Weibo Stock Skyrockets 11% Today—Here’s Why Traders Are FOMOing

Chinese social media giant Weibo just pulled off a double-digit rally while your portfolio probably slept. What lit the fuse?

The short squeeze play: No earnings bomb or acquisition hype—just classic market mechanics catching shorts off-guard. Retail traders piled in after early momentum breached key resistance levels.

Platform power play: Weibo's ad revenue resilience (despite China's economic headwinds) suggests influencers still mint money on the platform. Because nothing sells like FOMO—even in a bear market.

The cynical take: Another dead-cat bounce in a year full of them, or legitimate breakout? Either way, hedge funds will collect their vig while you stress over the charts.

Grateful for a double beat

Reporting in U.S. dollars, Weibo said its second-quarter net revenue was just under $445 million, for a 2% year-over-year increase. Much of this derived from that classic social media revenue stream, advertising and marketing -- this also ROSE 2%, to slightly over $383 million. Value-added services went in the opposite direction, sinking by 2% to $61 million and change.

Image source: Getty Images.

In terms of operating metrics, Weibo's average daily active users figure was 261 million in June. The monthly active user (MAU) number was 588 million. Both were up, if not spectacularly, from the respective 256 million and 583 million in the same month of 2024.

On the bottom line, non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) adjusted net income rose more compellingly. It totaled slightly over $143 million ($0.54 per ADS) for a 13% improvement over the year-ago quarter.

Both headline figures were comfortably above the average analyst estimates, a major reason for the double-digit share price bounce on Thursday. Those pundits were collectively modeling less than $440 million on the top line, and $0.43 per ADS for adjusted net income.

Artificial intelligence boosts real growth

Investors also surely liked what they heard about Weibo's continuing dive into artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced offerings. The company quoted CEO Gaofei Wang as saying that "our user community of AI-powered intelligent search grew robustly, which further drove the increase of the overall search needs of users."