On June 5th, Douyu released its first quarter financial report for 2024. During the reporting period, Douyu achieved a total revenue of 1.04 billion yuan and an adjusted net loss of 85.7 million yuan.
In terms of user data, the average MAU on Douyu Mobile is 45.3 million, with a total of 3.4 million households paying fees.
Regarding the company's performance in the first quarter, the Douyu Temporary Management Committee stated that the company's diversified business capabilities continue to strengthen, and fine operational management will be strengthened by optimizing the company structure and adjusting operational strategies.
It is worth mentioning that in the first quarter, Douyu successfully expanded its revenue sources by increasing investment in high-quality content, strengthening vendor collaboration, and implementing refined operations, which was clearly reflected in its financial reports.
According to the financial report, Douyu's revenue from advertising and other businesses in the first quarter was 239 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 109.4%, accounting for 23% of the total revenue, compared to only 7.7% in the same period of 2023.
For Douyu, in the context of slowing growth in the entire live streaming industry, successfully developing more growth curves will be beneficial for its longer-term healthy development.
Explore new business paths
The commercialization transformation of Douyu starts with deepening services and cooperation in the gaming industry, and explores directions such as game prop sales, game advertising, and distribution services.
Among them, game manufacturer cooperation is an important part of the commercialization of Douyu in the new stage. At present, Douyu is connecting the needs of manufacturers and gamers to obtain more exclusive resources and high-quality content, while exploring diversified profit models based on manufacturer resources.
On the one hand, it promotes game props through platform anchors, content creation, and operational activities. On the other hand, it conducts platform game membership business based on game props, forming an effective commercial path for Douyu to sell game props.
For example, during the Cross Fire Zone CFS Championship Welfare Season, the game launched a Douyu platform and anchor limited skins, and Douyu live broadcast rooms promoted related game props, effectively promoting the activity of the game ecosystem. The data shows that the conversion rate of Douyu game promotion is higher than the market average, which directly increases the income sources of anchors besides salary and live streaming rewards.
In the first quarter, the Douyu paid membership system was also redesigned to meet user needs, including dual optimization of special effects and visuals, and cooperation with top anchors to launch diamond fan benefits and customized diamond fan special effects, further consolidating the emotional connection between users and anchors.
In addition, Douyu also launched Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival), Spring Festival, Girls' Day, April Fool's Day and other festival benefits around paying members, as well as gifts and benefits such as the time-space mystery of diamond powder, and the bright night of diamond powder, to continuously improve users' satisfaction and uniqueness.
At the same time, Douyu also fully utilized the platform's anchor resources and content ecosystem in the first quarter, carrying out multiple operational activities covering the entire site, further mobilizing user interaction willingness. For example, Douyu has integrated multi zone resources, promoting related operational activities to gradually cover more waist hanging anchors from top anchors, and driving the flow growth of anchors at different levels.
Creating a Healthy Game Content Ecology
Starting from the fourth quarter of last year, under the leadership of the new temporary management committee of Douyu, the compliance work of Douyu platform has been placed at a strategic height of the company.
It is reported that the Douyu Temporary Management Committee has taken the lead in building a new "four in one" compliance system (business compliance, content compliance, process compliance, and data compliance) on the basis of the original compliance system. From system design, process management to technical support, it has comprehensively and from multiple perspectives strengthened the company's compliance self inspection efforts and standardized management.
In response to the investigation by relevant government departments into the historical illegal activities of some third-party anchors, Douyu Company has also maintained close communication with relevant departments and continuously strengthened internal self inspection and self correction to maintain the compliance and healthy ecology of the platform.
According to financial reports, Douyu has voluntarily refunded the relevant profits related to the historical illegal activities of third-party anchors, totaling 111.7 million yuan. Douyu pointed out that the company has always adhered to the principles of legal and compliant operations, and this refund of expenses has no substantial impact on the company's daily operations. In the future, Douyu will still firmly maintain the compliance of the platform, continue to operate steadily, and provide users with a healthy and standardized live streaming environment.
While improving platform compliance standards and execution, Douyu in the first quarter also continues to focus on building a healthy game content ecosystem, and focuses on the experience and needs of Douyu's core users, providing more high-quality content and game related services.
During the reporting period, Douyu broadcasted nearly 30 official large-scale sports events, including League of Legends LPL Spring, King of Glory KPL Spring, CSGO Copenhagen Major, CrossFire CFPL Spring, etc.
In terms of self-made content, Douyu has produced over 40 esports matches, including Douyu Glory Cup S7, Douyu Qunying Cup S4, Yu Yu Cup Abyss BP Challenge, and the Pioneer Douyu Online Platform Competition of Pok é mon Gathering.
In terms of anchor operation, Douyu deeply combines the advantages of anchors with platform advantages, and launches customized content such as official competition two-way commentary and anchor named fan competition around the personal IP of top anchors, providing corresponding on-site and off-site exposure. These measures not only enrich the viewing options, but also help broadcasters increase their attention, forming a good live streaming ecosystem for the platform.
In addition, to meet the increasingly diverse viewing needs of users, Douyu has also upgraded its product features, including adding a "competition" category in the content recommendation secondary column. This classification integrates the event content of the top game zones, including the annual schedule and schedule of various events, game replays, player ratings, etc., which further enhances the viewing experience for game users.
The Douyu Temporary Management Committee stated, "Despite facing challenges from macroeconomic and industry development, we still adhere to the principle of prioritizing long-term interests of shareholders and adhere to the long-term development strategy of 'a diversified content ecosystem platform centered on games'. We will continue to integrate and utilize the platform's deep anchor resources, rich content ecology, agile operating mechanisms, and close cooperation with game manufacturers, committed to achieving long-term growth and sustainable development of the platform."