Douyu International Holdings Ltd (DOYU) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, and welcome to DouYu International Holdings Limited's fourth quarter full year 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please note, today's event is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，早安、晚上好。謝謝，歡迎參加鬥魚國際控股有限公司 2024 年第四季全年財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的活動正在被記錄。

I will now turn the call over to the first speaker today, Ms. Lingling Kong, IR Director, DouYu. Please go ahead, ma'am.

現在，我將把電話交給今天的第一位發言者，鬥魚投資者關係總監孔玲玲女士。請繼續，女士。

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. Joining us today are Ms. Simin Ren, Co-Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Mingming Su, Chief Strategy Officer; and Mr. Hao Cao, Vice President of Finance. You can refer to our fourth quarter 2024 financial results on our IR website at ir.douyu.com. You can also check a replay of this call when it becomes available in a few hours on our IR website.

謝謝大家。大家好。歡迎參加我們的 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。今天與我們一起出席的有聯席執行長任思敏女士、首席策略長蘇明明先生和財務副總裁曹浩先生。您可以造訪我們的投資者關係網站 ir.douyu.com 查看我們 2024 年第四季的財務表現。您也可以在幾個小時後在我們的投資者關係網站上觀看本次電話會議的重播。

Before we start, please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision for the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and observations that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors not under the company's control, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements.

在我們開始之前，請注意，本次電話會議可能包含根據 1995 年《私人證券訴訟改革法》的安全港條款所做的前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述是基於管理層目前的預期和觀察，涉及已知和未知的風險、不確定性和其他不受公司控制的因素，可能導致公司的實際結果、業績或成就與這些前瞻性陳述暗示的結果、業績或預期存在重大差異。

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements, risk factors and details of the company's filings with the SEC. The company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements for selected events or circumstances after the date of this conference call.

所有前瞻性陳述均完全符合警示性聲明、風險因素和公司向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件的詳細資訊。本公司不承擔在本次電話會議召開日後針對特定事件或情況修改或更新任何前瞻性陳述的義務。

With that, I will turn the call over to our Co-Chief Executive Officer, Simin Ren for business update. Ms. Ren, please go ahead.

說完這些，我將把電話轉給我們的聯合執行長任思敏，以了解業務最新情況。請任女士發言。

In 2024, amid the dual challenge of a soft microeconomic landscape and intensified market competition, we remain focused on strengthening our game-centric content ecosystem. We adopted more flexible operational strategies quickly adjusting how we allocate our resources and diversifying our revenue streams while reversely controlling costs and expenses, achieving incremental progress.

2024年，面對微觀經濟格局疲軟和市場競爭加劇的雙重挑戰，我們仍致力於強化以遊戲為中心的內容生態系統。我們採取更靈活的營運策略，快速調整資源配置，多元化收入來源，同時反向控製成本費用，實現循序漸進的進步。

First, we were pleased with the early success of our revenue diversification efforts. The promotion no ramp-up of our voice-based social networking business and game membership services drove revenues from our innovative business, advertising and others to reach 28% of our total revenues for the year, margin at 63.6% increase in revenue contribution year-over-year. This growth partially offset the decline of our live streaming revenues.

首先，我們對收入多元化努力的早期成功感到高興。由於語音社交網路業務和遊戲會員服務的推廣，創新業務、廣告及其他業務的收入佔全年總收入的28%，收入貢獻率年增63.6%。這一成長部分抵消了我們直播收入的下降。

Second, we continued to drive cost optimization. We proactively cut back on inefficient business and fine-tuned the compensation structure for streamers, reducing our content cost by 19% year-over-year. Additionally, by streamlining our business flow and aligning our staff structure, we achieved a 17% year-over-year decrease on -- in sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses.

第二，我們持續推動成本優化。我們主動削減低效業務，並調整串流媒體的薪酬結構，使內容成本年減 19%。此外，透過簡化業務流程和調整員工結構，我們的銷售和行銷、研發以及一般和行政費用比去年同期下降了 17%。

Third, we considerably bolstered shareholder returns. Joined on the company's historical cash surplus and future plans, we declared two special cash dividends totally USD600 million on -- one in July 2024 and a second in January 2025. This distribution highlights our commitment to rewarding shareholders and also reflects our confidence in the company's stable growth potential over the long term. In addition, we continued to enhance our platform's ecosystem governance, strengthening compliance standards and fostering a healthy content and consumption ecosystem to support long-term sustainable development.

三是大幅提升股東回報。結合公司歷史現金盈餘和未來計劃，我們宣布派發兩次特別現金股息，總計 6 億美元，一次在 2024 年 7 月，另一次在 2025 年 1 月。這次派息彰顯了我們回報股東的承諾，也反映了我們對公司長期穩定成長潛力的信心。此外，我們不斷加強平台的生態系統治理，加強合規標準，培育健康的內容和消費生態系統，以支持長期永續發展。

Before diving in to our 2025 growth plan. I'd like to share a brief snapshot of our performance in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter of 2024. Our mobile MAUs were 44.5 million, increasing 5.9% quarter-over-quarter and decreasing 13.9% year-over-year. The year-over-year decline remains largely a result of the evolving gaming video content industry dynamics.

在深入探討我們的 2025 年成長計畫之前。我想簡要介紹一下我們第四季的表現。2024年第四季。我們的行動月活躍用戶為 4,450 萬，季增 5.9%，年減 13.9%。年比下降很大程度上是遊戲視訊內容產業動態變化的結果。

However, the quarter-over-quarter increase exceeded our expectations and shows the benefits of our content-driven growth strategy. Our platform's content innovation and operational activities have consistently joined in and retained high-quality users with this quarter's sequential MAU growth, led by three key drivers. First, stronger cost content partnerships. Second, broadcast of mainstream international official tournaments and related operational activities. And third, more frequent game promotions that improve market awareness.

然而，季度環比成長超出了我們的預期，並顯示了我們內容驅動成長策略的優勢。我們平台的內容創新和營運活動持續加入並留住了高品質用戶，本季MAU實現環比成長，這主要得益於三個關鍵驅動因素。首先，加強成本內容夥伴關係。二是國際主流官方賽事的轉播及相關營運活動。第三，加強遊戲促銷活動，提高市場知名度。

Overall, despite short-term pressure on the platform's user base, we have been focusing resources on strengthening our core user base. At the same time, promoting our new business ventures, particularly game prop sales has helped us acquire new users.

