Bilibili's Fourth-Quarter Revenue Rose on Stronger Livestreaming, Ads — Update
By Jiahui Huang and Ben Otto
Bilibili's quarterly revenue rose as stronger advertising and livestreaming offset a drop in mobile-game sales, while cost cuts helped improve the bottom line.
The Chinese video-streaming company said Thursday that total net revenue for the fourth quarter rose 3.4% from a year earlier to 6.35 billion yuan ($882.2 million). That matched a consensus estimate in a FactSet poll of analysts and marked an expansion from third-quarter revenue.
Quarterly net loss was CNY1.30 billion, narrowing from CNY1.49 billion in the year-ago period, helped by lower operating expenses. The bottom line missed a FactSet estimate for net loss of CNY1.24 billion.
Adjusted net loss, which excludes share-based compensation expenses and fair-value changes in some investments, among other items, was CNY555.6 million in the quarter, beating an estimate for adjusted net loss of CNY583.8 million.
Chief Financial Officer Sam Fan said the results put the company "on track to achieve our profitability goal," highlighting a sixth straight quarter of margin expansion and a 17% drop in operating expenses in the quarter. The company last year said it had a goal to achieve break-even by 2024.
Bilibili's value-added services segment, which includes livestreaming and premium memberships, remained the top contributor to its top line, rising 22% to CNY2.86 billion.
The mobile-game segment remained a drag on earnings after flagship title "Uma Musume Pretty Derby" was banned in China in September amid a crackdown on China's game industry with intensifying restrictions on licenses and game content. Game revenue fell 12% to CNY1.01 billion.
Bilibili, founded in 2009, hasn't been profitable since first listing in the U.S. in 2018.
The company, known locally as a Chinese equivalent to YouTube, competes with ByteDance's Douyin and Baidu's iQIYI. The latter recently posted a 1.5% rise in fourth-quarter revenue, marking its lowest top-line total of 2023.
In a departure from past years' earnings reports, Bilibili didn't include revenue guidance for the full year.
Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com and Ben Otto at ben.otto@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 07, 2024 06:31 ET (11:31 GMT)
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