Xiaodong Wang
Analyst · Eddie Leung of Merrill Lynch. Please ask your question
Good morning, everyone. Let me go through our financial highlights. Starting on January 1, 2018, iQIYI adopted ASC 606, a new revenue accounting standard that nets value added tax from the revenue and cost of revenue line. To increase the comparability with 2018 numbers - 2017 numbers for today's discussion have been adjusted net of VAT. For the fourth quarter of 2018, iQIYI's total revenue was RMB7 billion, up 55% year-over-year. Total revenue in 2018 was RMB25 billion, up 52% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by a strong growth of our membership service thanks to our premium content especially our original content titles as well as our various operational initiatives. Membership services revenue for the fourth quarter were RMB3.2 billion, up 76% year-over-year. Membership service revenue in 2018 was RMB10.6 billion, up 72% year-over-year, which was driven by the strong growth in the number of drivers which reached 87.4 million at the end of 2018. Online advertising revenue for the fourth quarter was RMB2.2 billion, up 9% year-over-year, primarily attributable to the growth of brand advertising business. Online advertising revenue in 2018 was RMB9.3 billion, up 21% year-over-year, primarily driven by our innovative advertising solutions and the high quality content offering, especially our original content. Content distribution revenue for the fourth quarter was RMB522 million, up 137% year-over-year. Content distribution revenue in 2018 was [RMB2.2] [ph] billion, up 92% year-over-year. The increase was driven by a number of premium content titles we distributed. Other revenue for the fourth quarter was RMB1.1 billion, up 129% year-over-year. Other revenue in 2018 was RMB2.9 billion, up 105% from year 2017. The increase was driven by a strong performance across various business lines. Moving on to the cost of revenues, our cost of revenues for the fourth quarter was RMB8.5 billion, up 100% year-over-year. Cost of revenue in 2018 was RMB27.1 billion, up 65% from year '17. The increase was primarily driven by higher cost as we persist in our original content strategy to build our comprehensive content library. Content cost was RMB6.5 billion for the fourth quarter and RMB21.1 billion for the year of 2018, up 97% and 67% on the year-over-year basis respectively. Turning to the operating expenses, SG&A expenses in the fourth quarter were RMB1.2 billion, up 58% year-over-year. SG&A expenses in 2018 were RMB4.2 billion, up 56% from year '17. The increase was primarily due to the increase in marketing spending on the channel coverage and the content related promotion as well as increased share based compensation expenses. Our R&D expenses in the fourth quarter were RMB607.5 million, up 67% year-over-year. Research and development expenses in 2018 were RMB2 billion, up 57% from year '17. The increase was primarily due to our continuous investment in R&D people. Operating loss in the fourth quarter was RMB3.3 billion, compared with operating loss of RMB856.1 million in the same period of 2017. The operating loss margin for the fourth quarter was 47% compared to the operating loss margin of 19% in the same period of 2017. Operating loss in 2018 was RMB8.3 billion compared to the operating loss RMB4 billion for 2017. Operating loss margin in 2018 was 33% compared to operating loss margin of 24% in year '17. Total other expense in the fourth quarter was RMB34.8 million, compared to total other income of RMB233.8 million during the same period of 2017. Total other expense in 2018 was RMB676.2 million, compared to a total other income of RMB208.5 million during 2017. The full year variance mainly came from the foreign exchange loss and gain that we recognized in year '18 and the year '17 respectively. The remaining variance was related to lower interest expense and the higher interest income as a result of IPO and other financing activities in the year 2018 as well as the recognition of fair value gain arising from our private company equity investments. Loss before income tax for the fourth quarter was RMB3.4 billion, compared with a loss of RMB622.3 million during the same period of 2017. Loss before income tax in year '18 was RMB9 billion, compared to a loss of RMB3.7 billion in year '17. Income tax expense for the fourth quarter was RMB79.5 million, compared to income tax benefit of RMB9.9 million in the same period in 2017. Income tax expense in year '18 was RMB78.8 million, compared to income tax benefit of RMB7.6 million in year '17. Net loss attributable to iQIYI for the fourth quarter was RMB3.5 billion, compared with a loss of RMB612.4 million during the same period of 2017. Diluted net loss attributable to iQIYI per ADS for the fourth quarter was RMB4.83. Net loss attributable to iQIYI in 2018 was RMB9.1 billion, compared to loss of RMB3.7 billion in year '17. Diluted net loss attributable iQIYI per ADS was RMB17.01 for year 2018. As of December 31, 2018, the company had cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of RMB12.8 [billion] [ph]. In December we closed the offering of $750 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes. As part of our efforts to diversify our financing options and investment updates. Heading for the first quarter 2019 guidance, we expect total revenue to be between RMB6.8 billion and RMB7.1 billion, representing an increase of 40% to 46% year-over-year. This forecast reflects iQIYI's current and preliminary view subject to change. This concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now turn the call to operator to open for Q&A.