Bilibili (BILI 2.99%) reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, Feb. 27. The online entertainment specialist, targeting young consumers in China, kept moving its users onto mobile platforms and paid subscriptions. Here's a closer look at Bilibili's results.
Bilibili's fourth-quarter results: The raw numbers
|
Metric |
Q4 2018 |
Q4 2017 |
Year-Over-Year Change |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Revenue |
$168 million |
$112 million |
50% |
|
Net income |
($27.8 million) |
($7.8 million) |
(260%) |
|
GAAP earnings per American depositary share (diluted) |
($0.09) |
($0.26) |
65% |
Data source: Bilibili.
Image source: Bilibili.
What happened with Bilibili this quarter?
- Bilibili's net loss per share improved by 65% year over year even though net losses more than tripled. That's because the company went public in March 2018 -- less than a year ago -- and the share count ballooned from 69 million to 279 million stubs.
- The company served 92.8 average monthly users in the fourth quarter, up from 92.7 million in the third quarter and 71.9 million a year ago.
- Eighty-six percent of Bilibili's users accessed its services through mobile apps, up from 81% in the year-ago period.
- The number of paying customers quadrupled to 4.4 million.
Check out the latest earnings call transcript for Bilibili.
What management had to say
In a conference call with financial analysts, Bilibili CEO Rui Chen explained how his company is attracting new users:
The driving force of our user growth is through content. We use content to attract users and use our community to retain users. We do not solely rely on pure traffic acquisition. ... As we expand our content categories and improve our content qualities, we will be attracting more and more users who are interested in those categories.
Chen expects Chinese demand for online entertainment to grow substantially over time. In particular, he sees an expanding market for paid content as the younger generations who grew up with services like Bilibili mature and move into the workforce.
Looking ahead
CFO Sam Fan said Bilibili wants to "grow our business and improve our operational efficiency."
Gross margin should reach something like 40% in the long run as Bilibili's business model stabilizes around a mix of video, games, and value-added services. That's an ambitious target for the long term, as Bilibili's gross margins clocked in at just 17% in the fourth quarter.
On a shorter timeline, first-quarter revenue should land near $191 million. Hitting that target exactly would be a 45% boost over the $131 million Bilibili collected in the first quarter of 2018.
