Xunlei Ltd (XNET) 2023 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience. You've joined Xunlei's 2023 third-quarter earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Investor Relations Manager, Ms. Luhan Tang. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Xunlei's 2023 third-quarter earnings conference call. On the call with me today are Eric Zhou, Chief Financial Officer; and [Yu Li], Vice President of Finance. Now our earnings press release is available on our IR website, which is intended to supplement our prepared remarks during today's call.

For today's agenda, I'll first read a prepared opening remark on behalf of our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jinbo Li on highlights of our third-quarter operations. Then Mr. Eric Zhou, our CFO, will walk you through the details on the financial results and wrap up with our revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023. After the management's remarks, we would like to welcome any questions from you in our Q&A session. Today's call is recorded, and you can replay the call from our Investor Relations website at ir.xunlei.com.

Before I get started, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the discussion today will contain certain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations under current market conditions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, which may cause actual results to differ materially from those made in the forward-looking statements.

Please refer to our SEC filings for a more detailed description of the risk factors that may affect our results. Xunlei assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law.

On this call, we will be using both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. Please note that all numbers are in US dollar unless otherwise stated.

Now the following is the prepared statements by Mr. Jinbo Li, Chairman and CEO of Xunlei Limited.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for joining us for our third-quarter earnings conference call. Despite the impact of our downsized domestic audio live streaming business on our revenue scale, our total revenues reached $84.2 million and exceeded the upper end of our quarterly guidance, representing a moderate decline of 4.6% compared to the previous year's figure.

Meanwhile, we're pleased to report another profitable quarter, marking eight consecutive quarters of profitability. Furthermore, our gross profit margin also improved to 44.6% this quarter from 39.9% in the third quarter last year due to the change in product mix. This result reflected our relentless efforts to mitigate the impact of business adjustments and our unwavering commitments to further enhance our existing operations and other major business lines continue to be a bit year over year growth momentum.

Now let me share some insights of our main business operations. In the third quarter, the subscription business yielded solid results with a total revenue of $28.7 million, representing an increase of 15.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Moreover, users also showed increasing willingness to pay for our products and the number of total subscribers reached a record high level of approximately 5 million in the third quarter. We were pleased with the continuous growth in average revenue per subscriber driven by higher portion of premium subscribers in the third quarter than in the previous quarter.

At the end of the September, the proportion of premium subscribers accounted for 63.9% of the total number of subscribers. We believe that each improvements we made to our subscription business validates our exceptional product and service capabilities, enhance user engagement efforts, and refined user acquisition strategy. I expect that both our user base and our operations will continue to improve as a result of our ongoing product investment and user acquisition activities.

Our cloud computing business has consistently maintained its competitive advantage in the industry, leveraging our extensive network of edge computing nodes to not only offer higher rewards for health for the users, but also provide cost-effective solutions for enterprise clients. Despite intensive industry competition, our cloud computing services and hardware devices continue to experience sustained demand among enterprises and customers and generated $29.5 million in revenue with a 1.4% year-over-year increase. Going forward, we'll capitalize on our expertise and competitive edge in shared cloud computing while also allocating resources to R&D in order to explore new applications for growth potential and business development.

In the third quarter, live streaming and other Internet value-added services generated $26 million in revenue, representing a 24.1% decline compared to the same period of last year due to downsizing of our domestic audio live streaming operations. Despite that, we remain committed to fostering innovation in products and services to explore new opportunities.

To conclude my remarks today, as a pioneering Internet company of 20-year history, Xunlei has consistently adhered to our core values in every action taken and decision made. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to providing secure and cutting-edge products and services to our customers. In order to maintain agility amidst the ever-evolving market conditions, we will closely monitor industry trend and customer demand and adopt corresponding strategies effectively. Our objective is to identify growth opportunities that align with our core competencies and create sustainable value for our shareholders.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Eric. Eric will cover our financial results in detail and provide a revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023.

Thank you, Luhan. Hello, everyone and thanks again for joining Xunlei's 2023 third-quarter earnings conference call. I will review the details of our financial results by quarter and provide the revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023. For the third quarter of 2023, total revenues were $84.2 million, representing a decrease of 4.6% year over year. The decrease in total revenues was mainly attributable to the decreased revenues generated from our live streaming services as we have downsized our audio live streaming operations since June this year.

Revenues from cloud computing were $29.5 million representing an increase 1.4% year over year. The increase in cloud computing revenues was mainly due to the increased sales of new-generation cloud computing hardware devices. Revenues from subscriptions were $28.7 million, representing an increase of 15.2% year over year. The increase in subscription revenues was mainly due to higher average revenue per subscriber and an increased number of subscribers as a result of our ongoing efforts on user acquisition and product improvement.

The number of subscribers was 5.02 million as of September 30, 2023, compared with 4.37 million as of September 30, 2022. The average revenue per subscriber for the third quarter 2023 was RMB39.9 compared with RMB39.1 in the same period of 2022. The higher average revenue per subscriber was mainly due to the continued increases in the proportion of the users opting for premium membership.

Revenues for from live streaming and other IVAS were $26 million, representing a decrease of 24.1% year over year. The decreased live streaming revenues were primarily attributable to the downsizing of the domestic audio live streaming operations. Meanwhile, other IVAS revenues increased in the third quarter of 2023 compared with the same period of 2022. Our teams are working diligently towards mitigating the impact of the downsizing of our domestic audio live streaming service and our overall revenue through exploration of new opportunities and the continued optimization of our existing businesses.

