Wang Yu
Analyst · Jefferies. Please ask your question
Thanks. So let me briefly review Tantan’s operational and business development in the past quarter and our next development [ph] First, on user metrics. As many of you know, we had some issues around user retention, which caused a number of daily active users to be under pressure since September last year. Last December, through a series of products and algorithm optimization, we fixed the issue and push the attention back to where it was before the download suspension happened. As we stepped up the channel marketing efforts in January we saw that DAU grow rapidly during the two weeks period from late January to mid-February. However, since February 10th, as the spread of COVID-19 continued beyond Wuhan and a nationwide lockdown kept getting elevated. We have seen the dating sentiments quickly waning, creating headwinds to new registration as well active paying conversion [ph] from Tantan. In response to these situations, we scaled back our marketing spending in March due to ROI considerations. The combination of the above mentioned factors have cost the active users to trim down since mid-February, which led to a 300,000 net decrease in the number of paying users to 4.2 million at the end of Q1. With the lockdowns lifted and outdoor activity is gradually coming back, we expect to see dating sentiments start to recover gradually as well. However, we also believe this can be a progressive process as most of the people are still wearing masks in outdoors and it can take time for young people in China to completely let down the psychological barrier to meet someone they did not know well for intimate interactions. The other thing worth mentioning is that although the number of active users were under pressure during Q1, the number of active female users and their engagements gradually grew on a sequential basis. This tells us that female users are less focused on online to offline conversions, are more into building deeper level online emotional connection. It confirms our belief that by adding richer online interactive features we can make content appeal to a broader base of users. Now briefly on revenues. Total revenue for the first quarter was RMB 381.7 million, up 29% year-over-year and a slight uptick from the previous quarter. Although a number of paying users decreased pretty meaningfully, the ARPPU grew significantly due to the outstanding performance of FlashChat and revenue mix shifting more towards higher ARPPU per [ph] subscriptions. The grossing to revenue conversion is another factor for the RP to increase. Now let me give you an update on the progresses we made against our key strategic priorities. First on product and operations. Our key focus here is to enrich the product experiences in order to drive the long term user retention. In our early days, Tantan started from the metropolitan cities in China and focused on college students and people in the late teens and early 20s. The simple swipe to match experience were effective for this demographic. As Tantan’s user base grow and the demographic broadened, we need more features and experiences to better serve the increasingly diversified social preferences. In November last year, we rolled out the FlashChat experience on Tantan, which allows the often users to get immediately connected with someone for a conversation before they focus too much on profile pictures. The new feature has been well-received, driving immediate surge in the number of two way messages. It also opens up new monetization opportunities. As Quick Chat continues to gain traction among users, revenue also ramped up rapidly in Q1, now representing more than 10% of our total revenues. We believe there's still a lot of potential in this experience and we'll continue to optimize and drive growth from it. The success of FlashChat proves that adding new features the right way can indeed benefit us both in terms of engagements and in terms of financials. In Q1, we also accelerated the rollout of the new version, which features Nearby Posts to allow users to share more aspects of their lives as well as make new discoveries based on content. Up to now, the new version has already reached 100% coverage among Tantan users. Like many other social networking products, having a content community is very critical for driving meaningful interactions between users. The introduction of the Nearby Posts is an important step that we've taken to provide Tantan users richer ways to connect beyond our signature swiping experience. We will continue to optimize the new version, and enhance the community experience around it. In Q1 we also move deeper with an internal testing of an important consumer experience, the live video service. We believe this has especially important - this was especially important during the social distancing period as it provides an alternative way to connect virtually and make people feel less isolated. In mid-April we released more users into the testing group. As a number of users grow, we can now invite more quality broadcasters onto the platform and improve the quality content, which will further drive improvements in user engagements, as well as the monetization potentials. Now a brief update on monetization efforts. Obviously, the testing of live video is not just an endeavor to improve user experience, but also an effort to unlock the monetization value of the platform. We believe that Tantan users have strong willingness and motivation to pay for value added services in order to enhance their social experience. However, this huge paying potential needs to be unleashed by a combination of subscription and a la carte features. Live video is a proven monetization mechanism that drives ARPPU enrich. If done correctly - carefully and in the right way can also contribute to user engagements. We intend to continue the testing with extreme prudence and carefully monitor the data to make sure we stay on the right track with Tantan's core mission, which is helping users build romantic relationships. Other than live video, we also have a number of other priorities, which including - include optimizing the Quick Chat experience and the existing subscription features as well as testing the formula of other new revenue features. We will continue to give you guys updates as the year progresses. Those are the key things that I'd like to cover for today. Now let me pass the call over to Mr. Jonathan Zhang for financial review. Zhang, please.