On the morning of March 22nd, there were rumors circulating in the market that Alibaba would sell a portion of its equity in Bilibili (Bilibili) to raise $357.8 million. Specifically, Alibaba will sell 30.85 million units of Bilibili American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) at a price of $11.60 per unit.
Regarding this, Alibaba officials told Securities Times reporters, "The sale is mainly based on Alibaba's own capital management goals and will not affect the cooperation between the two parties in business. Alibaba's related businesses will continue to strengthen cooperation with Bilibili in various fields."
As of the close of the Hong Kong stock market, the Bilibili W fell 9.35%.
According to Wind, in February 2019, Bilibili received strategic investment from Alibaba.
On the evening of February 14, 2019, Alibaba submitted a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing that it had acquired nearly 24 million shares of Bilibili through its wholly-owned subsidiary Taobao China, accounting for approximately 8% of Bilibili's total share capital.
The cooperation between Alibaba and Bilibili began in 2018. In December 2018, Bilibili and Taobao announced a strategic partnership in the commercial operation of content e-commerce and Bilibili's own IP.
Not long ago, Bilibili successfully entered live streaming sales and connected with Taobao live streaming. Previously, on the homepage of Bilibili's mobile phone, there was an advertisement card for Li Jiaqi's "Fashion Festival" live broadcast room. After clicking, you can directly switch to the Taobao live broadcast room.
Taobao has stated that many Bilibili UP owners have already used live streaming to promote their products on Taobao. That is, UP owners start broadcasting on Bilibili and can directly place orders on Taobao with just one click.
According to Tianyancha, as of June 30, 2023, Taobao China is the third largest shareholder of Bilibili, with a shareholding ratio of 7.43%.
It is worth noting that last year's full year performance of Bilibili still showed a net loss, with losses narrowing in the fourth quarter and a significant decrease in gaming revenue.
According to the financial report, Bilibili's revenue in the fourth quarter of last year was 6.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%; Net loss of 1.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13%; The adjusted net loss of Non GAPP was RMB 560 million, a year-on-year decrease of 58%
In 2023, the total revenue of the company was 22.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3%; Net loss of 4.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 36%; The adjusted net loss of Non GAPP was 3.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 49%.
From a business perspective, advertising and value-added services (mainly live streaming) are the main driving forces for the company's revenue growth, while gaming and e-commerce businesses are weak.
Data shows that out of Bilibili's total revenue of 6.4 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of last year, the value-added service revenue was 2.9 billion yuan, an increase of 22% compared to the same period in 2022, mainly based on the increase in revenue from live streaming and other value-added services; The advertising revenue was 1.9 billion yuan, an increase of 28% compared to the same period in 2022, mainly based on the optimization of the company's advertising products and the improvement of advertising efficiency; Mobile game revenue was 1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12%, exceeding market expectations.
Chen Rui, Chairman and CEO of Bilibili, said, "2023 is a year of both opportunities and challenges. In the past year, we have achieved healthy community growth, improved commercialization capabilities and operational efficiency, and significantly narrowed losses. In the fourth quarter, Bilibili's daily active users exceeded 100 million, and the average daily usage time of users exceeded 95 minutes. We continue to promote commercial capacity building, allowing more creators to earn revenue on Bilibili. In 2023, over 3 million creators earned revenue on Bilibili, a year-on-year increase of 30%. In the fourth quarter, advertising and value-added service revenue increased by 28% and 22% respectively, achieving a positive cycle between community and business."
Since Alibaba Chairman Cai Chongxin and CEO Wu Yongming took office in September last year, they have stated on multiple occasions that they will maintain long-term focus and high-intensity investment in core businesses. For non core businesses, they will realize the value of these assets through quick profitability or various other capitalization methods.
In the past period of time, Alibaba has frequently taken actions in asset sales. According to public information, on March 20th, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group sold approximately 33 million shares of Xiaopeng Motors American Depositary Shares (ADS), cashing out approximately $310 million (approximately RMB 2.26 billion).
It is understood that this is not the first time Alibaba has reduced its holdings in Xiaopeng Motors. Last December, Alibaba sold 25 million ADSs for a total price of $391 million, equivalent to 50 million shares of common stock. At that time, the relevant person in charge of Alibaba Group stated, "We sold some of our shares in Xiaopeng based on our own capital management goals, reducing our shareholding from 10.2% to 7.5%." Xiaopeng responded, stating that Alibaba remained Xiaopeng's second largest shareholder thereafter.
In February this year, Alibaba Group Chairman Cai Chongxin stated at the financial report meeting, "Currently, Alibaba still has some traditional physical retail businesses on its balance sheet, which are not the core focus businesses. Alibaba's exit is also reasonable. However, considering the current market situation, the exit may take time to achieve."
And Hema has also been rumored to be sold frequently recently. On March 17th, it was reported that Alibaba has basically confirmed the sale of RT Mart and Hema to COFCO internally, with an estimated 10 billion yuan for RT Mart and 20 billion yuan for Hema. However, regarding this rumor, both Hema and RT Mart responded to Securities Times reporters as "fake.".