Sohu.com Ltd (SOHU) 2022 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and good evening. Thank you for joining Sohu's Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Huang Pu, Investor Relations Director of Sohu. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator. Thank you for joining us to discuss Sohu's fourth quarter 2022 results. On the call are Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Charles Zhang; CFO, Joanna Lv; and Vice President of Finance, James Deng. Also with us are Changyou's CEO Dewen Chen; and CFO Yaobin Wang.

Before management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you of the company's safe harbor statements in connection with today's conference call. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed on this call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections, and therefore, you should not place undue reliance on them.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent annual report on Form 20-F.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Dr. Charles Zhang. Charles, please proceed.

Thank you, everyone, for joining our call. In the fourth quarter and full year of 2022, we continued to refine our products and optimize operating efficiency with strict budget control. Despite the negative impact of COVID-19 and the macroeconomic challenges, thanks to our efforts, brand advertising revenue and bottom line performance both exceeded our prior guidance for the fourth quarter of 2022.

At Sohu Media Portal, we continue to dedicate ourselves to improving user experience by providing rich new premium content and making significant improvements in both product and technology. At Sohu Video, based on our Twin Engine strategy, we continue to develop both our original content and science based, live broadcasting with our advanced live broadcasting technology. Meanwhile, we proactively explored around monetization opportunities with our differentiated content marketing campaigns.

Online games delivered stable performance with revenue in line with our prior guidance. I'll go into detail about each of this business in the moment, but first, a quick overview of our financial performance. For the fourth quarter of the year 2022, total revenues $160 million, down 17% year-over-year and 13% quarter-over-quarter. Brand advertising revenues were $29 million, down 14% year-over-year and up 12% quarter-over-quarter.

Online game revenues, $121 million, down 16% year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter. GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $7 million compared with a net income of $4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and net loss of $22 million in the third quarter of 2022. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $2 million compared with a net income of $0.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and a net loss of $17 million in the third quarter of this year -- of 2022.

For the full year of 2022, total revenues $734 million, down 12% compared with 2021; brand advertising revenue $103 million, down 24% compared with 2021; online game revenues $585 million, down 8% compared with 2021.

GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $17 million compared with a net income of $69 million in 2021. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $2 million income compared with a net income of $79 million in 2021.

So now let me go through our key business in more detail. First Media Portal and Sohu Video. At Sohu Media Portal during 2022, we upgraded algorithms, technologies and products through refinements to each, worked hard at improving our user experience and keeping users engaged by offering a wide range of premium content and the self-media content and also their social distribution.

We kept strict control budget and made a continuous improvement in operating efficiency. With these efforts, we were able to further reinforce our reputation as a mainstream media platform by leveraging our advanced broadcasting technology and rich media resources.

At Video, we focused on our Twin Engine strategy by providing compelling content in both long and short form. We launched the several original dramas and reality shows, including (inaudible), and the fifth season of On her Way Home,(foreign language), the fifth season. Audiences were enthusiastic about both of these. We have several new original dramas in our pipeline to be released in coming quarters.

In terms of short-term -- short-form content, we launched a successful series of science-related live broadcasting during the year, including a highly-regarded IP of (inaudible), which I talked online. This IP has drawn significant attention and attracted hundreds of leading professional broadcasters in a variety of fields consolidating -- attracted hundreds of leading professional broadcasters, influencers in a variety of fields, consolidating our application as the leading science and knowledge-based live broadcasting platform and also online broadcasting short-form video platform.

On the monetization side, the COVID-19 pandemic and the macroeconomic uncertainties have negatively impacted the whole market. Even under these conditions, we explored new application scenario using our advanced and live broadcasting technology, benefiting from our unique IPs, and we continue to host traditional flagship events as well as unique and innovative content marketing campaigns. For example, these events and campaigns provides us with great premium content; at the same time, strengthen our brand influence and brought us new and significant content (inaudible) opportunities.

In 2022, we successfully hosted the Sohu News Marathon, a traditional item IP and Sohu Finance Annual Conference. They talked under [Starry Sky], a new program and others. This quarter, we hosted a fantastic factories, tailored to an advertiser, which not only drew a significant tension across media platform but also consolidated Sohu's competitive brand advantages and capture advertisers' budgets.

