Weibo Reports Third Quarter 2023 Unaudited Financial Results

BEIJING, Nov. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Weibo Corporation ("Weibo" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: WB and HKEX: 9898), a leading social media in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023.

"We further improved our platform's traffic structure and enhanced our operating efficiency this quarter," said Gaofei Wang, CEO of Weibo. "On user front, our MAUs crossed the 600 million milestone and continued to grow healthily. On content operation, we focused on reinforcing our content ecosystem through developing key content verticals, aiming to drive traffic growth across various content verticals, improve user engagement and unlock monetization potentials of our platform. On monetization, our advertising business exhibited modest recovery this quarter. We also achieved further margin expansion through solid execution of our efficiency initiatives, with operating margin and non-GAAP operating margin reaching 30% and 37% this quarter, respectively."

Third Quarter 2023 Highlights

• Net revenues were US$442.2 million, a decrease of 3% year-over-year or an increase of 2% year-over-year on a constant currency basis ^[1].
• Advertising and marketing revenues were US$389.3 million, a decrease of 1% year-over-year or an increase of 3% year-over-year on a constant currency basis ^[1].
• Value-added services ("VAS") revenues were US$52.9 million, a decrease of 12% year-over-year or a decrease of 7% year-over-year on a constant currency basis ^[1].
• Income from operations was US$134.0 million, representing an operating margin of 30%.
• Net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders was US$77.5 million and diluted net income per share was US$0.32.
• Non-GAAP income from operations was US$163.9 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 37%.
• Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders was US$136.6 million and non-GAAP diluted net income per share was US$0.57.
• Monthly active users ("MAUs") were 605 million in September 2023, a net addition of approximately 21 million users on a year-over-year basis. Mobile MAUs represented 95% of MAUs.
• Average daily active users ("DAUs") were 260 million in September 2023, a net addition of approximately 8 million users on a year-over-year basis.

Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

For the third quarter of 2023, Weibo's total net revenues were US$442.2 million, a decrease of 3% compared to US$453.6 million for the same period last year.

Advertising and marketing revenues for the third quarter of 2023 were US$389.3 million, a decrease of 1% compared to US$393.4 million for the same period last year. Advertising and marketing revenues excluding ad revenues from Alibaba were US$367.6 million, a decrease of 3% compared to US$378.4 million for the same period last year.

VAS revenues for the third quarter of 2023 were US$52.9 million, a decrease of 12% year-over-year compared to US$60.1 million for the same period last year, primarily due to decrease of game-related revenues.

Costs and expenses for the third quarter of 2023 totaled US$308.2 million, a decrease of 7% compared to US$330.3 million for the same period last year. The decrease of costs and expenses was mainly resulted from unfavorable foreign exchange impact on the reported numbers as well as decrease of personnel related costs.

Income from operations for the third quarter of 2023 was US$134.0 million, compared to US$123.2 million for the same period last year. Operating margin was 30%, compared to 27% last year. Non-GAAP income from operations was US$163.9 million, compared to US$162.1 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating margin was 37%, compared to 36% last year.

Non-operating loss for the third quarter of 2023 was US$28.4 million, compared to US$120.4 million for the same period last year. Non-operating loss for the third quarter of 2023 mainly included (i) a US$19.5 million net interest and other loss; (ii) a US$15.9 million investment related impairment, which was excluded under non-GAAP measures; and (iii) a US$6.9 million gain from fair value change of investments in DiDi Global Inc. (OTC Pink: DIDIY), which was excluded under non-GAAP measures.

Income tax expenses were US$25.4 million, compared to US$19.8 million for the same period last year.

Net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders for the third quarter of 2023 was US$77.5 million, compared to a loss of US$17.1 million for the same period last year. Diluted net income per share attributable to Weibo's shareholders for the third quarter of 2023 was US$0.32, compared to diluted net loss per share attributable to Weibo's shareholders of US$0.07 for the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders for the third quarter of 2023 was US$136.6 million, compared to US$119.0 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP diluted net income per share attributable to Weibo's shareholders for the third quarter of 2023 was US$0.57, compared to US$0.50 for the same period last year.

As of September 30, 2023, Weibo's cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled US$2.8 billion. For the third quarter of 2023, cash provided by operating activities was US$131.6 million, capital expenditures totaled US$7.8 million, and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to US$13.9 million.