整體而言，儘管平台用戶群短期面臨壓力，但我們一直集中資源加強核心用戶群。同時，推廣我們的新業務，特別是遊戲道具銷售幫助我們獲得了新用戶。

During the quarter, we broadcasted over 50 large-scale official tournaments. During the off season, we broadcasted nearly 40 self-produced e-sport tournaments extending our cross-platform content co-creation partnerships. We rolled out collaborative events across diverse game segments. For example, the owner of teams Thunder Glory Cup S2, which we co-produce with multiple content partners featuring multiple top professional players from different platforms, further strengthened its IP recognition.

本季度，我們轉播了超過50場大型官方賽事。在休賽期，我們轉播了近 40 場自製電競比賽，擴展了我們的跨平台內容共同創作合作關係。我們在不同的遊戲領域推出了合作活動。例如，我們與多家內容合作夥伴共同製作的《雷霆榮耀盃S2》中，匯集了多位來自不同平台的頂尖職業選手，進一步增強了此IP的知名度。

In addition, we gradually roll out diverse self-produced tournaments for the Valorant featuring professional teams and streamer communities, effectively maintaining high equity levels. Moreover, we tailored tournament production to align with streamer resources, new game launches and their unique gameplay characteristics. A notable example is the DouYu Golden Rush Cup for delta action by implementing cross-platform content sharing, we effectively enhance the tournament's visibility. Beyond gaming content, we launched an array of entertaining annual events around the year-end holiday season, enriching the platform's content ecosystem and successfully maintaining user engagement.

此外，我們逐步推出以專業團隊和主播社群為特色的多元化 Valorant 自製錦標賽，有效保持較高的公平性。此外，我們還根據主播資源、新遊戲發布及其獨特的遊戲特點客製化了錦標賽製作。一個顯著的例子是鬥魚淘金盃的三角洲行動，透過實現跨平台的內容共享，有效地提升了賽事的知名度。除了遊戲內容之外，我們還在年終假期期間推出了一系列有趣的年度活動，豐富了平台的內容生態系統並成功地保持了用戶參與。

Moving on to monetization. Our total number of paying users in the fourth quarter was 3.3 million, with our quarterly ARPPU of RMB246. The year-over-year decline in paying user was partly caused by macroeconomic headwinds, leading to a continued contraction in the spending bulliness of transient users on our platform. More importantly, we proactively adapted our user acquisition strategy, scaling back high-cost initiatives, such as cash subsidiaries.

繼續貨幣化。第四季我們的付費用戶總數為330萬，季度ARPPU為人民幣246元。付費用戶數量的同比下降部分是由於宏觀經濟逆風造成的，導致我們平台的臨時用戶消費慾望持續萎縮。更重要的是，我們主動調整了用戶獲取策略，縮減了現金子公司等高成本措施。

While these activities typically attract users in the short term. They fail to drive sustained user spending and drive up our operational costs. The total number of paying users remained stable quarter-over-quarter, highlighting the incremental progress of our adjusted user operations strategies and successfully stabilizing the spending part of our core users.

雖然這些活動通常能夠在短期內吸引用戶。它們無法推動用戶持續消費並推高我們的營運成本。付費用戶總數較上季保持穩定，彰顯了我們調整的用戶營運策略的逐步進展，並成功穩定了核心用戶的消費部分。

We also launched products under a tiered pricing model for our core users to help promote our membership system with premium benefits and gaming product, increasing their payment frequency. For the broader user base, we promoted pricing-friendly revenue-generating product. Combined with the diverse game content and our platforms incentives and benefits. These strategies boosted user engagement, and we maintained our overall paying user base.

我們也針對核心用戶推出了階梯式定價模式的產品，以幫助推廣我們的會員體系，提供優質福利和遊戲產品，從而提高他們的付費頻率。對於更廣泛的用戶群，我們推廣價格友善的創收產品。結合多樣化的遊戲內容和我們平台的激勵和福利。這些策略提高了用戶參與度，我們維持了整體付費用戶群。

Despite a year-over-year decline, our quarterly ARPPU slightly increased quarter-over-quarter, validating the effectiveness of our refined strategies. Furthermore, our innovative business continued to grow in the fourth quarter, gaining initial monument of and scalability as we advanced our game prop commercialization initiatives we consistently refined our strategy, capitalizing on key gaming milestone and exploring additional marketing scenarios. For example, we integrated offline content with online sales to further encourage users' wallet needs to spend. Meanwhile, our voice-based social networking business expanded rapidly driven by our well-structured product design, effective recruitment mechanism and high-precision user targeting.

儘管同比有所下降，但我們的季度 ARPPU 仍比上一季略有增長，證明了我們改進策略的有效性。此外，我們的創新業務在第四季度繼續成長，獲得了初步的里程碑和可擴展性，隨著我們推進遊戲道具商業化計劃，我們不斷完善我們的策略，利用關鍵的遊戲里程碑並探索額外的行銷場景。例如，我們將線下內容與線上銷售結合，進一步激發使用者的消費需求。同時，由於我們良好的產品設計、有效的招募機制和高精度的用戶定位，我們的語音社交網路業務迅速擴張。

Overall, in 2024, more intense industry competition and weaker consumer spending leads to our contraction in our total net revenues for the year. These factors place greater pressure on allocating our fixed cost, resulting in decreased gross margin and increased net loss. In light of this, the company's core strategy for 2025 will center on cost reduction, efficiency improvement and narrowing losses, emphasizing three key areas to improve our structure.

整體而言，2024年，產業競爭加劇，消費支出減弱，導致我們全年淨收入總額萎縮。這些因素對我們的固定成本分配帶來了更大的壓力，導致毛利率下降、淨虧損增加。為此，公司2025年的核心策略將圍繞降本、增效、扭虧為盈，突顯三大重點領域優化結構。

First, we will reinforce our revenue resilience by unlocking monetization opportunities within our niche game ecosystem, advancing the commercialization of new business ventures, we will ramp up product innovation and marketing around game props, enhanced AI capabilities and user conversion efficiency for our voice-based social networking business and continue to increase the revenue contribution from our innovative business. This will reduce our dependency on revenues from our live streaming business and improve our ability to weather macroeconomic fluctuations.

