Shirley Hu
Analyst · Jefferies. Thomas, your line is open
Thank you, Ross, and greetings to everyone. I will now turn to our financial results. Our effective monetization of online music services and operational efficiency in management continue to drive strong financial results in the third quarter of 2024. With strong performance in our music subscription and advertising business, we are pleased to see our revenue growth resume its growth trajectory on a year-over-year basis. Our adjusted net profit increased by 35% year-over-year to RMB 1.7 billion, and our IFRS net profit rose by 29% year-over-year to RMB 1.9 billion. Total revenues in the third quarter of 2024 were RMB 7 billion, up by 7% year-over-year. Online music revenues increased by 20% year-over-year to RMB 5.5 billion. This increase was mainly driven by the strong expansion of our music subscription revenues, supplemented by growth in advertising revenues as well as growth in revenues from offline performances. Music subscription revenues in the third quarter of 2024 reached RMB 3.8 billion, representing a 20% increase year-over-year and a 3% rise sequentially. The ARPU was RMB 10.8, and the number of online music users was 119 million, representing a 16% increase year-over-year with quarterly net adds of 2 million users. With the goal of achieving growth in both subscribers and monthly ARPU, we have strategically focused on our SVIP membership program and enhanced membership benefits such as priority access to digital albums, presale for tickets to concerts and fan activities, and high-quality audio and sound effects for mobile and in-car users. These benefits and features have helped us reach an important milestone of surpassing 10 million SVIP members. Advertising revenues also had strong year-over-year growth, primarily due to the growth in ad-supported music revenues. We continue to innovate and diversify our product offerings and advertising formats. The attractive interactive features and enriched benefits we offered helped improve engagement rates for our ad-supported advertising and enhance user engagement and eCPM, attracting even more advertisers this quarter. Social entertainment services and other revenue were RMB 1.5 billion, down by 24% year-over-year. For social entertainment services, our top priority is safety in operation, and we will keep monitoring market conditions and the competitive landscape. Meanwhile, we continue to innovate and build new products and features to drive quality growth in areas such as live streaming, membership, advertising, and social talent. Our gross margin for the quarter reached 42.6%, representing an increase of 6.9 percentage points year-over-year due to a few factors. First, the expansion of our paying user base, the enhanced ARPU for online music, and the growth in advertising revenues have positively impacted our gross margin. Second, we have been focused on ROC as a key metric to manage our content and royalty costs. Third, the ramping up of our own content continues to help improve our gross margins. Lastly, the growth in SVIP memberships and advertising in social entertainment also positively impacted our gross margin. Moving on to operating expenses, in the third quarter of 2024, they amounted to RMB 1.2 billion, representing 17.4% of our total revenues, compared with 19.3% in the same period of last year. Selling and marketing expenses were RMB 420 million and remained relatively stable compared with the same period of last year. Our ROI-focused approach for promotion expenses, together with product improvements, have contributed to the growth in online music MAUs. We will continue to invest in areas with long-term growth potential, such as online music and content promotions. General and administrative expenses were RMB 998 million, up by 5% year-over-year, primarily driven by lower employee-related expenses. Our effective tax rate for Q3 was 17.7%, compared to 12.2% in the same period of 2023. This increase was primarily attributed to the approval of withholding taxes of RMB 130 million related to earnings to be remitted by our PRC subsidiaries to offshore entities. For Q3 2024, our net profit and net profit attributable to equity holders of the company were RMB 1.7 billion and RMB 1.6 billion, respectively. Our IFRS net profit and the IFRS net profit attributable to equity holders of the company were RMB 1.9 billion and RMB 1.8 billion, respectively. The financial results for Q3 2024 have reflected a net loss from foreign exchange due to the fluctuation of the exchange rate between RMB and USD. As of September 30, 2024, our diluted earnings per ADS this quarter was RMB 1.01, up 36% year-over-year. Our IFRS diluted earnings per ADS increased to RMB 1.16, up 30% year-over-year. These results underscore our robust financial performance, enhanced operating efficiencies, and the benefit from our share repurchase program. Under the share repurchase program announced in March 2023, as of September 30, 2024, we have repurchased 42.1 million ADS on the open market for a total cash consideration of USD 345 million, of which approximately USD 100 million was repurchased in the third quarter of 2024. As of September 30, 2024, our combined balance of cash, cash equivalents, term deposits, and short-term investments was RMB 36 billion, as compared with RMB 35 billion as of June 30, 2024. This combined balance was also affected by changes in the exchange rate of the RMB. Looking forward, we will continue to drive high-quality growth in our music business, such as expanding SVIP memberships and advertising business, as well as operational efficiencies improvement. We will also continue to invest in high-quality content, original content production, as well as innovative technologies to further improve user engagement and enhance user experience. We remain confident in the long-term healthy growth of the music industry and our business and are dedicated to providing high-quality returns for our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now ready to take your questions.