SINGAPORE - Social e-commerce firm YuuZoo Corp said its nine-month adjusted net profit surged 286 per cent to US$8.5 million from the same period a year ago, thanks to new high-margin revenues and lower cost of sales.

Revenue for the period grew 26 per cent, through a combination of franchise revenue, network development revenue, payment revenue and e-commerce revenue.

Ebitda, a measure of operating earnings, grew 367 per cent to US$11.2 million

YuuZoo chief executive Thomas Zilliacus said: "As evident from the numbers, we are on a very strong trajectory. For the fourth consecutive year, YuuZoo's revenue and ebitda have improved.

"The number of franchisees, partners and resellers is growing strongly. In the first nine months we have grown our access to over 65 million registered users and over 700 million TV viewers from 37 million registered users and no TV viewers in the corresponding period in 2013."

YuuZoo's payment merchants have grown from seven in the same period last year to over 100 today, he added.

"The growth in users, viewers and merchants all lays the groundwork for strong e-commerce, advertising and payment revenues in the near future. We have branched into the massively lucrative gaming market with the partnership with Thailand-based Sandbox, a leading mobile and online game developer. We have every reason to believe that the growth will continue strong in the fourth quarter and beyond."

YuuZoo was listed on the main board of the Singapore Exchange in September.

The company combines e-commerce, social networking and gaming in one integrated "virtual shopping mall" concept.

In addition to franchisees and resellers, where YuuZoo collects both a franchise fee and a revenue share from the franchisees and pays a commission to resellers, YuuZoo introduced joint venture and partnership models earlier this year.

Under this model, YuuZoo provides everything but the local marketing, which is handled by the local partner.