首先，我們將透過釋放利基遊戲生態系統中的貨幣化機會、推進新業務的商業化來增強我們的收入韌性，我們將加強圍繞遊戲道具的產品創新和行銷，增強人工智慧能力和語音社交網路業務的用戶轉換效率，並繼續增加我們創新業務的收入貢獻。這將減少我們對直播業務收入的依賴，並提高我們抵禦宏觀經濟波動的能力。

Our second priority is optimizing our cost structure to mitigate the adverse impact of scale inefficiencies. Over the past year, we performed an indexed ROI analysis of our content and tested multiple approaches to enhance returns. So far, the results have been modest. Moving into 2025, our focus will be on adjusting fixed cost components, especially content costs in order to improve gross margin.

我們的第二個優先事項是優化成本結構，以減輕規模效率低下的不利影響。在過去的一年裡，我們對我們的內容進行了指數化投資報酬率分析，並測試了多種方法來提高回報。到目前為止，成果並不顯著。進入2025年，我們的重點將放在調整固定成本組成部分，特別是內容成本，以提高毛利率。

In terms of streamers resource management, since the third quarter of 2024, we have gradually adjusted the streamer compensation framework introducing performance-based compensation assessment matrix. This has allowed us to achieve a year-over-year reduction in streamer compensation cost. Nevertheless, given our current revenue size, streamer compensation costs still account for a large portion of our total revenues.

在主播資源管理方面，自2024年第三季起，我們逐步調整主播薪酬框架，引進以績效為基礎的薪酬評估矩陣。這使我們能夠實現串流媒體補償成本的逐年降低。儘管如此，考慮到我們目前的收入規模，串流媒體補償成本仍然占我們總收入的很大一部分。

In 2025, we will continue to optimize our streamer resources through ongoing adjustments, leveraging flexibility -- flexible contracting models, we will actively explore cross-platform content corporation, unleashing streamers traffic and commercial potential will significantly reducing streamer compensation costs.

2025年，我們將持續優化主播資源，持續調整，利用靈活的簽約模式，積極探索跨平台內容合作，釋放主播流量和商業潛力，大幅降低主播報酬成本。

In terms of acquiring official tournaments copyright, with more platforms broadcasting official tournaments in 2024, the typical traffic driven to our platform from official tournaments content gradually declined. Our historical data suggests that large-scale eSports events have not significantly boosted our revenue and, in some cases, might have had an active effect.

在取得官方賽事版權方面，隨著2024年有更多平台轉播官方賽事，官方賽事內容為我們平台帶來的典型流量逐漸下降。我們的歷史數據表明，大型電競賽事並沒有顯著提高我們的收入，在某些情況下，甚至可能產生正面的影響。

Although we experiment with direct monetization activities in 2024, such as promotion -- promoting game props in official tournaments live streaming channels. These initiatives did not notably improve the ROI for copyrighted content. In 2025, we will focus on acquiring official tournaments copyrights with higher ROI potential and work with copyright holders to secure more advantages, pricing optimizing our copyright cost.

雖然我們在2024年嘗試了直接的貨幣化活動，例如推廣——在官方錦標賽直播頻道中推廣遊戲道具。這些措施並沒有顯著提高版權內容的投資報酬率。2025年，我們將重點佈局投資回報率更高的官方賽事版權，與版權方合作，爭取更多優勢，優化版權成本定價。

Additionally, we are ramping up our AI initiatives to drive efficiency. Our intelligent content review system continues to evolve with integrative advancement in large models, improving the accuracy of identifying risk content and shortening processing time. At the same time, our R&D center is applying AI-powered programming productivity tools, which enable content base ring fence driving couch generation, boosting overall R&D efficiency.

此外，我們正在加強人工智慧計劃以提高效率。我們的智慧內容審核系統持續演進，大模型整合進步，提升風險內容辨識的準確率，縮短處理時間。同時，我們的研發中心正在應用人工智慧程式生產力工具，以內容庫為核心驅動開發週期，並提升整體研發效率。

In February, we completed the technical research and development of open source models based on Deepseek. We expect our development efficiency to increase as AI programming tools become more deeply integrated. Operationally, we will continue to focus on our core business, extending our AI capabilities across a broader range of business scenarios, optimizing costs by reducing efficiencies and further streamlining the workers. These initiatives are designed to boost productivity reduce operating expenses and free up more resources to grow and innovative within our core business.

2月，完成基於Deepseek開源模式的技術研發。我們預計，隨著人工智慧程式設計工具的深度集成，我們的開發效率將會提高。在營運上，我們將繼續專注於核心業務，將AI能力擴展到更廣泛的業務場景，透過降低效率和進一步精簡人員來優化成本。這些措施旨在提高生產力，降低營運費用，並釋放更多資源來促進核心業務的成長和創新。

Naturally, these adjustments might help achieve cost optimization goals. But they might also lead to a noticeable decline in our user base and revenue for a period of time. Additionally, favorable macroeconomic dynamic may extend the time line for narrowing of a loss.

當然，這些調整可能有助於實現成本最佳化目標。但它們也可能導致我們的用戶群和收入在一段時間內大幅下降。此外，有利的宏觀經濟動態可能會延長縮小損失的時間。

We have developed an array of contingency plans to mitigate these challenges. This includes consolidating platform resources for more content collaborations to ease traffic pressure and trimming key costs to ensure margin improvement among others. We believe that these initiatives will narrow our net loss in 2025, securing financial stabilities through cyclical macro fluctuation while balancing business growth.

我們制定了一系列應急計劃來緩解這些挑戰。其中包括整合平台資源，進行更多內容合作，以緩解流量壓力，削減關鍵成本，以確保利潤率的提高等。我們相信，這些舉措將縮小我們在2025年的淨虧損，在平衡業務成長的同時，透過週期性的宏觀波動確保財務穩定。

With that, I will now turn the call over to our Vice President of Finance, Mr. Hao Cao, to go through the details of our financial performance in the quarter.