Now turning to online game business. During the fourth quarter of 2022, online game revenues were in line with the company's prior guidance. In our business line for PC games, we adjusted the Battlefield map and the gameplay of regular TLBB PC's cross-server clan or system. We launched a new expansion pack for TLBB Vintage to celebrate this anniversary with the tradition of its first new clan.

In mobile games, we introduced a survival mode PVP event for Legacy TLBB Mobile. In the first quarter of 2023, we keep players engaged. We will launch -- to keep players engaged, we will launch expansion packs to celebrate Chinese New Year and a series of holiday events for TLBB PC Legacy, Legacy TLBB Mobile and other games. As demand in the online games market becomes deeper and more diversified, we intend to stick with our top game strategy by promoting professional talent development as well as innovation in content technology and roll out more high-quality mobile games of different types.

In terms of game pipelines, while maintaining our core competitiveness in MMORPGs, we will also invest in more games of multiple types, including card, RPGs, strategy, sports and idle games.

Now I'll turn to the call to Joanna, our CFO, who will walk you through our financial results.

Thank you, Charles. I will now walk you through the key financials of our major segments for the fourth quarter and full year of 2022. All the numbers are on a non-GAAP basis. You may find a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures on our IR website.

For Sohu Media Portal, quarterly revenues were $16 million, down 16% year-over-year and up 9% quarter-over-quarter. The quarterly operating loss was $32 million compared with an operating loss of $38 million in the same quarter last year. For the full year 2022, Sohu Media Portal revenues were $61 million, down 19% compared with 2021. The full year operating loss was $156 million compared with an operating loss of $134 million in 2021.

For Sohu Video, quarterly revenues were $16 million, down 28% year-over-year and up 1% quarter-over-quarter. Quarterly operating loss was $21 million compared with an operating loss of $11 million in the same quarter last year. For the full year 2022, Sohu Video revenues were $63 million, down 28% compared with 2021. Full year operating loss was $99 million compared with an operating loss of $47 million in 2021.

For Changyou's online game business and 17173, quarterly revenues, $122 million, down 15% year-over-year and 18% quarter-over-quarter. Quarterly operating profit was $54 million compared with an operating profit of $55 million in the same quarter last year. For the full year 2022, Changyou's total revenues were $592 million, down 9% compared with 2021. The full year operating profit, $282 million, compared with an operating profit of $310 million in 2021.

For the first quarter of 2023, we expect brand advertising revenues to be between $20 million and $23 million, this implies annual decrease of 3% to 16% and a sequential decrease of 20% to 31%; online game revenue to be between $121 million and $131 million, this implies annual decrease of 70% to 23% and a sequential increase of nil to 8%; non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited to be between $15 million and $25 million; and GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited to be between $20 million and $30 million.

Our guidance reflects our current and the preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainties.

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we would now like to open the call to questions.

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong from Jefferies.

My first question is about the overall advertising industry outlook in 2023. Can management comment about the sentiment so far? And on Sohu, how we should think about the advertising spending among auto, FMCG, Internet services? And my second question is more about the use of cash and our investment strategies for this year. And finally, may I also get some color for management about our thoughts on the recent (inaudible) and how we reshape the Internet sector?

Okay. So the first overall advertising market after the -- basically, the lift of the lockup and after the COVID-19, I think the economy is picking up in the first quarter. So we are seeing an outlook of -- kind of optimistic about the overall advertising market compared with the last year 2022 because companies are starting to spend -- start marketing events, spending money to market their products and brand building.

In terms of the industry, specific industry, I think auto is (inaudible) first (inaudible). Auto, followed by FMCG. Internet service in Q4 is doing -- yes. Actually, for both part of Q4, we were still in the lockdown era, right? So -- but because of our some live broadcasting activities, we were -- we have growth, improving advertising up, improvement of 12% in Q4. But that was still during the lockup years. And so 2023, we're kind of optimistic. We see the economy is picking up and the company is starting to spend money now.

And the investment strategy, I think, first of all, we will have -- we will continue to invest in the products, refining our products and building the -- and also the Sohu networks and also to spend on user acquisition with -- with the products ready and with its features with improving stickiness. We're going to spend money on user acquisition, as we did in 2022 on online video, Sohu Video, spending more than before on Sohu Video. That's why you see the loss of video business widening in last year.

