On March 21, Maoyan Entertainment (stock code: 01896.HK), a leading “technology+full entertainment” service provider, officially announced its 2023 annual results announcement. Thanks to the strong recovery of the entertainment industry in 2023, many of Maogan Entertainment's business and financial indicators have broken through record highs for the same period. According to the announcement, total revenue for the full year of 2023 was 4.757 billion yuan, an increase of 105.1% over the same period last year; net profit was 908 million yuan, an increase of 766.2% over the same period last year; adjusted net profit for the period was 1,029 billion yuan, an increase of 342.2% over the same period last year.
According to the announcement, in 2023, the entertainment content service sector of Maogan Entertainment received breakthrough growth, further improving its publicity service capacity and market coverage, and increasing revenue for three consecutive years; the online movie ticketing business maintained its leading edge in the industry, increased investment and development of offline performance services, and further strengthened market competitiveness; the advertising business expanded in-depth cooperation with other Internet platforms, and the commercial value of the platform further increased.
In the future, Maoyan will increase investment in film promotion, live entertainment, innovative business, overseas cooperation, etc., to further enhance the level of business development and profitability.
1) Outstanding performance: Multiple business indicators surpass historical synchronicity
In 2023, the entertainment industry achieved strong recovery and growth, and Maogan Entertainment also ushered in a good year, with impressive results in all business segments.
In the entertainment content service sector, Maogan Entertainment continues to help domestic films in project development, production and distribution, and support domestic films to grow bigger and stronger. During the reporting period, Maogan Entertainment participated in the promotion of 52 domestic films, of which it controlled the distribution of a total of 30 domestic films. The number of films and cumulative box office reached record highs during the same period. These include the Spring Festival box-office winner “Man Jiang Hong”, the May 1st box-office winner “Life Is Unfamiliar”, the summer fantasy costume blockbuster “Fengshen Part 1: Morning Song Fengyun”, the summer dark horse film “In the Octagonal Cage”, and the top three New Year's Eve box office winners “One Twinkle, One Shining Star” and “The Annual Meeting Can't Be Stopped!” “Golden Fingers”, etc. Many of these films received awards and nominations at the Asian Film Awards, the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards, the Hong Kong Film Awards, and the Golden Deer Award at the Changchun Film Festival.
Throughout 2023, Maogan Entertainment participated in a total of 54 domestic films. The number of participating films has reached a record high in box office and market coverage in the same period. Among them, there was a marked increase in the number and depth of participation in leading movies in China. Of the top ten films in the Chinese box office in 2023, 4 of them were controlled and promoted by Maogan Entertainment, 5 were mainly produced by Maogan Entertainment, and as many as 8 films participated in the production. The box office coverage of the films involved also reached a record high in the same period in history.
In the online entertainment ticketing service sector, Maogan Entertainment continues to maintain its leading position in the movie ticketing business, and is increasing investment in the offline performance market to further enhance competitiveness.
In terms of movie ticketing, Maoyan provided special promotion and ticketing services for the 13th Beijing International Film Festival, the 5th Hainan Island International Film Festival, and the 10th Silk Road International Film Festival, etc., and provided service support for the implementation of government cultural consumer activities for movies and performances in more than 40 provinces and cities. In addition, Cat Eye further provides rich marketing solutions for cinemas and enhances the commercial space of cinemas. As for performance ticketing, in the context of the recovery of the offline performance market, Maogan Entertainment's total revenue from offline shows and GMV both reached record highs during the same period, and has made great progress in various categories of large-scale performance events. During the reporting period, Maoyan provided a full range of ticketing services for over 100 concerts, hundreds of e-sports events, and more than 300 top sporting events.
In addition to the mainland market, Maogan Entertainment continues to explore the Hong Kong and Macau markets, providing performance support services in Hong Kong through urban ticketing networks, launching the ticketing platform UUTIX, and officially launching Hong Kong's own ticketing business; it has also established strategic partnerships with Tencent Video and Sands China in the Macau region to carry out comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in various fields such as large-scale offline events, content recording for leisure and entertainment programs, and online marketing and promotion.
In the advertising business and other sectors, Maogan Entertainment has perfected in-depth cooperation with multiple Internet platforms in various scenarios such as games, lifestyle services, communities, and travel, and pioneered a new live streaming integrated marketing model covering the leading domestic Internet ecosystem, improving branding and enhancing commercialization capabilities in live streaming channels. In addition, Maogan Entertainment has further upgraded its new media matrix such as video accounts, Douyin, and Weibo. Currently, the total number of new media fans exceeds 80 million, with an average daily broadcast volume of over 100 million, making it the number one film and television account on multiple platforms.
Zheng Zhihao, executive director and CEO of Maogan, said that in the context of the strong recovery of the industry, the company has seized the opportunity to continue to achieve business breakthroughs and development. Many business and financial indicators have broken through record highs over the same period, continuing to prove the company's excellent level of business development and profitability.
2) Practice internal skills: continuous innovation and upgrading of publicity capabilities
Practicing internal skills has been the key word of Maoyan Entertainment over the past year.
