile, social networking and video marketing tools.

The Nasdaq-listed Weibo posted strong growth on the stock market, growing from less than $20 per share in early 2016 to over $50 per share by the end of last year.

Weibo boasted about 313 million monthly active users as of the end of December, up 33 percent year on year, with 90 percent of them coming from mobile terminals.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2017)