現在，我將把電話轉給我們的財務副總裁曹浩先生，來詳細介紹我們本季的財務表現。

Thank you, Ms. Ren. Hello, everyone. In 2024, we continue to navigate challenges posed by macroeconomic headwinds and evolving industry landscape. In response, our financial focus has been on revenue diversification, cost control and expense optimization. We made significant strides in amplifying our revenue structure with revenues from our innovative business, advertising and others increasing by 63.6% year-over-year to RMB1.2 billion for the full year of 2024. However, both our gross margin and net margins were negatively impacted by an increase in overall revenue, coupled with rapidly fixed cost components.

謝謝任女士。大家好。2024年，我們將繼續應對宏觀經濟逆風和不斷變化的產業格局所帶來的挑戰。作為回應，我們的財務重點是收入多樣化、成本控制和費用優化。我們在擴大收入結構方面取得了重大進展，2024年全年創新業務、廣告及其他收入年增63.6%至人民幣12億元。然而，我們的毛利率和淨利潤都受到整體收入增加以及成本組成部分快速固定的負面影響。

Looking ahead to 2025, our top financial priority is margin improvement to restore our financial resilience. Let's take a closer look at our financial performance for the fourth quarter. Our total net revenues decreased by 12.3% year-over-year in the fourth quarter was RMB1.14 billion from RMB1.3 billion in the same period of 2023. The decline was primarily driven by a decrease in live streaming revenues, which dropped by 28.4% to RMB0.73 billion compared with RMB1.02 billion in the same period of 2023.

展望 2025 年，我們的首要財務重點是提高利潤率以恢復我們的財務彈性。讓我們仔細看看我們第四季度的財務表現。第四季度，我們的總淨收入為人民幣 11.4 億元，較 2023 年同期的 13 億元同比下降 12.3%。下降的主要原因是直播收入下降，與 2023 年同期的 10.2 億元人民幣相比，下降了 28.4% 至 7.3 億元。

The ongoing macroeconomic softness and evolving user spending patterns were the key factors impacting live streaming revenues. To address these challenges, we have continued our revenue strategy of focusing our core pay users, reducing new paying user acquisition promotions and prioritizing the promotion of more avoidable product offerings to encourage consistent spending. As a result, we saw a year-over-year decline in both total number of paying users and our quarterly up which decreased by 11.5% to RMB246 from RMB278 in the same period last year.

持續的宏觀經濟疲軟和不斷變化的用戶消費模式是影響直播收入的關鍵因素。為了因應這些挑戰，我們繼續推行我們的收入策略，即專注於核心付費用戶，減少新付費用戶獲取促銷活動，並優先推廣更多可避免的產品，以鼓勵持續消費。因此，我們的付費用戶總數和季度收入均同比下降，從去年同期的 278 元人民幣下降 11.5% 至 246 元。

On a positive note, our revenue diversification efforts are showing momentum. Innovative business, advertising and other revenues increased significantly in the fourth quarter by 47.2% to RMB405.1 million up from RMB275.2 million in the same period of 2023. The year-over-year increase was primarily driven by higher revenues from our voice-based social networking service and game membership service with eight consecutive quarters of growth in our innovative business, the contribution to total revenue from innovative business, advertising and others reached 35.7% in the fourth quarter, marking a significant milestone in our revenue diversification strategy.

從積極的方面來看，我們的收入多元化努力正在顯現勢頭。第四季創新業務、廣告及其他收入大幅成長47.2%至4.051億元人民幣，高於2023年同期的2.752億元。年比成長主要得益於語音社交網路服務和遊戲會員服務收入的增加，創新業務連續八個季度實現成長，第四季度創新業務、廣告及其他業務對總收入的貢獻達到35.7%，標誌著我們收入多元化策略的一個重要里程碑。

Cost of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2024 decreased by 8.8% to RMB1.07 billion compared with RMB1.17 billion in the same period of 2023. For comparison purposes, we reclassified certain costs related to our innovative business from other costs to revenue sharing fees for the fourth quarter of 2023. After this reclassification, revenue share fees and content costs in the fourth quarter of 2024 decreased by 9.3% to RMB896.2 million compared with RMB988.6 million in the same period of 2023. The decrease was primarily driven by a reduction in content costs as well as a decrease in revenue share fees due to lower live streaming revenues. However, this decrease was partly offset by increased revenue share fees related to revenue growth in our innovative business.

2024年第四季營收成本為人民幣10.7億元，較2023年同期的人民幣11.7億元下降8.8%。為了進行比較，我們將與創新業務相關的某些成本從其他成本重新分類為 2023 年第四季的收入分成費用。經本次重新分類後，2024年第四季的收入分成費用及內容成本為8.962億元，較2023年同期的9.886億元下降9.3%。下降的主要原因是內容成本的降低以及直播收入減少所導致的收入分成費用的減少。然而，這一下降被與我們創新業務收入成長相關的收入分成費用的增加部分抵消。

Bandwidth costs in the fourth quarter of 2024 decreased by 30% to RMB70.3 million from RMB100.5 million in the same period of 2023, primarily due to a year-over-year decrease in peak bandwidth usage. Gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2024 was RMB69.8 million compared with RMB126.2 million in the same period of 2023. The decline in gross profit was primarily driven by a faster decrease in live streaming revenues relative to the cost of revenues, resulting in reduced gross margin efficiency.

2024年第四季頻寬成本較2023年同期的1.005億元人民幣下降30%至7,030萬元人民幣，主要原因是尖峰頻寬使用量較去年同期下降。2024年第四季毛利為人民幣6,980萬元，而2023年同期為人民幣1.262億元。毛利下降主要由於直播收入相對於收入成本下降較快，導致毛利率效率下降。

Gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 6.1% compared with 9.7% in the same period of 2023. However, we observed a slight quarter-over-quarter increase in gross margin, primarily due to decreased content costs. The sequential improvement in gross margin not only highlights our ongoing efforts to optimize content costs, but also reinforces our strategy for 2025 of continuously fine-tuning our cost structure to enhance gross margin.

