Caixin News Agency, November 27th: Due to proactive optimization of content costs and advertising strategies, Joyful Group (NASDAQ: YY) saw a month on month increase in operating profit in Q3, with increased revenue contribution from non live streaming businesses. At today's performance conference call, executives from Joyful stated that BIGO's profit is expected to stabilize and grow next year.
Today, Joyful Group released its financial report for the third quarter of 2024. In the third quarter, the group's revenue was 558.7 million US dollars, a slight decrease of 1.13% compared to the previous quarter; Under non GAAP accounting standards, net profit was $61.2 million, a decrease of 17.3% compared to the previous period, while operating profit reached $34.9 million, an increase of 16.4% compared to the previous period.
In terms of specific business, Q3 company's live streaming revenue was 439.5 million US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 11.35%, while non live streaming revenue was 119.2 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 67.2% and a month on month increase of 13.1%, accounting for 21.3% of the company's total revenue.
At the performance meeting, executives from Joyful stated that part of the reason is that the company continues to promote refined global operations and has optimized the cost of some regional content for its products. Another reason is that based on long-term development needs, some adjustments were made to the non core product gameplay of BIGO sector in the third quarter.
All the adjustments we are making now are proactive adjustments, in order to polish a healthier profit model for our products and build a sustainable business ecosystem. "The executives at Joyful mentioned that these adjustments have seen some positive effects on BIGO's gross profit, ROI, and operating profit trends in the third quarter.
From a market perspective, developed countries and regions continue to be the main sources of growth for the company. In Q3, the year-on-year growth rate of revenue in developed countries reached 21.6%, leading other regions, with the proportion of revenue increasing to 54.9%. Revenue in the Middle East increased by 2.1% month on month and began to rebound.
Joyful revealed that priority will be given to concentrating operational resources in regions with high monetization potential, and it is expected that developed countries and the Middle East will continue to be the focus of the company's attention.
With a series of adjustments being completed in 2024, it is expected that BIGO and the entire group will usher in a brand new beginning in 2025. The BIGO sector will continue to focus its operational resources on developed countries and the acquisition of high-quality paying users. It is expected that paying users will have the opportunity to gradually recover month on month and year-on-year growth next year, and ARPPU will also have the opportunity to stabilize, thereby driving BIGO's core overseas product live streaming revenue to return to year-on-year growth. In addition, BIGO's non live streaming revenue is expected to continue to maintain double-digit year-on-year growth.
It is worth mentioning that the company invested a total of $118 million in buybacks in the third quarter. In the first three quarters of 2024, the cumulative repurchase amount invested by Joyful has reached $244 million, with a total of 7.31 million ADS repurchased, accounting for 12% of the company's total share capital at the end of last year.