Kuaishou's gross margin for the first quarter increased to 54.8% from 46.4% in the same period last year, and overseas business operating losses decreased 67.4% year over year.
After achieving full profit, Kuaishou's profit level increased further, and adjusted net profit for the first quarter reached a record high.
After the Hong Kong stock market on Wednesday May 22, Kuaishou announced its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. According to financial reports, revenue for the first quarter was RMB 29.41 billion, up 16.6% year on year, better than the estimate of RMB 29.04 billion, mainly due to growth in online marketing services and e-commerce business.
Operating profit reached $3,94 billion, accounting for 13.6% of total revenue. Profit amounted to RMB 4.1 billion, with a profit margin of 14.0%; adjusted net profit of RMB 4.388 billion, exceeding expectations of RMB 3.2 billion. Gross margin increased to 54.8% from 46.4% in the same period last year.
In terms of users, Kuaishou's average daily active users and average monthly active users reached 394 million and 697 million respectively in the first quarter, up 5.2% and 6.6% year over year, respectively. Daily active Kuaishou users spent an average of 129.5 minutes.
After Kuaishou announced its results for the first quarter of 2024, it officially announced the launch of a new round of stock repurchase programs. The plan is to repurchase shares with a total amount of not more than HK$16 billion over the next three years after the 2024 shareholders' meeting. According to reports. Kuaishou's HK$4 billion repurchase plan launched in May last year will expire at the shareholders' meeting in June this year. Up to now, the company has repurchased Class B shares worth HK$3.09 billion.
AI empowers the average daily payment for online marketing skits increased by more than 4 times over the same period last year
Specifically, online marketing services, live streaming, and other services (including e-commerce) contributed 56.6%, 29.2%, and 14.2% to revenue, respectively.
First, let's look at online marketing service revenue, which increased 27.4% year over year to 16.7 billion yuan, and the number of active marketing customers increased nearly 90% year over year.
Online marketing is divided into internal circulation and external circulation. Internal circulation refers to advertising campaigns adopted by merchants staying on the Kuaishou platform to obtain more exposure. External circulation means that advertisers directly place brand advertisements and performance advertisements on the Kuaishou platform.
Kuaishou's financial report states:
Relying on AI and big language model capabilities in the first quarter, intelligent marketing solutions can provide customers with full-link efficiency improvement solutions including intelligent creation, intelligent delivery, and intelligent user connectivity.
Among them, paid skit marketing in media information was continuously optimized through self-built links to meet the increase in supply and demand brought about by policy incentives, leading to a year-on-year increase in the average daily paid consumption of skits by more than 4 times in the first quarter of 2024.
E-commerce GMV increased by 28.2% year-on-year
In the first quarter, Kuaishou e-commerce's GMV increased by 28.2% year-on-year to 288.1 billion yuan.
On the user side, thanks to the expansion of shopping scenarios such as pan-shelf and short video e-commerce, the number of monthly active e-commerce buyers increased 22.4% year-on-year to 126 million.
Among them, Pan-Shelf GMV accounts for about 25%, and the average daily growth rate of the Pan-Shelf Marketplace is over 50% year-on-year, and the average daily buyer growth rate is over 60%, thanks to the focus on advantageous categories that meet the needs of core user groups, including fresh food and personal care.
Short video e-commerce GMV grew at a year-on-year rate of nearly 100%, and both monthly active buyers and daily active buyers of short video e-commerce continued to grow.
Kuaishou said that the steady growth of e-commerce GMV in the first quarter continued to drive internal circulation marketing service revenue to surpass overall GMV growth.
Overseas business revenue increased 193.2% year over year
In terms of overseas business progress, overseas business revenue reached 991 million yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 193.2% over the previous year. Operating losses decreased by 67.4% year on year, and operating losses narrowed further from month to month.
According to Kuaishou's financial report, the average daily active users in the core development regions grew steadily in the first quarter, and the average daily usage time of each daily active user increased year-on-year and month-on-month. Among them, the average daily active user in Brazil increased 13% year over year in the first quarter, and the average daily usage time of each daily active user exceeded 75 minutes.