Joyy Group released its second-quarter financial report for 2024. During the reporting period, Joyy Group achieved a revenue of 0.5651 billion US dollars, an increase of 3.3% year-on-year. During the earnings conference call, the senior management of the group stated that due to the continued strong growth of the advertising business, the BIGO sector is expected to achieve high single-digit revenue growth for the full year.
On August 28th, the Joyy Group released its second-quarter financial report for 2024. During the reporting period, Joyy Group achieved a revenue of 0.5651 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%, exceeding the market's expected 0.5514 billion US dollars; under non-U.S. GAAP, the net income attributable to the majority equity investment and common shareholders increased by 10.2% quarter-on-quarter to 74 million US dollars; the gross margin was 35.2%, a decrease of 0.9% year-on-year.
Specific to the sector, Li Ting, Chairman and CEO of the Joyy Group's board of directors, stated that the core business sector BIGO (including Bigo Live, Likee, and imo) achieved a revenue of 0.5072 billion US dollars, an increase of 7.7% year-on-year, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of recovery.
Among them, BIGO's advertising business has been a key driver of Joyy's income growth.
Senior executives of Joyy Group also disclosed the specific progress of BIGO's advertising business during the second-quarter earnings conference call, with Likee's advertising revenue achieving a year-on-year growth rate of 34.7%, and the advertising alliance revenue achieving a quarter-on-quarter growth rate of 12.8%. The contribution of the advertising business to the entire BIGO sector's revenue increased to 13.4%.
Regarding the development of the advertising business in the second half of the year, the management stated that the second half of the year is the traditional peak season for advertising, and the group expects the advertising revenue to continue its quarter-on-quarter growth trend. Currently, the advertising alliance business is in the early stages of entering the market, with both gross margin and operating profit margin being positive, but it still requires time to accumulate scale.
Looking ahead to the full year of 2024, due to the continued strong growth of the advertising business, the group expects the BIGO sector to achieve high single-digit revenue growth.
In terms of products, the three main products of the BIGO sector, Bigo Live, Likee, and imo, all experienced significant user attrition.
According to the financial report, the average monthly active mobile users of Bigo Live is 37.7 million, a decrease of 0.8 million compared to the same period last year.
The average monthly active mobile users of Likee is 35.6 million, a decrease of 6.7 million compared to the same period last year.
The average monthly active mobile users of Hago is 4.4 million, a decrease of 1.1 million compared to the same period last year.
The global average monthly active mobile users is 0.2752 billion, compared to 0.2756 billion in the same period in 2023.
Apart from the more severe user attrition, there has also been a decrease in user willingness to pay. The average revenue per paying user in the BIGO sector is $233.5, a decrease of $14.5 compared to the same period last year. Regarding the loss of monthly active users, the group attributes it to a decrease in advertising spending to acquire users.
Despite the loss of monthly active users and a decrease in average revenue per paying user, the Joyy BIGO sector still achieved a positive growth of 7.7%, which is largely due to the increase in the number of paying users. In the second quarter, the total number of paying users in BIGO was 1.66 million, compared to 1.53 million in the same period last year, a significant increase.
Senior executives of the group stated during the earnings conference that the growth in the number of paying users is the main driving factor for the positive growth of live streaming revenue in the BIGO sector. In terms of regional performance, developed countries and regions outperformed other regions in both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter comparisons.
Regarding the outlook for the next quarter's live streaming business, executives stated that "with the onset of the peak season for operations in the second half of the year, the activity level of regional anchors and users will increase, and the monetization of live streaming in some regions is expected to recover and show month-on-month growth." It is worth noting that considering the group's ongoing adjustments to the gameplay of BIGO's products in the next quarter, the group has indicated that BIGO's full-year Non-GAAP operational profit may decline compared to last year.