Yuewen turned around in performance this year, with 87.3% of revenue coming from its own platform products

On August 12, Yuewen Group announced its interim results for 2024. The report showed that the company's total revenue for the first half of 2024 reached 4.19 billion yuan, an increase of 27.7% year-on-year; operating profit was 450 million yuan, up 46.1% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 500 million yuan, up 33.9% year-on-year; Non-IFRS net profit attributable to shareholders was 700 million yuan, up 16.4% year-on-year.

Yuewen Group's revenue sources are mainly divided into two parts: the first part is online business, including online reading, advertising, and third-party game distribution; the second part is copyright operations and other businesses, involving the production and distribution of dramas, movies, animations, as well as copyright licensing, paper book sales, and self-operated online game operations.

In the first half of 2024, Yuewen Group continued to strengthen its content ecosystem. During this period, online business revenue reached 1.94 billion yuan, of which revenue from self-owned platform products, dominated by paid reading, accounted for 87.3%, and the number of monthly paying users (MPU) reached 8.8 million, an increase of 2.1% from the previous quarter.

It is worth noting that online business revenue through Tencent product channels decreased by 26.2% year-on-year. From a user perspective, the average monthly active user count for self-owned platform products and their self-operated channels decreased by 16.9% year-on-year, primarily due to the impact of Tencent product channels rather than the performance of self-owned platform products.

In terms of content ecosystem construction, among the newly added 'Platinum God' level writers, 70% are post-90s, indicating a trend of younger authors. Additionally, the number of newly signed works with an average subscription of over 50,000 increased by 75% year-on-year, while the number of newly signed works with reading revenue exceeding 2 million yuan increased by 33% year-on-year.

In the first half of 2024, Yuewen Group's costs reached 2.11 billion yuan, an increase of 25.6% year-on-year. Among them, the cost of producing dramas, movies, and animations amounted to 630 million yuan, more than doubling compared to the same period last year.

In terms of expenses, sales and marketing expenses increased by 41% year-on-year, mainly due to increased promotional and advertising expenses related to the launch of film and television works; general and administrative expenses increased by 1.9% year-on-year.

During the same period, revenue from copyright operations, licensing, and other businesses reached 2.25 billion yuan, an increase of 73.3% year-on-year. Among them, copyright operation revenue increased significantly by 75.7%, fueled by several popular works. In its financial report, Yuewen Group specifically highlighted its outstanding performance in the film and television business. As of now, the movie 'Hot and Spicy' has become the national box office champion of 2024, while TV series such as 'Fengxing', 'Celebration of the Year 2', and 'The Story of Rose' have performed prominently in terms of ratings and commercialization.

Focusing on the 'full industrial chain IP construction' and operation, in addition to the expansion of the scale of licensing and adaptation businesses, new businesses such as short dramas, derivatives, and collectible trading cards have also shown significant growth. Taking trading cards as an example, to capitalize on the popularity of the 'Celebration of the Year' series, 11 blind boxes and soft peripheral products, as well as high-end collectible trading cards with 308 card designs, were launched.

Among them, sales of 'Celebration of the Year' blind boxes exceeded 200,000 units, and the GMV of film and television trading cards reached 20 million yuan before the series aired. In the first half of 2024, the GMV of Yuewen Group's IP trading cards totaled approximately 100 million yuan. Additionally, the company plans to launch other trading card products such as 'Da Feng Da Geng Ren', 'The King's Avatar', and 'Fox Demon and Her Mate' in the future.