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Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weibo reports second quarter 2021 financial results conference call. [Operator Instructions] And please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions]
Now I'd like to hand the conference over to your first speaker for today, Ms. [ Floris Sun ]. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Welcome to Weibo's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Joining our call today are our Chief Executive Officer, Gaofei Wang; and our Chief Financial Officer, Fei Cao. The conference call is also being broadcast on the Internet and is available through Weibo's IR website.
Before the management remarks, I would like to read you the safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call.
During today's conference call, we may make forward-looking statements, statements that are not historical facts, including statements of our beliefs and expectations. 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 statements. We will assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements in this conference call and elsewhere. Further information regarding this and other risks is included in Weibo's annual report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC.
All the information provided in this press release is occurring as of the date hereof. We will assume no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
Additionally, I would like to remind you that our discussion today includes certain non-GAAP measures, which exclude stock-based compensation and certain other expenses. We use noncash financial measures to gain a better understanding of Weibo's comparative operating performance and future prospects. Our non-GAAP financials exclude certain expenses, gains or losses and other items that are not expected to result in future cash payments or are nonrecurring in nature or not indicative of our core operating results and outlook. Please refer to our press release for more information about our non-GAAP measures.
Following management's prepared remarks, we will open the lines for a brief Q&A session.
With this, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Gaofei Wang.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Weibo's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On today's call, I will share with you highlights in Weibo's user, product and monetization in the second quarter of 2021.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On the user front, Weibo's MAUs reached 566 million, and average DAUs reached 246 million in June 2021, adding approximately 43 million and 16 million users year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, respectively, which represented the highest net addition number among the recent 4 quarters.
In June, 94% of Weibo's MAUs came from mobile.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On the monetization front, leveraging further optimization in our competitive strategy and ad product offerings for key industries, our total revenues reached $574.5 million in the second quarter, an increase of 48% year-over-year. Advertising and marketing revenues reached $502.3 million, an increase of 47% year-over-year. 94% of our ad revenues came from mobile.
Our non-GAAP operating income in the second quarter reached $223.2 million.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Next, let me elaborate on our progress made in the areas of product and monetization in Q2.
[Foreign Language]
On the product front, starting from 2021, we further enhanced Weibo's differentiated competitiveness in key features such as social functions and hot trends. Coupled with effective channel strategies, we have further grown our user base and engagement. Meanwhile, we beefed up investments in video products to reinforce users' mindset of using Weibo for video posting and consumption so as we enhance our product competitiveness.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On the channel front, we stepped our channel investments with focus on improving user engagement, leveraging Weibo's advantage in user acquisition cost. Meanwhile, we reinforced the synergy between channel investments and subsequent content consumption and thereby improving user engagement and retention. With better consumption experience and retention of our channel users, we set up cooperation with major channel partners, such as handset manufacturers and operators, in the areas of social features, hot trends and vertical content measure in the second quarter.
User concepts partnership will not do only increase Weibo's user acquisition scale from major channels and elevate our branding efforts but also create synergies to both parties' ecosystems, which enable us to further strengthen our partnership. As a result, the number of users we acquired from channel partners more than doubled in June year-over-year with nice user engagement levels.
[Foreign Language]
On the product front, I would like to share with you our key initiatives on Weibo's information feeds and video.
On information feeds, our core strategy in 2021 is to enhance Weibo's key social features and competitiveness and thus drive user stickiness and interaction among Weibo's core user group.
For relationship-based feeds, in the second quarter, we further strengthened the data mining and distribution of quality social content and thus improved our content diversity and consumption experience. With stronger social attributes, we're pleased to see significantly higher social interaction level, leading to better consumption and retention based on relationship-based feeds.
In addition, the use of our Super Topic product continued to grow rapidly in the second quarter. Particularly, we're encouraged to see notable growth in verticals such as gaming, TV series and variety show and campus, et cetera, demonstrating users' robust demand on the interest-based social front. The Super Topic product has not only driven users' social stickiness on Weibo but also shed light on our road map to further optimize our feed product.
For interest-based feed, in the second quarter, thanks to tech optimization in our recommendation system, we gave more weight to video content in content distribution for interest-based feeds to further serve users' consumption needs. We're testing a new version of interest-based feeds based on the revamped video recommendation system, which hopefully will be launched in the second half of the year.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Moving on to video. In 2021, we'll focus on accelerating the content utilization for Weibo's content creators through our video account program and thus increase video content generation and consumption. Meanwhile, we'll emphasize on cultivating users' mindset of using Weibo for video consumption through content operation in key verticals.