Conference Call

Weibo's management team will host a conference call from 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM Eastern Time on November 9, 2023 (or 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM Beijing Time on November 9, 2023) to present an overview of the Company's financial performance and business operations.

Participants who wish to dial in to the teleconference must register through the below public participant link. Dial in and instruction will be in the confirmation email upon registering.

Participants Registration Link: https://register.vevent.com/register/BI29b93112bc7446d5b0a9680e9ba2f1d7 

Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will available at http://ir.weibo.com.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This release contains the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders, non-GAAP diluted net income per share attributable to Weibo's shareholders and adjusted EBITDA. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, measures of the Company's financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The Company's non-GAAP financial measures exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions, non-cash compensation cost to non-controlling interest shareholders, impairment of intangible assets, net results of impairment and provision on investments, gain/loss on sale of investments and fair value change of investments, non-GAAP to GAAP reconciling items on the share of equity method investments, non-GAAP to GAAP reconciling items for the income/loss attributable to non-controlling interests, income tax expense related to the amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisitions and fair value change of investments (other non-GAAP to GAAP reconciling items have no tax effect), and amortization of issuance cost of convertible debt, senior notes and long-term loans. Adjusted EBITDA excludes interest income/expense, net, income tax expenses, and depreciation expenses.

The Company's management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in their financial and operating decision-making, because management believes these measures reflect the Company's ongoing operating performance in a manner that allows more meaningful period-to-period comparisons. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in the following ways: (i) in comparing the Company's current financial results with the Company's past financial results in a consistent manner, and (ii) in understanding and evaluating the Company's current operating performance and future prospects in the same manner as management does. The Company also believes that the non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding certain expenses, gains/losses and other items (i) that are not expected to result in future cash payments or (ii) that are non-recurring in nature or may not be indicative of the Company's core operating results and business outlook.

Use of non-GAAP financial measures has limitations. The Company's non-GAAP financial measures do not include all income and expense items that affect the Company's operations. They may not be comparable to non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Accordingly, care should be exercised in understanding how the Company defines its non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the Company's non-GAAP financial measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures are set forth in the section below titled "Unaudited Reconciliation of Non-GAAP to GAAP Results."

About Weibo

Weibo is a leading social media for people to create, share and discover content online. Weibo combines the means of public self-expression in real time with a powerful platform for social interaction, content aggregation and content distribution. Any user can create and post a feed and attach multi-media and long-form content. User relationships on Weibo may be asymmetric; any user can follow any other user and add comments to a feed while reposting. This simple, asymmetric and distributed nature of Weibo allows an original feed to become a live viral conversation stream.

Weibo enables its advertising and marketing customers to promote their brands, products and services to users. Weibo offers a wide range of advertising and marketing solutions to companies of all sizes. The Company generates a substantial majority of its revenues from the sale of advertising and marketing services, including the sale of social display advertisement and promoted marketing offerings. Designed with a "mobile first" philosophy, Weibo displays content in a simple information feed format and offers native advertisement that conform to the information feed on our platform. To support the mobile format, we have developed and continuously refining our social interest graph recommendation engine, which enables our customers to perform people marketing and target audiences based on user demographics, social relationships, interests and behaviors, to achieve greater relevance, engagement and marketing effectiveness.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology, such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "confidence," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, Weibo's expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans, as described, without limitation, in quotations from management in this press release, contain forward-looking statements. Weibo may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in the Company's periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), in announcements, circulars or other publications made on the website of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the "Hong Kong Stock Exchange"), in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Weibo's limited operating history in certain new businesses; failure to grow active user base and the level of user engagement; the uncertain regulatory landscape in China; fluctuations in the Company's quarterly operating results; the Company's reliance on advertising and marketing sales for a majority of its revenues; failure to successfully develop, introduce, drive adoption of or monetize new features and products; failure to compete effectively for advertising and marketing spending; failure to successfully integrate acquired businesses; risks associated with the Company's investments, including equity pick-up and impairment; failure to compete successfully against new entrants and established industry competitors; changes in the macro-economic environment, including the depreciation of the Renminbi; and adverse changes in economic and political policies of the PRC government and its impact on the Chinese economy. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Weibo's annual report on Form 20-Fs and other filings with the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date hereof, and Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Contact:
Investor Relations
Weibo Corporation
Phone: +86 10 5898-3336
Email: ir@staff.weibo.com