Our reporter Yuan Chuanxi
Recently, Weibo released its financial reports for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. In the fourth quarter, Weibo's total revenue was 463.7 million US dollars, approximately 3.318 billion yuan. Excluding exchange rate factors, the total revenue increased by 5% year-on-year. Among them, advertising revenue reached 403.7 million US dollars, approximately 2.886 billion RMB. Excluding exchange rate factors, advertising revenue increased by 5% year-on-year. The adjusted operating profit in the fourth quarter reached 145.9 million US dollars, approximately 1.034 billion yuan, with an adjusted operating profit margin of 31%.
In 2023, Weibo's total revenue was 1.76 billion US dollars, equivalent to approximately RMB 12.515 billion. The adjusted operating profit for the year was 592.1 million US dollars, equivalent to RMB 4.229 billion.
As of the end of the fourth quarter, the monthly active users on Weibo reached 598 million, a net increase of about 11 million year-on-year, and the daily active users reached 257 million, a net increase of about 5 million year-on-year.
In the second half of 2023, while maintaining the core competitiveness of the hot topic, entertainment, and event IP ecosystem, Weibo will focus on supporting vertical traffic, strengthening the development of vertical content ecology, and enhancing the overall competitiveness and health of Weibo's ecosystem.
In the fourth quarter of last year, Weibo increased its overall resource investment in the fields of digital, automotive, gaming, fashion and beauty, medical and health, strengthened the distribution of high-quality vertical content through platform traffic, and promoted the growth of high-quality top bloggers in vertical fields. At the same time, strengthen the product mechanism of platform hotspot effects formed by hot traffic targeting vertical hot content, and enhance the perception of industry hotspots. For the operation of vertical industry topics and activities, Weibo leverages its cross disciplinary advantages to promote the release and participation of top cross disciplinary accounts in the production of vertical content. These measures have continuously increased the traffic and interaction scale in vertical fields.
According to the "Ecological White Paper on Weibo Vertical Fields", the proportion of content in Weibo vertical fields reached 41% in 2023, and the number of vertical creators increased by 14% year-on-year. In Q4 2023, the daily average vertical hot search traffic increased by 82% year-on-year, the size of the Golden Orange V account increased by 20% year-on-year, the revenue of Golden Orange V increased by 66% year-on-year, and the revenue of Orange V increased by 173% year-on-year. The monetization efficiency of high-quality creators has further improved.
The growth of traffic in vertical fields has effectively driven the further recovery of advertising revenue. The automotive and mobile phone industries continued to maintain year-on-year growth in revenue in the fourth quarter, while the gaming and healthcare industries achieved significant double-digit year-on-year growth in revenue. The medical and health industry has seen a rapid increase in user interest since the opening up of the epidemic, and is steadily growing in both industry influence and commercialization.
In 2024, Weibo will increase user base and activity, strengthen the competitiveness of the platform's content ecosystem, and improve platform operational efficiency as its core goal.
Based on the company's robust balance sheet, profitability, and strong cash flow generation ability, Weibo has also been committed to improving shareholder returns and market confidence. In May 2023, the company's board of directors approved the distribution of a special cash dividend of $0.85 per share, totaling $200 million. In March 2024, the board of directors approved another special cash dividend distribution of $200 million.