LONDON (ShareCast) - Video search engine company blinkx remained in the red at the interim stage as sales and marketing costs continued to run ahead of revenue.

Revenue from continuing operations in the six months to 31 March totalled $3.6m. The company demerged from Autonomy in April 2007 so no figures are available for the comparable 2007 period.

Research and development costs were $1.9m and sales and marketing costs came to $4.7m.

Loss before taxation was $3.5m after investment revenues of $1.1m.

Suranga Chandratillake, founder and CEO of blinkx, said the company had surpassed all of the business, financial and technology targets set at the time of its flotation and was ahead of schedule in its progress towards profitability.

The company said the number of unique visitors to its web site reached a record 56.1m in March in the wake of recently added syndication customers such as Ask.com, RealNetworks and InfoSpace.

The blinkx index of fully searchable online video has now exceeded 26m, more than tripling in the last 12 months, helped by collaborations with media giants such as CBS and, through its iPlayer, the BBC.

• News Channel