On the evening of May 23, Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as "Bilibili") released its unaudited financial report for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. In the first quarter, The total revenue of Bilibili increased by 12% year-on-year, reaching 5.66 billion yuan, of which the advertising business performed well, with a year-on-year increase of 31%. After adjustment, the net loss was 456 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 56%. The daily active users reached 102.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 9%.
Chen Rui, Chairman and CEO of Bilibili, said, "In 2024, we will continue to promote the healthy development of the content ecosystem and community, while focusing on the exploration and cultivation of high-quality UP owners. We are confident that with the improvement of commercialization ability and operational efficiency, we will continue to convert high-quality community traffic into high-quality revenue growth and steadily move towards profitability goals."
Advertising business surged by 31%, with huge growth potential in the digital and small and large home appliance sectors
In the first quarter, Bilibili's value-added service revenue reached 2.529 billion yuan, an increase of 17% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the increase in live streaming and value-added service revenue. The advertising revenue reached 1.669 billion yuan, an increase of 31% compared to the same period in 2023, mainly due to the optimization of advertising products provided by the company and the improvement of advertising efficiency.
During the conference call after the financial report, the management mentioned that the growth of effect advertising has accelerated, with a year-on-year revenue increase of over 50%. The main reasons include: first of all, in the first quarter, the platform further expanded advertising scenarios such as dynamic search, but the most crucial aspect was the mixing of natural and commercial traffic, allowing high-quality advertising content to gain more traffic and increase inventory.
Secondly, the platform has integrated and strengthened the overall delivery tools for customers through the integration of the fireworks and advertising systems, and has also achieved intelligent delivery, allowing for flexible switching of delivery in different scenarios. Meanwhile, Bilibili has launched a creative center, allowing for mass processing and production of advertising materials, The application of AIGC will lead to higher efficiency. Besides, Up owners can complete the complete path of content creation, heating up, gaining followers, and monetization from the fully open advertising and promotion tool "Bihuo", with a year-on-year growth of 190% in the number of advertising users.
The platform is still improving the overall marketing data infrastructure and algorithm efficiency, deepening various commercial labels, and providing advertisers with data guidance throughout the entire chain. Finally, solutions for vertical industrialization have been further deepened, with the top three industries being gaming, digital home appliances, and platform e-commerce. In the future, there will be significant growth potential in both digital and large and small home appliances, Bilibili is also actively introducing merchant budgets together with e-commerce platforms, which will be a significant growth and increment in the future. I believe that these methodologies can be replicated in industries such as automotive, online services, healthcare, and education in the second quarter, achieving relatively rapid growth.
The revenue of mobile games was 983 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13%, which is the slowest growth among so many business sectors. The financial report explains that this is mainly due to the decrease in revenue of several old games. However, the financial report also predicts that the strategy game "Three Kingdoms: Planning for the Future", exclusively authorized by Bilibili, is planned to be released on June 13, 2024. The revenue of IP derivatives and other services was 484 million yuan, a decrease of 5% compared to the same period in 2023.
Emerging content is emerging, doubling the number of users watching transactional content
The gross profit of Bilibili in the first quarter was 1.605 billion yuan, an increase of 45% compared to the same period in 2023. This was mainly due to the increase in net revenue and the decrease in platform operation related costs caused by the improvement of monetization efficiency. The gross profit margin reached 28.3%, an increase from 21.8% in the same period last year.
The management stated in a conference call, "Our gross profit margin increased to 28.3% in the first quarter, mainly due to the contribution of high gross profit businesses, such as advertising revenue increasing by 31% year-on-year, accounting for 29% of revenue. Based on the current trend of business development, we expect our gross profit margin to continue to increase month on month in the second and third quarters, with the sustained high-speed growth of advertising revenue and the recovery and growth of gaming business, to increase to 30% in the third quarter, and achieve break even under non US accounting standards in the third quarter."
In the first quarter, The daily active users on Bilibili increased by 9% year-on-year, reaching 102 million. The average monthly active users exceeded 341 million, and the daily usage time reached 105 minutes, both reaching historical highs. In terms of major membership business, the total number of major members maintained stable growth in the first quarter, reaching 21.9 million, of which over 80% were annual subscription or automatic renewal members.
In this quarter, Bilibili's distinctive and advantageous content categories flourished, with a year-on-year increase of over 20% in views of categories such as knowledge, games, film and entertainment. As one of the most intelligent communities for AI content in China, The daily average playback volume of AI related content on Bilibili has increased by over 80% year-on-year, and the daily active UP users have increased by over 60% year-on-year.
At the same time, with the continuous expansion of user age and interest circles, emerging content is also constantly emerging on Bilibili. In the first quarter, the daily average playback volume of categories such as home decoration, travel, and fitness increased by more than 45% year-on-year. Female users have also shown strong demand for content consumption, with a daily increase of over 40% in the fashion category and over 110% in the maternal, child, and parent-child category.
The continuous enrichment of content has also brought about an increase in income for creators. In the first quarter, over 1.5 million UP owners earned revenue on Bilibili, with the number of UP owners earning revenue through commercial advertising increasing by 51% year-on-year; The number of UPs earning revenue through sales increased by 105% year-on-year. The management stated during a conference call that the top four industries in terms of transaction volume are 3C home appliances and decoration, as well as food and beverage, clothing, and beauty.
Data shows that in the first quarter, The transaction volume of 3C digital e-commerce on Bilibili increased by over 230% year-on-year. The gradually released consumer power of women has become a new highlight of on-site transactions, and since the beginning of this year, the sales volume of women's clothing products has exceeded that of the entire year of 2023. Among them, the cumulative transaction volume of the two live broadcasts of the 500000 fan UP host "Coco Knocking" exceeded 30 million. Moreover, the consumer mentality of users is also continuously improving. The management revealed during a conference call that in the first quarter, there were 37.2 million users watching transactional content on Bilibili, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 100%. This also proves that users' understanding of trading scenarios is becoming stronger and stronger.