In the entertainment content service sector, Maogan Entertainment combines the practical experience of a large number of projects, iterative promotion methodologies, and combines video genres and its own characteristics with full-platform resources and data analysis capabilities to create accurate marketing examples of “one piece, one policy,” “one time, one policy.” and “one time, one policy.”
In the “Man Jiang Hong” promotion service plan, Maoyan Entertainment achieved an innovative promotion model of “entering the sky” through collaboration between multiple airlines and ground-based high-speed railways; “Fengshen Part 1: Morning Song Fengyun” pioneered an ultra-long landing event and live online live streaming to help the film continue to rise in popularity through “co-creative ceremony marketing”; “Twinkle, One Twinkle, One Shining Star” created a sense of snow on New Year's Eve, and helped exceed expectations in multiple dimensions such as box office and popularity.
In addition, Maogan Entertainment actively integrated advertising resources to pioneer the “schedule marketing” strategy for the 2024 New Year's Eve program. Through joint co-creation, platform co-creation, user co-creation, and online promotion and offline cinema co-creation, it created a joint promotion plan around 6 films within the schedule, expanded schedule increments, and helped the New Year's Eve program set new historical records in terms of box office, number of shows, and number of viewers.
In order to better serve the needs of video publishers, Maogan continues to refine its product capabilities. During the reporting period, Maogan Professional Edition launched a number of digital products to service the entire video production and distribution process, such as “filing and project enquiry” to visualize rich industry information, and a “box office map” showing competitive trends in the film market in real time. Among them, the “cloud package” function helped improve the film box office. In 2023, it was upgraded to worry-free cloud shopping, serving more than 200 theatrical movies, which helped increase the box office by 227% over the same period last year.
At the same time, based on AI and big data technology capabilities, Cat Eye Professional Edition upgrades cinema services, promotes branch distribution policy education, and provides services such as exclusive customer portraits, real-time accurate competitive intelligence, and one-click application for branch distribution to help cinemas and film companies make two-way choices and drive box office growth.
As an important film and television data analysis platform, the Maoyan Research Institute uses accurate and scientific data capabilities to provide systematic data services to film companies in order to easily understand user needs and keep up with industry changes. During the reporting period, the Cat Eye Research Institute carried out in-depth cooperation with various Internet platforms to provide various market trend analysis reports for the film and television industry, and to provide industry partners with content marketing solutions such as screenings, popularity monitoring, and promotion suggestions to efficiently reach audiences and help maximize the value of film content.
The publicity experience, product capabilities, and data capabilities that Maoyan has accumulated over a long period of time have become a deep “internal skill” that supports the continuous development of performance and the continuous rise in revenue. As more high-quality film projects are launched, the Cat Eye platform will be further iterated and upgraded.
3) Deeply cultivate the industry: take more measures to open up room for growth
Up to now in 2024, there have been many excellent results in movie projects in which Maoyan Entertainment has participated. On New Year's Day this year's top three box-office film “Can't Stop the Annual Meeting!” “Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star” and “Goldfinger” are all main producers. In the Spring Festival this year, “Flying Fast Life 2”, produced and hosted by Maogan Entertainment, won the top of the box office on the first day of the new year, and ranked runner-up. At the same time, the winner “Hot and Hot Hot” and “Bears Incurred · Reversal of Time and Space”, the third runner-up in the season, Maogan Entertainment also participated.
Currently, Maoyan Entertainment is participating in the distribution or production of “Yellow Finch Comes After!” New movies such as “The Big “Anti-Fighter” and “The Last Way to Spend Money” have already been scheduled and will hit the big screen one after another in the first half of this year. In addition, Cat Eye Entertainment also has dozens of film projects such as “Chaoyuan Alley,” “Crisis Route,” “Improvised Murder,” “P Plan,” “Declassified,” “Raffle Hotel,” and “Hourglass,” as well as “Fire on the Plains,” “Rebirth,” “Genius Game,” “Child of Time,” and “Umbrella Girl,” developed by CatEye Entertainment, etc., all of which are progressing steadily.
For each business segment, Maoyan Entertainment further clarified future plans in an announcement.
In terms of entertainment content services, Maogan Entertainment will further consolidate and develop its leading edge and capabilities in film promotion and distribution, increase the breadth and depth of participation in the promotion and production of leading films, optimize the operating efficiency of the content business, and improve financial performance.
In terms of online entertainment ticketing services, Maoyan Entertainment takes live entertainment as one of the company's strategic development priorities, continuously enhances the market participation and competitiveness of live entertainment, increases investment in key performance projects, and continuously enhances the infrastructure construction and service capabilities of the performance business.
In terms of other business, Maogan Entertainment will implement innovative applications of AI in the entertainment industry chain, especially in film production and promotion, develop post-movie box office markets such as integrating film IP with drama and games, and expand similar commercial cooperation scenarios in other countries and regions based on business in Hong Kong and Macau to seek new growth space and possibilities.
Zheng Zhihao, executive director and CEO of Maoyan, said that under the opportunities of the continuous recovery of the industry, Maogan Entertainment will always adhere to the core development strategy of “technology+full entertainment”, continue to cultivate in the entertainment industry, continuously improve core competitiveness and profitability, and provide the audience and industry with the highest quality entertainment product value, entertainment platform service value, and entertainment industry technological value.