Short video giant Kuaishou beats revenue estimates in first quarterly report since its Hong Kong listing

Name: What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app
Uploaded: 2021-03-23T11:21:00.000Z
Duration: 2 min 1 s
Description: What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app

Beijing-based Kuaishou reported revenue of US$2.8 billion in the December quarter on the back of its marketing services and live-streaming operations

The company’s net loss widened to US$2.9 billion on higher operating expenses in the same period

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Kuaishou Technology operates China’s second-biggest short video-sharing platform. Photo: Bloomberg

Tracy Qu

Published: 7:21pm, 23 Mar 2021Updated: 10:46am, 24 Mar 2021

Kuaishou Technology, operator of China’s second largest short video-sharing platform, posted a 52.7 per cent revenue increase in the December quarter to beat market estimates in the company’s first earnings report since going public in Hong Kong, but higher expenses pushed it further into the red.

Beijing-based Kuaishou reported revenue of 18.1 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) last quarter, up from 11.8 billion yuan a year earlier, to surpass the 10.9 billion yuan market estimate. That growth was mainly attributed to the firm’s strong online marketing services and live-streaming business, according to its regulatory filing on Tuesday after the market closed. Full-year revenue reached 58.8 billion yuan, in line with the market consensus median of 58.6 billion yuan.

The company’s net loss widened to 19.3 billion yuan in the December quarter, compared with 18 billion yuan in the same period in 2019, because of a significant rise in marketing and selling expenses to grow its users, as well as increased administrative, research and development costs during the period. For the whole of 2020, losses totalled 116.6 billion yuan, from 19.6 billion yuan in 2019.

Kuaishou’s share price closed down 4.3 per cent to HK$301.20 on Tuesday. The company’s shares have risen 161.9 per cent since its trading debut in Hong Kong on February 5.

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What is Kuaishou? Understanding China’s video-sharing app

“We have seen a substantial increase of our user base and user engagement, as well as a robust growth of our monetisation capabilities,” said Su Hua, chairman and chief executive of Kuaishou, in a statement on Tuesday after the firm’s earnings announcement.

Kuaishou’s average daily active users and monthly active users on all its apps and mini-programs in China last year were 308.1 million and 777 million, respectively.