2024 年第四季毛利率為 6.1%，而 2023 年同期為 9.7%。然而，我們觀察到毛利率較上季略有成長，這主要是由於內容成本下降。毛利率的持續改善不僅凸顯了我們持續優化內容成本的努力，也強化了我們2025年持續調整成本結構以提高毛利率的策略。

Sales and marketing expenses declined by 5.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to RMB79.3 million from RMB84 million in the same period of 2023. The decrease was mainly attributable to a decrease in staff-related expenses. Research and development expenses were reduced by 42.2% to RMB34.2 million from RMB59.1 million in the same period of 2023, again, mainly due to a decrease in staff-related expenses.

2024 年第四季銷售和行銷費用從 2023 年同期的 8,400 萬元人民幣下降 5.5% 至 7,930 萬元人民幣。減少的主要原因是員工相關費用減少。研發費用從2023年同期的人民幣5,910萬元減少42.2％至人民幣3,420萬元，這同樣主要是由於與員工相關的費用減少。

General and administrative expenses decreased by 10.4% in the fourth quarter of 2024 to RMB71.7 million from RMB80 million in the same period of 2023. The decrease was mainly attributable to reductions in staff related expenses and provision for receivables and was partially offset by an expense related to our ongoing employee streamlining initiatives.

2024年第四季，一般及行政開支從2023年同期的8,000萬元人民幣下降10.4%至7,170萬元。減少的主要原因是員工相關費用和應收帳款撥備的減少，並被我們正在進行的員工精簡舉措相關的費用部分抵消。

Our loss from operations was RMB183.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with RMB120.4 million in the same period of 2023. Adjusted loss from operations, which excludes impairment loss of goodwill and intangible assets was RMB108.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared with RMB86.4 million in the same period of 2023. Our net loss for the fourth quarter of 2024 was RMB163.7 million compared with RMB62.2 million in the same period of 2023.

2024 年第四季，我們的營業虧損為 1.835 億元，而 2023 年同期為 1.204 億元。2024 年第四季調整後營業虧損（不包括商譽及無形資產減損損失）為人民幣 1.081 億元，而 2023 年同期為人民幣 8,640 萬元。2024 年第四季，我們的淨虧損為 1.637 億元，而 2023 年同期為 6,220 萬元。

Our adjusted net loss, which excludes sharp loss in active method investments, impairment loss of investments gains from fair value changes in long-term investments and impairment loss of goodwill and intangible assets was RMB104.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with RMB5 million in the same period of 2023. For the fourth quarter of 2024, basic and diluted net loss per ADS were both RMB5.43, while adjusted basic and diluted net loss per ADS were both RMB4.78.

2024 年第四季度，我們的調整後淨虧損（不包括主動方法投資的大幅虧損、長期投資公允價值變動產生的投資減損損失以及商譽和無形資產的減損損失）為人民幣 1.043 億元，而 2023 年同期為人民幣 500 萬元。2024年第四季，每股美國存託憑證基本淨虧損和稀釋淨虧損均為5.43元人民幣，調整後每股美國存託憑證基本淨虧損和稀釋淨虧損均為4.78元人民幣。

As of December 31, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, restricted cash in other noncurrent assets and short-term and long-term bank deposits of RMB4.47 billion or USD612.1 million compared with RMB6.86 billion as of December 31, 2023. The year-over-year decrease in cash balance was primarily due to the special cash dividend distribution of USD300 million and installed a 20 million share repurchase program, both of which reflect our commitment to returning value to shareholders while maintaining a healthy cash position.

截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金及現金等價物、受限現金、其他非流動資產中的受限現金以及短期和長期銀行存款為人民幣 44.7 億元或 6.121 億美元，而截至 2023 年 12 月 31 日為人民幣 68.6 億元。現金餘額年減主要是由於3億美元的特別現金股息分配和2000萬股股票回購計劃，這兩項舉措均體現了我們致力於在保持健康現金狀況的同時回報股東的承諾。

Looking ahead, we are focused on improving margins and achieving financial resilience. We will continue to refine our operational efficiency and pursue profitable growth, particularly by lowering accounting costs and growing our innovative business. We are confident in our ability to navigate market conditions through the solid execution of our strategies and remain dedicated to creating long-term value for our shareholders.

展望未來，我們專注於提高利潤率和實現財務彈性。我們將繼續提高營運效率並追求獲利成長，特別是透過降低會計成本和發展創新業務。我們有信心透過穩健執行策略來應對市場情勢，並將繼續致力於為股東創造長期價值。

This concludes our prepared remarks for today. Operator, we are now ready to take questions.

我們今天的準備演講到此結束。接線員，我們現在可以回答問題了。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

Nelson Cheung, Citibank.

花旗銀行的 Nelson Cheung。

(spoken in foreign language) So let me translate myself in English. I have two questions. The first question is regarding the new business growth drivers entering into 2025. Wondering if management can introduce on your -- all your business? And what is your expectation regarding the OD business and game props business as well? And then my second question is I wanted to mention, I wondering if you could share what's your plan on the future use of cash?

（用外語說）那麼讓我用英語翻譯一下。我有兩個問題。第一個問題是關於2025年新的業務成長動力。想知道管理階層是否可以介紹您的所有業務嗎？對於OD業務和遊戲道具業務您有什麼期待？我的第二個問題是，我想提一下，我想知道您是否可以分享您對未來現金使用的計劃？

Thank you, Nelson. So I'm going to answer your first question. In 2024, revenue from innovative business, advertising and other increased by 36.6% year-over-year and accounted for 28% of our total revenue, which is a significant improvement from last year's 13%. Our voice-based social networking business and game membership program are the two key drivers of our revenue diversification strategy. In 2025, we plan to allocate more resources to our innovative business further propelling revenue growth.

