5 Stocks Earning Their Keep in China

Last week was a lousy one for tech investors, and things didn't get any prettier in China.

However, several of China's publicly traded Internet companies did come through with better-than-expected results.

Sure, a lot of them are still losing money. Investors are also naturally hesitant about buying into a country where the government has made it clear that it doesn't trust cyberspace. No one said that buying into new media in China was going to be a risk-free proposition. However, it's always encouraging to see a niche landing well ahead of the prognosticators.

Let's take a quick look at the five market thumpers.

Source: Thomson Reuters.

Dangdang is a leading online retailer in China. It got its start selling books -- just as our country's top e-tailer did -- but it has branched out into broader items with meatier price tags.

Renren is China's leading social networking website operator. Even in a restrictive country that requires social network users to use their real names, there's growth to be had here.

SINA climbed higher on encouraging monetization news with its popular Weibo micro-blogging platform, but the bottom-line results show that SINA is also losing less money than what the pros had originally feared.

SouFun runs a top real estate and home furnishing Internet portal in China. This may seem like a bad business to be in as the country's real estate bubble pops and the country guides toward slower economic growth, but revenue did surge 43% in its latest quarter.

Sky-mobi -- a fledgling upstart trying to build an App Store equivalent in China -- also earned more than what analysts were expecting.

Betting on China
Even if three of these companies simply earned less than what the market was expecting -- and one of the other two hit a 52-week low after last week's report -- the opportunities are still worth taking for those willing to deal with the high risks in the pursuit of high rewards.

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At the time thisarticle was published Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of SINA. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz calls them as he sees them. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story. Rick is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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