"The number of monthly active e-commerce merchants in the supply side increased by more than 50% YoY, while live streaming business declined."

Editor: tuya

According to company intelligence expert Caijing Doyi, on August 20, Kuaishou (1024.HK) announced its unaudited consolidated results for the second quarter and first half ended June 30, 2024.

In the first half of this year, the company's total revenue was RMB 60.4 billion (RMB, the same below), an increase of 14.0% YoY from RMB 53.0 billion in the same period last year. Among them, online marketing services accounted for 56.6%, live streaming business accounted for 29.6%, and other services accounted for 13.8%; profit for the period was RMB 8.1 billion, compared to RMB 0.6 billion in the same period last year; adjusted net profit increased from RMB 2.7 billion in the same period last year to RMB 9.1 billion. Gross profit increased by 29.7% YoY, and gross profit margin increased from 48.4% in the same period last year to 55.1%.

In the second quarter, the company's total revenue was RMB 31.0 billion, an increase of 11.6% YoY. Profit for the period was RMB 4.0 billion, compared to RMB 1.5 billion in the same period last year. Adjusted net profit increased from RMB 2.7 billion in the same period last year to RMB 4.7 billion. E-commerce GMV reached RMB 305.3 billion, an increase of 15.0% YoY. The average daily active users were 395.3 million, an increase of 5.1% YoY from 376.0 million in the same period last year.

As of the end of the reporting period, the company's total available funds amounted to RMB 77.7 billion, and operating profit increased from RMB 1.3 billion in the same period last year to RMB 3.9 billion

It is worth mentioning that during the reporting period, Kuaishou's overseas business achieved rapid growth in both the second quarter and the first half of the year. In the first half of this year and the second quarter, the overseas segments recorded operating losses of RMB 545 million and RMB 277 million, respectively, narrowing significantly by 66.0% and 64.5% YoY.

"In the second quarter of 2024, we continued to deepen our local operations in core overseas markets through advanced content supply, operational capabilities, and marketing initiatives, continuously refining the operation of traditional marketing channels and exploring new growth paths. These initiatives have driven steady growth in average daily active users in core overseas markets such as Brazil and Indonesia. Especially in Brazil, daily active users increased by 15.4% YoY and also improved month-on-month." Kuaishou stated in its earnings report that the average daily usage time of daily active users in overseas core markets during the quarter was close to 80 minutes, an increase of 5% YoY.

In the second quarter, overseas revenue reached RMB 1.1 billion, an increase of 141.4% YoY, with online marketing revenue growing by over 200% YoY and continuing to climb month-on-month. With the improvement of overseas monetization efficiency, the operating leverage effect continued to be released, and the quarterly operating loss decreased by 64.5% YoY.

In terms of e-commerce, GMV in the second quarter increased by 15% YoY to RMB 305.3 billion.

On the demand side, the number of monthly active buyers on e-commerce platforms in the second quarter increased by 14.1% YoY to 131 million, with monthly active user penetration reaching a new high of 18.9%. Kuaishou stated that it will continue to focus on iterating new customer acquisition and activation initiatives, further expanding its reach through product and subsidy strategies, and encouraging repeat purchases by users.

On the supply side, the number of monthly active merchants in the quarter increased by more than 50% YoY, mainly due to the vigorous promotion of new merchants' cold start, growth, and long-term operation, while empowering old merchants' global operation, especially the Launch Plan, which provides up to RMB 100 billion in traffic resources annually for newly joined merchants, targeting small and medium-sized merchants. During the 618 promotion period, the GMV of consumer electronics and home furnishing brand merchants increased by over 83% YoY, further enhancing the perception of brand quality at low prices.

The live streaming business saw a decline in revenue in the second quarter, falling by 6.7% YoY to RMB 9.3 billion. During the period, Kuaishou established regional teams on the supply side and introduced high-quality new guilds through targeted industry promotion and influential offline presentations. As of the end of the second quarter of 2024, the number of contracted guilds increased by nearly 50% YoY, and the number of contracted guild anchors increased by 60% YoY.

Kuaishou's co-founder, chairman, and CEO Cheng Yixiao said that in the second quarter of 2024, the company achieved high-quality and accelerated growth in traffic, while financial performance was comprehensively improved. At the same time, "in terms of technological innovation, we have achieved some industry-leading AI research and development results and integrated them into various business scenarios of Kuaishou, improving the quality of content creation and the efficiency of commercial monetization."

"In particular, the large video generation model Kailing AI has received widespread acclaim from users both domestically and internationally," Cheng Yixiao noted. "Looking ahead, we will continue to leverage our deep accumulation of technology to explore the potential of AI technology to better empower existing businesses and create new business scenarios, leading the company to move forward efficiently and steadily."

This article is originally written by the public account Caijing Doyi (ID: caijingtuya). Please contact Doyi if you want to reprint it.