謝謝你，尼爾森。所以我要回答你的第一個問題。2024年，創新業務、廣告及其他營收年增36.6%，占我們總營收的28%，較去年的13%有顯著提升。我們的基於語音的社交網路業務和遊戲會員計劃是我們收入多元化策略的兩個關鍵驅動力。2025年，我們計劃向創新業務投入更多資源，進一步推動營收成長。

Let me briefly outline our voice-based social networking business, our chat room live streaming and other voice-based interaction format bringing users and earmark social audio experience. Streamers can interact with users in real time within their chatrooms while users can engage by sending voice messages and joint voice chat with streamers and other participants. Additionally, users can express their appreciation and support for streamers by purchasing and sending virtual gifts fostering stronger connections and stickiness between users and streamers and generating revenue for the platform.

我先簡單介紹一下我們基於語音的社交網路業務，我們的聊天室直播和其他基於語音的互動形式為用戶帶來獨特的社交音訊體驗。主播可以在聊天室內與用戶即時互動，而用戶可以透過發送語音訊息以及與主播和其他參與者進行聯合語音聊天來參與。此外，用戶可以透過購買和發送虛擬禮物來表達對主播的欣賞和支持，從而增強用戶與主播之間的聯繫和黏性，並為平台創造收入。

In terms of commercialization, our voice-based social networking business mainly generates revenue from virtual gift sales, with a small portion coming from subscription-based membership services and virtual customization options.

在商業化方面，我們的語音社交網路業務主要透過虛擬禮物銷售產生收入，一小部分來自基於訂閱的會員服務和虛擬客製化選項。

In 2022 -- sorry, in 2025, our voice-based social networking business will focus on three key areas. First, we will adopt more refined traffic distribution to improve the efficiency of traffic utilization, specifically targeting higher user conversion rates. Second, we will integrate AI capability into the voice-based social networking scenarios to enhance social matching efficiency and overall user experience. Third, we will continue innovating product features and revenue-generating activities to expand user construction scenarios and increase overall revenue.

2022年－不好意思，是2025年，我們的語音社交網路業務會集中在三個重點領域。首先，我們會採取更精細的流量分發，提高流量利用效率，提升用戶轉換率為目標。第二，我們會將AI能力融入語音社交場景中，提升社交配對效率和整體使用者體驗。第三，我們將繼續創新產品功能和創收活動，以擴展用戶建立場景並增加整體收入。

For our relatively established game crop sales, we will continue to advance the following three business models. First, we will partner with game developers on joint large-scale promotional campaigns to increase business visibility and drawing traffic from external channels. Second, we will extend the multi-platform marketing approach led by game developers to more streamers, encouraging them to engage in more commercialization ventures.

對於我們目前較成熟的遊戲作物銷售，我們將繼續推進以下三種商業模式。首先，我們將與遊戲開發商合作進行大型聯合推廣活動，以提高業務知名度並吸引外部管道的流量。第二，我們將把由遊戲開發商主導的多平台行銷模式推廣到更多的主播，鼓勵他們參與更多商業化的活動。

Third, we will strengthen our game membership program by combining platform benefits and incentives with game props to drive product innovation. At the same time, we will expand the membership program to more gaming segments for continued revenue growth. Overall, in 2025, we expect revenue from innovative business advertising and others to remain a healthy growth trajectory and contribute approximately 35% of our total revenue.

第三，我們將強化遊戲會員計劃，將平台福利和激勵與遊戲道具結合，推動產品創新。同時，我們將把會員計畫擴展到更多的遊戲領域，以實現持續的收入成長。總體而言，到2025年，我們預計創新商業廣告及其他收入將保持健康的成長軌跡，並貢獻我們總收入的約35%。

Let me answer the second question regarding at cash usage. Following the dividend distribution in February 2025, and we had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term and long-term deposits of RMB2.24 billion as of the end of February 2025. In line with our overall business plans for 2025, we aim to substantially reduce our net losses. Given this, we believe the company maintains sufficient cash reserves to manage business fluctuations and support the orderly development of our business initiatives. Thank you.

讓我回答有關現金使用的第二個問題。繼2025年2月派發股息後，截至2025年2月底，我們擁有現金及現金等價物、受限現金以及短期及長期存款人民幣22.4億元。根據我們2025年的整體業務計劃，我們的目標是大幅減少淨虧損。有鑑於此，我們相信公司保持足夠的現金儲備來管理業務波動並支持我們業務計劃的有序發展。謝謝。

Ritchie Sun, HSBC.

孫紅雷，匯豐銀行。

(spoken in foreign language) We have tweaked our strategy for a while, and there have also been two large dividend payouts. So how should we interpret the long-term development strategy for the group going forward?

（外語）我們已經調整了一段時間的策略，並且已經進行了兩次大規模的股息支付。那麼，未來該如何解讀集團的長期發展策略？

Thank you for your question. I think we outline much of the background and the traction of our operational analogs adjustments in our prepared remarks. To build on this bit and given the evolving competitive environment and our current revenue scale is paramount for us to reevaluate the ROI of our business as a platform deeply engaged in the game-centric diverse content industry. So its strategy is not about a contraction, it's about reallocating our resources from efficient initiatives to high-value business segments.

感謝您的提問。我認為我們在準備好的演講中概述了營運類似物調整的大部分背景和牽引力。在此基礎上，考慮到不斷變化的競爭環境和我們目前的收入規模，我們必須重新評估我們作為深度參與以遊戲為中心的多元化內容行業的平台的業務投資回報率。因此，它的策略不是收縮，而是將我們的資源從高效率的舉措重新分配到高價值的業務部門。

The strategic deposit we are taking will continue to strengthen the platform to core content advantages in niche segments and alleviate the pressure on our margins. Meanwhile, we continue to identify and go after opportunities that will grow our business and revenues. We are also prioritizing shareholder interests with our buyback program and the special cash dividend allocation totally USD620 million.

我們正在進行的策略存款將繼續加強平台在細分領域的核心內容優勢，並減輕我們的利潤壓力。同時，我們將繼續尋找並尋求能夠增加業務和收入的機會。我們也透過回購計畫和總計 6.2 億美元的特別現金股利分配優先考慮股東利益。

Since 2024, we repurchased USD20 million in share buybacks and we have issued two special cash dividends of USD300 million each. The decision to distribute this special cash dividend was primarily based on the company's cash surplus and the field cash utilization plans. We believe that cash dividends are the optimal way to improve the utilization of our surplus cash.

