NEWBORNTOWN (09911) Expects Revenue Growth of Over 33% for the First Three Quarters of 2026, Driven by Both Social and Innovation Businesses

On October 22, NEWBORNTOWN (09911) released its unaudited operating data for the nine months ended September 30, 2026. The company expects total revenue for the first three quarters to be approximately US$927 million to US$948 million, representing year-on-year growth of approximately 33.8% to 36.8%, with both social and innovation businesses achieving growth. Flagship products continue to expand, with global footprint deepening For the nine months ended September 30, 2026, social business revenue is expected to be approximately US$835 million to US$850 million, representing year-on-year growth of approximately 35.3% to 37.8%. The growth was mainly driven by the company's continued deepening of its global layout, steady progress in new market expansion, and its AI full-chain applications and refined user operations, which drove continued growth of flagship products and the overall product matrix. According to the 2026 Global Social Entertainment Index Report (SGC 2026), NEWBORNTOWN ranked 6th on the corporate list of the Global Social Entertainment Composite Index. Amid a landscape where leading companies in the global social entertainment industry are concentrated, NEWBORNTOWN has joined the industry's first tier on the strength of its multi-product layout across vertical tracks and continuously optimized scale and commercialization performance. Figure 1. Corporate list of the 2026 Global Social Entertainment Index Report (SGC 2026) By product, the global ranking of companion social platform SUGO rose further. According to SGC 2026, SUGO ranked in the top three of the Global Social Entertainment App Composite Index and became the biggest mover among the Top 10. At the regional level, according to Diandian Data, SUGO has entered the Top 10 of the iOS social app grossing charts in major Latin American markets such as Mexico and Brazil, firmly held a top-three position on the iOS social app grossing charts in core Middle East markets, and ranked in the top five in multiple Southeast Asian countries. Figure 2. App list of the 2026 Global Social Entertainment Index Report (SGC 2026) (Composite Index) Game social platform TopTop continued to consolidate its leading position in the Middle East. According to SGC 2026, TopTop ranked 2nd on the MENA social gaming app list with a scale index of 3052.7, approximately 3.7 times that of the 3rd place (820.5), demonstrating that TopTop has opened a significant gap with followers in the Middle East. While consolidating its Middle East base, TopTop also made progress in expanding into high-value markets. According to Diandian Data, in early August TopTop entered the Top 10 of Japan's iOS free game chart. For the Japanese market, long known for its "high barriers," this performance also shows that NEWBORNTOWN's "country replication" approach has been effectively advanced in Japan. Figure 3. App list of the 2026 Global Social Entertainment Index Report (SGC 2026) (Social Gaming) Meanwhile, according to SGC 2026, all three productsSUGO, TopTop and YoHoentered the Top 50 of the Global Social Entertainment App Composite Index, reflecting NEWBORNTOWN's competitive advantages across different sub-tracks of the social entertainment industry. Bloomberg Intelligence recently published a research report noting that SUGO and TopTop are becoming the company's new main growth DRIVEs; if the pace at which the two products extend into high-ARPU markets such as Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe exceeds expectations, the commercialization space will be further opened up. Since the beginning of this year, NEWBORNTOWN has further deepened localized brand operations, accurately grasped regional market cultures and hot trends, and continued to enhance brand influence in multiple markets worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, SUGO leveraged the 2026 World Cup, collaborated with leading local influencers, and created a series of topics and interactive activities around football culture, successfully striking a broad chord among local football fans; in July, SUGO held a star night event in Thailand to celebrate the product's fifth anniversary, continuously strengthening community stickiness and regional brand influence. Figure 4. SUGO launched a series of football culture topics and interactive activities Innovation business continues to grow, with multiple business lines advancing steadily In the first three quarters of this year, the company's innovation business maintained its growth momentum. The announcement shows that innovation business revenue for the first three quarters is expected to be approximately US$92 million to US$98 million, representing year-on-year growth of approximately 21.1% to 28.9%, mainly driven by the rapid growth of the company's actively invested short drama business under AI empowerment. The company's short drama platform Playlet focuses on high-paying markets such as the United States, Japan and South Korea, and produces series at scale around local aesthetics. As AI technology applications continue to deepen, content production capacity is being released at a faster pace and creative boundaries are constantly expanding. In the first half of the year, AI-driven efficiency in launching a single drama increased by more than 60%, providing support for global expansion. According to Diandian Data, in early July, Playlet ranked first on Japan's iOS entertainment app free chart. Premium games developed steadily, with flagship games maintaining long-term operations and profit recovery. With the accumulation of R&D and operating experience, the company's game team's new product R&D capabilities have also further improved. Currently, three new games are progressing smoothly in commercialization and are gradually showing scale potential. Among them, the first hybrid monetization casual game received positive feedback upon launch, and the company's exploration in this category has achieved initial results, with the commercialization path gradually becoming clear. The social e-commerce business continued to deepen its presence in the health services field, with professional barriers continuously strengthened. In July, the PrEP research results completed by HealthHeld in collaboration with Tsinghua University were exhibited at the 26th International AIDS Conference. The related papers have been published in journals such as PLOS Medicine. Meanwhile, the AI-driven traffic monetization business also maintained steady operation. AI applications develop rapidly, with full-chain efficiency enhancement continuing to deepen In recent years, NEWBORNTOWN has continued to promote the in-depth application of AI technology and continuously expand AI application scenarios. This year, Aippy, an AI game community incubated by the company, grew rapidly. From July 31 to August 2, Aippy appeared with Qualcomm (China) at the "AI Dream Factory" of the Snapdragon themed pavilion at ChinaJoy 2026, and debuted as the first AI game creation platform opened to media at the media preview. Aippy completed its first round of financing of tens of millions of US dollars in June 2026. Figure 5. Aippy appeared at the Qualcomm media preview Recently, "Slap Showdown," an AI 3D interactive mini-game jointly developed by NEWBORNTOWN's game social platform TopTop and physical native world model company Viggle, launched, bringing world models into game social scenarios and providing users with a more personalized and interactive experience. At the same time, the company is accelerating its AI industry investment layout, having successively invested in projects in fields such as world models and AI-native game engines, AI interactive games, and AI advertising and marketing, further enriching its AI ecosystem. In addition, NEWBORNTOWN continues to promote the deep application of AI in business processes. At present, the company has built an AI technology system covering the full chain of product R&D, operations, risk control and marketing placement, driving efficiency improvements and business value creation. In the marketing placement segment, the company's intelligent creative production platform Magic Cube and intelligent placement platform Miaomiao work in deep synergy to establish an efficient closed loop that is fully AI-enabled from hit identification, material creation, price adjustment to placement management, significantly improving placement efficiency. At the product operations level, the intelligent data platform Siyu continuously improves its analytical capabilities, compressing the processing time of some complex analytical tasks from days to minutes; the intelligent design platform KIVI continues to expand its design capabilities, further improving the production efficiency of virtual gifts and UI interfaces and enriching operational activities. While deepening its AI layout, the company also continued shareholder returns through share buybacks and cancellation. On October 14, NEWBORNTOWN completed the cancellation procedures for 4.942 million shares repurchased in August and September. To date, the company has cancelled approximately 17.812 million shares during the year, involving more than HK$150 million. Since July, the company has additionally invested nearly HK$80 million in share buybacks for its long-term employee incentive plan. The board of directors stated that the share purchases reflect the company's full confidence in its business outlook and prospects, and will ultimately bring benefits to the company and create value for shareholders.