Bilibili (09626) releases its Q3 financial report for 2024: Achieves profitability for the first time in a single quarter, with community engagement reaching a record high.

On November 14th, BILIBILI-W (09626) released its unaudited financial report for the third quarter ending on September 30, 2024. In the third quarter, Bilibili's total revenue increased by 26% year-on-year, reaching 73.1 billion RMB. During this quarter, the Bilibili community continued to maintain healthy growth, with several key indicators reaching historical highs. In the third quarter, Bilibili's daily active users reached 107 million, monthly active users reached 348 million, and daily usage time increased from 100 minutes in the same period last year to 106 minutes. The flourishing community ecosystem is the cornerstone of Bilibili's sustained healthy growth. In the third quarter, Bilibili's advertising revenue was 20.9 billion RMB, a 28% year-on-year increase; gaming revenue was 18.2 billion RMB, an 84% year-on-year increase, leading to a substantial 76% year-on-year increase in gross profit, with a gross margin increasing to 34.9% for the ninth consecutive quarter. This quarter, Bilibili reported an adjusted net profit of 2.4 billion RMB, achieving profitability for the first time since going public. Bilibili's Chairman and CEO, Chen Rui, stated: "Our commitment to high-quality content is Bilibili's long-term core value and the foundation of both community operations and commercial operations. In the third quarter, we maintained strong growth in the community ecosystem and commercial revenue, achieving profitability for the first time in a quarter. In the future, we will continue to adhere to our original aspirations and provide users with high-quality content. We believe this is where Bilibili's unique value lies." The rich ecosystem of high-quality content continues to thrive, and creator income continues to rise. Content diversity across multiple categories and scenarios is driving the continuous growth of the Bilibili community. In the third quarter, Bilibili's daily video views exceeded 5.7 billion, a 23% year-on-year increase, with a monthly interaction exceeding 19.3 billion. By the end of the third quarter, 251 million users had passed the entrance exam and become "official members" of Bilibili, with a 12-month retention rate stabilizing at 80%. In terms of content, Bilibili's advantageous categories showed continued growth, while emerging categories flourished. In the third quarter, categories like gaming, knowledge, and technology all saw more than 20% year-on-year growth in views. As the largest gaming video community in the country, Bilibili has a deep gaming culture foundation. Four years ago, the first real-time demonstration video of "Black Myth: Wukong" debuted on Bilibili with over 60 million views; after the game's official release, the community quickly produced a series of hit content with over ten million views, sparking a nationwide craze for "Black Myth." With the advent of the AI era, Bilibili has become the platform with the richest and highest-quality AI-related content on the Internet. In 2024, the viewing volume of AI-related content on Bilibili has surpassed 30 billion, giving rise to a range of high-quality content such as AI research discussions, AI creations, and AISiasun Robot & Automation applications. Many leading researchers in the field of AI, such as Academician Zheng Weimin of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, former Amazon Chief Scientist Li Mu, former Open AI Security Research Vice President Weng Li, and Professor Zhao Bin from Fudan University, have actively participated in AI content discussions on Bilibili. The growing age diversity of users is driving the prosperity of consumer content. In the third quarter, daily views of consumer content exceeded 40 million, leading to over 40% year-on-year growth in video views for the automotive category and over 80% growth for the sports and fitness category. At the same time, female users have shown strong demand for content consumption, with fashion category views increasing by nearly 30% year-on-year, and mother-baby parenting category views increasing by over 60% year-on-year. Furthermore, Bilibili continues to provide creators with a more diverse range of monetization channels and has been continuously increasing their income. So far this year, nearly 2.7 million content creators on Bilibili have earned income, with total revenue from advertising and value-added services increasing by 24% year-on-year. Paying for high-quality content has gradually become a consensus, with revenue from charging increasing by over 400% year-on-year, and the number of top content creators receiving charges reaching millions. Rapid growth in advertising and gaming revenue leads to profitability for the first time in a quarter. In the third quarter, Bilibili's total revenue accelerated by 26% year-on-year to reach 73.1 billion RMB. Value-added services, advertising, gaming, and IP-derived products and other businesses contributed 38%, 29%, 25%, and 8% of revenue respectively, presenting a healthy revenue structure. In terms of advertising, revenue in the third quarter increased by 28% year-on-year to reach 20.9 billion RMB, with performance-based ads growing by nearly 50%. The top five industries contributing to advertising revenue were gaming, e-commerce, digital home appliances, network services, and automotive. New industries like education, mother-baby, cultural tourism, etc., have seen rapid growth in advertising revenue, increasing by over 100% year-on-year. As young people enter a new stage of establishing families and careers, the supply of consumer content continues to enrich, attracting tech brands like Apple, Huawei, and VIVO to launch new products on Bilibili. During the "Double 11" period, Bilibili's GMV surged by 154% year-on-year compared to the previous year's peak period, and the number of advertising clients increased by 6.6 times compared to the same period last year. Additionally, Bilibili's "open ecosystem" strategy has brought in new customers from all vertical industries, with over 50% new customer conversion rates, becoming a significant source of new customer growth for major platforms. On the gaming front, gaming revenue in the third quarter saw a substantial 84% year-on-year increase to reach 18.2 billion RMB. Long-running games like "FGO" and "Azure Lane" have continued to generate stable revenue. On the day "Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Destiny" launched its third season, it quickly returned to the second spot on the iOS bestseller list, demonstrating its potential for long-term operation. In the future, Bilibili will continue to leverage the advantages of its top gaming community, focusing on long-term operations to maintain a youthful gaming category and continually provide users with high-quality, long-lifecycle games. Furthermore, value-added services achieved steady growth, reaching a revenue of 28.2 billion RMB. This quarter, leveraging a diverse range of interest communities, Bilibili continued to provide users with a rich variety of live content while improving operational capabilities to ensure the sustainable growth of the live broadcasting business. Regarding premium members, the number continued to grow steadily. By the end of the third quarter, the number of active premium members reached 21.97 million, with over 80% being annual subscription or auto-renewal members. In the third quarter, the company's gross profit increased by 76% year-on-year to reach 25.5 billion RMB. The gross profit margin increased from 25.0% in the same period last year to 34.9% in this quarter, achieving nine consecutive quarters of sequential improvement. In the third quarter, the company achieved profitability for the first time, with an adjusted operating profit of 2.7 billion RMB and an adjusted net profit.The net profit reached 240 million yuan.In addition, the company's cash flow situation is good, achieving a positive operating cash flow of 2.23 billion yuan in the third quarter. As of September 30, 2024, the company held a total of 15.2 billion yuan in cash and cash equivalents, time deposits, and short-term investments. Building on its healthy cash flow, Bilibili announced a new share buyback plan, aiming to repurchase stocks worth up to 200 million US dollars in the next 24 months.