自 2024 年起，我們回購了 2,000 萬美元的股票，並派發了兩次特別現金股息，每次 3 億美元。分配此特別現金股利的決定主要基於公司的現金盈餘和現場現金使用計畫。我們認為，現金分紅是提高盈餘現金利用率的最佳方式。

Overall, I would summarize our trend as exchanging short-term operational adjustments for stable healthy growth. Further, particularly in 2025, we aim to improve margins by reducing content costs, streamlining our workforce and improving operational profitability. Then we plan to enhance our revenue mix by growing innovative buildings, building a healthy business ecosystem and striving for operational profitability in the long term. We remain committed to fostering a vibrant content ecosystem, focusing on different operations for core users and continuously optimizing our diverse content. Thank you.

整體來說，我把我們的趨勢概括為用短期的營運調整來換取穩定的健康成長。此外，特別是在 2025 年，我們的目標是透過降低內容成本、精簡員工隊伍和提高營運獲利能力來提高利潤率。然後，我們計劃透過發展創新建築、建立健康的商業生態系統和努力實現長期營運盈利來增強我們的收入組合。我們始終致力於打造充滿活力的內容生態，聚焦核心用戶差異化運營，持續優化多元化內容。謝謝。

Raphael Chen, BOCI Research.

中銀國際研究部陳偉雄（Raphael Chen）

(spoken in foreign language) I'm just wondering the user and the financial impact of tournament procurement and the streamer strategic adjustments on our platform.

（用外語說）我只是想知道錦標賽採購和串流媒體策略調整對我們平台的用戶和財務的影響。

Thank you, Raphael. Regarding your question on cost restructuring, let me address copyrighted content and stream content separately. First, let's look at copyright content. We have been applying a flexible approach to acquiring copyright since 2022 that aligns with our company's development goals, historical ROI from copyright content and copyright fees.

謝謝你，拉斐爾。關於成本重組的問題，讓我分別談談版權內容和串流內容。首先，我們來看看版權內容。自 2022 年以來，我們一直採用靈活的方式來獲取版權，這種方式與我們公司的發展目標、版權內容的歷史投資回報率和版權費用相一致。

In 2025, our primary goal is cost reduction and loss narrowing based on mobile-focused operations. After thoroughly assessing the contribution of official tournaments to traffic, revenue and associated costs. We identified certain high-cost copyright tournaments that didn't meet our ROI standards. As a result, we decided to full goal acquiring some copyright tournaments in 2025, where we couldn't justify making continued investment based on the elevated copyright fees and diminishing returns in incremental traffic growth.

2025年，我們的首要目標是以移動為中心，降低成本，縮小虧損。在徹底評估官方錦標賽對流量、收入和相關成本的貢獻後。我們發現某些高成本的版權錦標賽不符合我們的投資報酬率標準。因此，我們決定在 2025 年實現收購一些版權錦標賽的全面目標，因為基於高昂的版權費用和增量流量增長的收益遞減，我們無法證明繼續投資是合理的。

Much of our platform traffic from these games have historically come from tournament users, mostly users on PCs, TVs and other large screens, which are less conducive to promoting and marketing our mobile business. Additionally, the potential for commercializing tournament traffic on a large scale was still limited. Since monetization mainly depends on redirecting a tournament traffic to other content on our platform. The process was long and inefficient, leading to lower monetization efficiency.

我們平台從這些遊戲獲得的流量很大一部分歷來來自錦標賽用戶，這些用戶大多是使用電腦、電視和其他大螢幕的用戶，這不利於推廣和行銷我們的行動業務。此外，大規模商業化錦標賽流量的潛力仍然有限。因為貨幣化主要依賴將錦標賽流量重新導向到我們平台上的其他內容。流程冗長、效率低下，導致貨幣化效率較低。

With this in mind, we prioritized more cost-effective tournaments such as Peacekeeper Elite, which boosted strong commercialization monument and the wildly popular King Pro League, which leads our border audience base. Our official content-driven activities around these two events have shown promising results. For example, we successfully promoted game crops within the official Peacekeeper Elite live streaming channel, including marketing campaigns led by game developers and DouYu's game-specific membership program.

考慮到這一點，我們優先考慮更具成本效益的錦標賽，例如《和平精英》——它推動了強大的商業化里程碑，以及廣受歡迎的《王者榮耀》職業聯賽，它引領了我們的邊界觀眾群。我們圍繞這兩個活動開展的官方內容驅動活動已取得良好的效果。例如，我們在官方和平精英直播頻道內成功推廣了遊戲作物，包括由遊戲開發商領導的行銷活動和鬥魚的遊戲專用會員計畫。

By linking these gaming accounts and completing specific in-game and interactive tasks in the live streaming channels Users are reward for redeeming game crops. This approach not only boosted traffic to tournament content, but also increased in-game engagement creating valuable commercialization scenarios for both our platform and game developers.

透過關聯這些遊戲帳號，並在直播頻道中完成特定的遊戲內和互動任務，用戶可以獲得兌換遊戲作物的獎勵。這種方法不僅增加了錦標賽內容的流量，還提高了遊戲內參與度，為我們的平台和遊戲開發者創造了有價值的商業化場景。

Honor of Kings was similar as a mobile game with border upheld across demographics and extensive official tournaments content. It offers us uphold opportunities for derivative content creation and operations. to convert tournament viewers into game content users more effectively. Furthermore, we have been in discussions with game developers to secure more favorable copyright pricing. At the same time, we are exploring ways to optimize ROI on copyrights through flexible partnerships. Based on these strategies, we expect that our 2025 full year copyright cost to decrease significantly year-over-year.

王者榮耀是一款支援跨人群邊界的手機遊戲，並具有豐富的官方比賽內容。它為我們提供了衍生內容創作和營運的機會，從而更有效地將比賽觀眾轉化為遊戲內容用戶。此外，我們一直在與遊戲開發人員進行討論，以確保更優惠的版權定價。同時，我們也在探索透過靈活的合作關係來優化版權的投資報酬率。基於這些策略，我們預計2025年全年版權成本將年減。

We also recognize that the absence of copyright events in certain gaming segments could temporarily affect our platform's overall traffic. We will closely monitor the dynamic in gaming segment, missing copyright tournaments with the goal of offsetting any traffic decline with a diverse range of self-produced content and platform-wide operational activities to help minimize the impact of overall engagement on our platform.