Costs of revenues were $46.4 million, representing 55.1% of total revenues compared with $52.8 million or 59.9% of total revenues in the same period of 2022. The decreased costs of revenues was mainly attributable to the decrease in revenue sharing costs of live streaming, which was consistent with the decline in live streaming revenues.

Bandwidth costs that include in the costs of revenues were $28.1 million, representing 33.4% of our total revenues compared with $25.3 million or 28.6% of the total revenues in the same period of 2022. The increase in bandwidth costs was mainly due to the increased bandwidth usage driven by the development of our subscription and cloud computing businesses. The remaining costs of revenues mainly consisted of costs related to revenue sharing for our live streaming business, payment of handling fees, and cloud computing hardware devices.

Gross profit for the third quarter of 2023 was $37.5 million, representing a 6.6% increase from the same period of 2022. Gross profit margin was 44.6% in the third quarter of 2023 compared with 39.9% in the same period of 2022. The increase in gross profit and gross profit margin was mainly driven by an increased proportion of subscription revenues, which has high gross profit margin as well as decrease proportion of downsized domestic audio live streaming revenues, which has lower gross profit margin.

Research and development expenses for the third quarter of 2023 were $19.5 billion, representing 23.1% of our total revenues compared with $16.4 million or 18.3% of the total revenues in the same period of 2022. The increase was primarily due to the increased labor costs incurred during this quarter. Sales and marketing expenses for the third quarter of 2023 were $9.5 million, representing 11.3% of our total revenues compared with $5.8 million or 6.6% of our total revenues in the same period of 2022. The increase was primarily due to the increased marketing activities carried out for user acquisition.

General and administrative expenses for the third quarter of 2023 was $11.1 million, representing 13.2% of our total revenues compared with $8.2 million or 9.3% of our total revenues in the same period of 2022. The increase was primarily due to the increase in one-time impairment of servers and network equipment, depreciation of Xunlei headquarters building and share-based compensation incurred during this quarter.

Operating loss was $2.5 million compared with an operating income of $5.1 million in the same period of 2022. The decrease was primarily due to the increased operating expenses incurred in the third quarter of 2023 as compared with the same period of 2022. Other income was $7.3 million compared with $4.7 million in the same period of 2022. The increase was mainly due to the reversal of certain payables related to previously disposed businesses with low payment profitability, partially offset by the decrease in net foreign exchange gains as compared with the same period of 2022.

Net income was $4.4 million compared with $8.3 million in the same period of 2022. Non-GAAP net income was $5.5 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared with none-GAAP net income of $9 million in the same period of 2022. The decrease in net income and non-GAAP net income was primarily attributable to the increased marketing expenses, labor costs, and depreciation expenses, partly offset by the reversal of certain payables with low payment probability as discussed above.

Diluted earnings per ADS in the third quarter of 2023 was approximately $0.07 as compared with $0.12 in the same period of 2022. As of September 30, 2023, the company had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $264.7 million, compared with $258.5 million as of June 30, 2023. The increase in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments was mainly due to net operating cash inflow and net proceeds from bank borrowings, that partially offset by spending on share buybacks During this quarter.

In June 2023, Xunlei announced that its Board of Directors has authorized the repurchase of up to $20 million of the shares over the next 12 months. As of September 30, 2023, the company had spent approximately $2.6 million on share buybacks under the share repurchase program.

Turning to our revenue guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023, Xunlei estimates total revenues to be between $70 million and $75 million, and the midpoint of range represents a quarter-over-quarter decrease of approximately 8.6%. The decline is due to the impact of the downsizing of our domestic live streaming businesses whereas the operations of subscription and the cloud computing businesses are not affected. These estimates represent management's preliminary view as of the date of this press release, which is subject to change and any change could be material.

Now we conclude prepared remarks for the conference call. Operator, we are ready to take questions.

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) [Nora Wu, HKIFS].

(spoken in Chinese)

The question here is I've noticed that the number of premium subscribers has been growing steadily in recent quarters as reported by our financial reports. And do you think this upward the trend will continue?

Nora, yes, you're right. In the third quarter, the proportion of premium subscribers rose to 63.9% of the total numbers of subscribers compared to adjust the 39% in the same period last year. We have optimized certain existing features of our product and carried out a series of measures to improve user experience so as to improve user satisfaction rate and loyalty.

Hence, we will continue to enhance our user acquisition strategy and try to take advantage of the season of Double 11 and Double 12 shopping promotion. We expect to sustain the current growth momentum in Q4. And furthermore, we anticipate a further increase in the conversion rate for premium subscribers in the near future. Thank you.

(spoken in Chinese)

The question is, they have observed the impact of downsizing domestic audio live streaming business during the first two quarters resulting in a 24.1% decrease in the live streaming and other IVAS revenues in the last quarter. And she would like to know and clarify that, if the downsizing of domestic audio live streaming operations has completed and if not, how many more projects will be the affected by this downsizing and what impact is anticipated on overall revenue in next quarter?

That's a good question, Nora. In the second and third quarter, we successfully complete the downsizing of our domestic audio live streaming business, which has relatively low gross margin. We do not have any plans for further downsizing in the fourth quarter. As mentioned in our revenue guidance for the next quarter, there will be a limited adverse impact on the revenue in Q4. We anticipate this impact to gradually diminish over time. Currently, we are actively exploring potential opportunities with new technology and products to make up the lost revenue, and hopefully, we can see positive quarter-over-quarter comparison in the near future. Thank you.

(spoken in Chinese)

Thank you for the questions. (Operator Instructions) At this time, there are no further questions from the line. I would like to hand the call back to management for closing remarks.

Thank you again for your time and participation. If you have any questions, please visit our website at ir.xunlei.com or send emails to our Investor Relations. Have a good day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.