Bilibili Q4 earnings report: revenue from value-added services and advertising surge

Bilibili, a streaming platform targeting the younger generation in China, today announced unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter.

Total net revenues were 5.78 billion yuan ($907.1 million), representing an increase of 51% from the same period of 2020. Revenues from value-added services were 1.89 billion yuan ($297.3 million), an increase of 52% year-over-year. 

Notably, the company’s advertising revenue was 1.58 billion yuan ($249.1 million), up 120% year over year. For comparison, starting in the third quarter of 2021, the advertising revenue of ByteDance, the company that owns China’s largest short video platform Douyin and news aggregator Jinritoutiao, reportedly stopped growing in the country.

Average monthly active users (MAUs) reached 271.7 million, and mobile MAUs reached 252.4 million, up 35% and 35% year-over-year, respectively. Average daily active users (DAUs) reached 72.2 million, an increase of 34% year-over-year.

In the earnings call, Bilibili said it aims to reach 400 million MAUs by 2023 and increase its monetization capabilities. The corporation believes that focusing on offering Chinese anime and documentaries for its OTT department would help attract new users. Over the last two years, Bilibili has built collaborations with Netflix and Sony, releasing 24 films in international markets.

Sales and marketing costs totaled 1.8 billion yuan ($284.81 billion), a 73% rise year on year. The company attributed the rise to increased efforts to promote its brand, app, and mobile games.

Adjusted net loss also widened to 1.66 billion yuan ($260.5 million) from 691.5 million yuan in the same period last year.

As of December 31, 2021, the company’s cash and cash equivalents, term deposits and short-term investments were 30.2 billion yuan ($4.7 billion), compared to 12.8 billion yuan as of December 31, 2020.

Affected by China’s tightening regulations on internet sector and economic headwinds, Bilibili’s market cap fell from a peak of $55 billion in February 2021 to $10.67 billion at Thursday’s close.

In the earnings call, The US-listed company announced a fresh $500 million buyback program for its American depositary receipts (ADRs), and said CEO Chen Rui would buy up to $10 million worth of ADSs at his own expense.