On December 8th, Zhiwen Group (Nasdaq: MOMO) announced its unaudited financial performance for the third quarter of 2023. According to the financial report, in the third quarter of 2023, Zhiwen Group's net revenue reached 3.0428 billion yuan (approximately 417.1 million US dollars), not measured according to US GAAP. The net profit attributable to Zhiwen Group was 605.9 million yuan (approximately 83 million US dollars).
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Wall Street analysts predict that Zhiwen Group's net revenue for the third quarter of 2023 will be 2.955 billion yuan. According to the financial report, Zhiwen Group's net revenue for the third quarter of 2023 was 3.0428 billion yuan (approximately 417.1 million US dollars), exceeding Wall Street's expectations.
Tang Yan, Chairman and CEO of Zhiwen Group, stated: "In the third quarter, we achieved satisfactory financial results, and all business lines were steadily advancing in their respective strategic priorities. Compared with the same period last year, the group's profitability continued to grow, mainly due to our effective cost reduction and efficiency increase strategy, which drove the stable output of Momo's Jinniu business, explored ways to turn losses into profits, and provided support for the growth of new businesses."
In the first nine months of 2023, Zhiwen Group's net revenue reached 8.9994 billion yuan (approximately 1.2335 billion US dollars); The net profit attributable to Zhiwen Group, which is not measured according to US GAAP, is RMB 1.710 billion (approximately USD 234.4 million); Not measured according to US GAAP, the diluted net profit per American Depositary Share (ADS) is 8.53 yuan (approximately $1.17).
In terms of costs and expenses, in the third quarter of 2023, not measured according to US GAAP, costs and expenses were 2.4016 billion yuan (approximately 329.2 million US dollars), a decrease of 9.3% from the same period last year of 2.6492 billion yuan.
Regarding the reduction in costs and expenses, Zhiwen Group stated that it is mainly due to the decrease in revenue sharing between live streaming service providers on the Momo App and virtual gift recipients in the virtual gift service. The increase in revenue sharing between independent new apps and virtual gift recipients partially offset these reductions; The continuous optimization in personnel costs and the reduction in compensation expenses and option reward expenses due to the lower fair value of newly granted options; Explore the reduction in marketing and promotion expenses caused by the investment control strategy and to a lesser extent, the inefficient channel marketing expenditure strategy of Momo.
In terms of exploration and Momo business, Momo's net profit in the third quarter of 2023 was 540 million yuan (approximately 74 million US dollars), compared to 499.6 million yuan in the same period last year. In the third quarter of 2023, Tan Tan's net profit was 23 million yuan (approximately 3.2 million US dollars), compared to a net loss of 45 million yuan in the same period last year. In September 2023, the monthly active users of Tantan were 15.7 million. In the third quarter of 2023, the number of paid users for Momo was 7.8 million, and the number of paid users for Tantan was 1.4 million.
In addition, on June 7, 2022, the board of directors of Zhiwen Group approved a new stock repurchase plan, based on which the company will repurchase up to $200 million in stocks over the next 24 months. As of December 8, 2023, the company has repurchased approximately 16.2 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in the public market based on this plan, totaling approximately $86.1 million, with an average payment price of $5.31 per ADS.