Horoscope ban hits Sina

Media content provider Sina said a government crackdown on sales of horoscopes and other fortune telling service threatened to cut as much as a quarter from its annual revenues. The New York-listed company, which provides content for mobile phone and Internet services, said the tough new measures would severely damage some of its most important growth drivers. Shares in the company had dropped by more than 20% in the middle of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday week traditionally a peak time for Chinese to turn to horoscopes and other predictions for the year ahead. The Chinese government has said the new measures are designed to tackle old superstitions. In 2004 Sina posted revenues of more than US$200m.