So this year, we'll spend both on video on the Sohu Media Portal, it separates Sohu News App, when we believe that our product is ready and with stickiness to acquire users and make sure they come and they stay. In terms of more investment, probably with AI technology and ChatGPT, we'll -- actually, our news premium -- our news recommendation algorithms is a deep application of AI technology, like deep learning and all these algorithms or AI.

(inaudible) has the whole ChatGPT type of OpenAI services. It's -- since we already -- Sogou, we already sold Sogou, so this need to have the whole -- develop the whole algorithm from bottom up is really need the kind of company with a search engine background. Now we already sold Sogou. So right now, we are not able to develop the whole OpenAI system, but we can outsource the fundamental layers of those algorithms to some other companies and then to just use the applications, apply them to our for our social network, because it's about questioning and answering and interactivity. So it fits well with our social network strategy. Well, I hope I answered your question.

Our next question comes from the line of Eddie Leung from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Just two questions. The first one is about games. Just wondering if that one has any, I won't say guidance, but any outlook on the potential launch time of some of the new games. And then secondly, I think Charles you talked a little bit about that. So in terms of use of cash because you guys still have a very good cash balance, in addition to investment, will there be any potential plan for, for example, more share buyback or even dividend?

[Interpreted] Currently, we plan to launch new TLBB in third quarter this year.

So we will not exclude the possibility of share buybacks this year. Yes, it's possible. We may.

Our next question comes from the line of Alicia Yap from Citi.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

I have a couple of questions. First, on a follow-up on the gaming business. So the driver for your sequential improvement for your gaming business that you've guided for first quarter, is that mainly on some of the expansion packs that has released and been doing well. So that's you guided slight improvement on the gaming for 1Q. That's the first question within the gaming. And then a follow-up on the new TLBB launch because we also know there is another similar title, which is called TLBB 2 by Perfect War. So would that be -- can you comment, would there be any confusions or any cannibalization effect from this similar title?

And then for advertising business, can you also elaborate a little bit in terms of the first quarter guidance? Do you think this is actually considering an improving trend? Because it does look like your guidance on a year-over-year basis, is still a negative growth despite the entire year already having declined. And -- but is it because of the Chinese New Year in first quarter? So would you expect second quarter of where we should start to get positive year-over-year growth?

[Interpreted] Yes, we launched some promotional activities for our existing games in the first quarter around Chinese New Year. First of all, we are aware that new TLBB and TLBB 2 are made for mobile games, and we're sure there will be some kind of impact. But from our past experiences, especially like Legacy TLBB Mobile or TLBB Honor, when they launched to the market, there was some kind of positive impact to the existing TLBB franchise games. So we can only see the results by them after the games -- 2 games launch.

All right. In terms of advertising, so the first quarter of 2022 is basically before it's prior -- it's before the real lockdown that happened in Q2, right? So it's relatively a more normal quarter, right, Q1. But this quarter, the Q1 of 2023 is -- at Q4, we already picked up -- at that time, picked up some, but it's due to some of our potential unique offering of this (inaudible). But Q1, first of all, it's a slow season, but it's also a -- it's still restoring, right? It's resuming, but still not fully to its prior guidance -- prior lockdown quarter, right? That's why it's kind of decrease. Yes, did I answer your question?

Yes, I see what you mean. In terms of the year-over-year...

Yes, Q2 is going to pick up speed, yes. I'm sure Q2 will definitely be better than Q2 in 2022. I think Q2 and Q3 of 2022 were worst, right, because of the lockdowns in Shanghai and then -- so this Q1, we already see some hope, right? So it's picking up, but it's still not fully resumed or...

I see. I just have one very quick follow-up. In terms of the Sohu Media and Sohu Video, do we have any plans or target to narrow the loss this year?

Actually, the answer is no because we're going to spend. You ask -- you were asking the question about how do we spend -- we have a cash -- good cash balance, right? So that's why we need a war chest to really develop in order to ultimately have the profitable platform. We have to have a larger user base. You have to have the scale, scale of the user base.

And that's the only way for a platform to make money, right? So -- but to reach that, you need to spend. That's why we're into this year, as I said, when we have -- when we believed that the kind of products that we are designing or we have been perfecting or developing are ready, have the right kind of stickiness and -- so to make the user stay, then we do spend. As we did in -- on Video, kind of spending a little more on Video in 2022, so -- and we see the user base actually grow quite well. But -- so we're going to spend both on Video and News App.

(Operator Instructions) All right. I am showing no further questions. And with that, we conclude today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]