我們也意識到，某些遊戲領域缺乏版權活動可能會暫時影響我們平台的整體流量。我們將密切關注遊戲領域的動態，錯過版權錦標賽，目標是透過各種自製內容和全平台的營運活動來抵消流量下降，以幫助最大限度地減少整體參與度對我們平台的影響。

Then let's turn to streamer content. The adjustment of Dreamer resources is a key initiative for optimizing the company's business efficiency in 2025 aimed at optimizing the cost structure reducing fixed cost pressure and laying the groundwork for the company's long-term healthy growth. In line with our goal of significantly narrowing operational losses, we will be fine-turning stream our resources and reducing streamer compensation costs to alleviate pressure on gross margin. These adjustments include adopting a more flexible streamer contracting models to fulfill leveraging streamer resources actively advising advancing content concretion and expanding content partners and models as we build on last year's cross-platform content completion partnership.

然後我們來談談串流內容。夢想家資源調整是公司2025年優化經營效率的關鍵舉措，旨在優化成本結構，減輕固定成本壓力，為公司長期健康發展奠定基礎。為了實現大幅縮小營運虧損的目標，我們將精細化調整串流媒體資源，降低串流媒體補償成本，以減輕毛利率的壓力。這些調整包括採用更靈活的串流媒體簽約模式，以實現利用串流媒體資源、積極建議推進內容具體化以及在去年跨平台內容完成合作夥伴關係的基礎上擴大內容合作夥伴和模式。

While these refinements will impose short-term pressure on the business, we expect a clear decline in platform traffic as the adjustments are phased in. Accordingly, revenue from the live streaming virtual gifting might also face some pressure.

雖然這些改進將在短期內給業務帶來壓力，但隨著調整的逐步實施，我們預期平台流量將大幅下降。因此，直播虛擬送禮的收入也可能面臨一些壓力。

Now as to this, we firmly believe that this adjustment is a crucial step in the company's proactive effort to break free from inefficient operations, a necessary measure to facilitate our long-term growth. We will redirect resources towards cost-effective streamer assets, self-produced content and commercialization initiated. These initiatives will improve content ROI and enhance gross margin in the long run.

對此，我們堅信，這次調整是公司主動擺脫低效營運的關鍵一步，是公司長遠發展的必要措施。我們將把資源轉向具有成本效益的串流資產、自製內容和商業化啟動。這些舉措將提高內容投資報酬率，並從長遠來看提高毛利率。

The development focus will be directed towards our innovative business driven growth in revenues from new business ventures. We will focus on diversified monetization streams such as game prop sales, voice-based social networks and services and other opportunities. With the refined revenue structure, improved gross margin and optimized operating expenses we will achieve our goal of significant narrowing operational losses.

發展重點將放在創新業務推動新業務收入的成長。我們將專注於多元化的貨幣化管道，如遊戲道具銷售、基於語音的社交網路和服務等機會。透過優化收入結構、提高毛利率、優化營業費用，我們將實現大幅縮減營業虧損的目標。

At last, let's turn to the potential impact on other financials. Some adjustments such as those two copyrighted content will deliver immediate cost savings, while others like streamer adjustments is a relatively ongoing process. As these adjustments continue, we expect a noticeable year-over-year decrease in content costs, leading to a significant improvement in gross margin for 2025.

最後，讓我們來談談對其他金融的潛在影響。一些調整（例如上述兩個版權內容）將立即帶來成本節約，而其他調整（例如串流調整）則是一個相對持續的過程。隨著這些調整的持續，我們預計內容成本將同比顯著下降，導致 2025 年毛利率顯著提高。

Thomas Chong, Jefferies.

湯瑪斯‧張 (Thomas Chong)，傑富瑞 (Jefferies)。

(spoken in foreign language) My first question is about the G&A expenses. The management comments about the sequential increase. And my second question is about 2025 operating profit. Can you mention about how we should think about the outlook?

（以外語說）我的第一個問題是關於一般及行政費用。管理層對連續成長發表了評論。我的第二個問題是關於 2025 年的營業利潤。您能否談談我們該如何看待前景？

Okay. Thank you for the question. We have been consistently working to optimize our operating expenses as we manage to reduce staff costs by streamlining our workforce. We also took a measured investment approach to marketing our embedded business. For all in the fourth quarter, our sales and marketing expenses, G&A expenses as well as R&D expenses or declined year-over-year. The quarter-over-quarter increase in G&A expenses was mainly due to the costs related to workforce optimization aligned with our business adjustments.

好的。謝謝你的提問。我們一直致力於優化營運費用，並透過精簡員工隊伍來降低員工成本。我們也採取了審慎的投資方式來行銷我們的嵌入式業務。整體而言，第四季度我們的銷售和行銷費用、一般及行政費用以及研發費用較去年同期均有所下降。一般及行政費用較上月增加主要是因為與我​​們的業務調整一致的勞動力優化相關成本。

Looking ahead to 2025, while our business adjustments may exert some pressure on revenue growth we remain committed to optimizing our cost structure and controlling expenses to improve gross margin, enhance business efficiency and reduce operating expenses. We expect some improvement in our operating losses for 2025 as compared to last year. Thank you.

展望2025年，雖然業務調整可能對營收成長帶來一定壓力，但我們仍致力於優化成本結構、控制費用，以提高毛利率、提升經營效率、降低營運費用。我們預計 2025 年的經營虧損將比去年有所改善。謝謝。

Thank you. This concludes the question -- that's all the time we have for questions today. I will now turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

謝謝。問題到此結束——今天我們的提問時間就到這裡。現在我將把電話轉回給管理階層，請他們作最後發言。

Thank you. On behalf of the management, thank you for joining our call today. We look forward to speaking with everyone next quarter.

謝謝。我代表管理層感謝您今天參加我們的電話會議。我們期待下個季度與大家交談。

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a wonderful day.

謝謝。今天的電話會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路，享受美好的一天。