Leveraging ongoing progress made in our video accounts program, we are pleased to see the further visualization trend among content creators. As of June, the number of registered video accounts surpassed the 10 million mark, among which over 30,000 already had more than 1 million followers. As a result, the number of original video submission under the video account program more than doubled quarter-over-quarter.
The substantial growth in video accounts not only enable us to enhance video content exposure and consumption in core feeds but also help us to continuously optimize our recommendation capabilities around video content, a step to further improve the overall video distribution efficiency, especially in video community and video recommendation feeds.
Currently, we are pleased to see an uplift in users' consumption traffic in our video community and video recommendation feeds compared with the end of last year, which also brought forth incremental ad inventory in video recommendation feeds.
On live streaming, we launched the feature of joint mic live streaming in the first quarter and continuously refine its functions. We are encouraged to see a wider recognition among Weibo's top content creators on the product in the second quarter. Top media agencies and a number of KOLs have already used this feature for regular content generation to build up IPs and boost fan stickiness as such format's nature could effectively lower the barrier of video and live streaming generation for both traditionally taxed and feature-based outputs. Looking forward, we will step up our investment around key joint mic live streaming IPs to strengthen the brand recognition of Weibo's live streaming feature and further drive user engagement.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Let me share with you more color on our monetization strategies and progress made this quarter.
In 2021, we'll further strengthen the competitive edge of our social ad products, solidify our industry-specific marketing capabilities and unleash the potential and efficiency of traffic monetization so as we improve Weibo's monetization scale and market competitiveness.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] From an industry perspective, our ad revenues increased 47% year-over-year in second quarter, benefiting from the recovery of overall market demand as well as improvements in our industry-specific ad offerings for key sectors.
Leveraging our unique competitive edge in the market, we continue to deliver robust year-over-year growth in key sectors. For example, FMCG sector, such as food and beverage and beauty and personal care, booked solid growth in the first half of the year. Built upon years of experience in these key sectors and our platform value proposition, Weibo has developed a unique marketing playbook and refined our service capabilities and thus continuously improve our app performance.
In addition to the conventional brand industry, we have also beefed up our capabilities to serve the brand performance marketing needs of sectors such as gaming and e-commerce. With the further synergies of our sales and operations team, our ad offerings and service earn better recognition among customers, leading to strong growth in both the branding- and performance-driven ad dollars from these key sectors.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On the ad product front, in the second quarter, we continuously enriched Weibo's differentiated content marketing offerings while optimizing feed ad product to enhance our monetization efficiency.
On content marketing, in 2021, apart from sectors such as FMCG, automobile and so forth, we have also gradually extended content marketing to the gaming industry, which used to be a purely performance-driven sector. We help customers drive more topic discussions around their newly launched games as well as accumulate social assets and engagement.
As a result, we successfully tapped into higher ad wallet in the gaming sector as such content marketing offerings resonated greatly with customers' needs. For example, half a month upon launch of the blockbuster game, [indiscernible] World, the accumulated views and discussions around related topics reached around 5 billion and over 1.3 million, respectively. Owners of these official accounts increased by nearly 3x within half a month. These constant marketing ad offerings effectively entice customers to raise their brand and content budget on Weibo.
On feed ad product, leveraging refined traffic distribution capabilities, we could better match traffic of higher conversion potential with performance-driven industries so as to maximize our feed monetization efficiency. Moreover, we continue to improve our tech capabilities of ad products for performance-based industries, such as gaming and e-commerce, leading to a notable growth in ECPM of each of these industries on an annual basis.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Next, let me share our thoughts on the regulatory impact facing the overall advertising industry.
In the first half of 2021, government departments have gradually tightened regulation on the large-screen ad format, and we have taken a proactive approach in product rectification accordingly. In the short term, we expect that such rectification may impact on a large-screen campaign of certain performance-driven customers.
That said, as for Weibo, revenue contribution from performance-based large-screen ad is relatively low, and such impact on our overall advertising revenue is manageable. We also believe that an industry norm on ad formats will facilitate the healthy growth of top Internet companies in the long run with such standards gradually expected and implemented in the entire market.
Also, let's talk about education. In the content -- context of more rigid compliance requirements facing the overall Internet industry, the tightened regulation on K-12 educators did impact on their marketing demand with top-tier education customers cut back or even ceased their campaigns. That said, the education sector only took less than 2% of our total ad revenue in the first half of the year. And thus, our risk is [indiscernible] (44:26) quite limited.
In light of recent policies, we will take steps to further optimize our sales structure for customers in the Internet sector and beef up our efforts to tap into the incremental ad wallet of the emerging consumption economy.
Finally, we pointed out to Apple's new IDFA policy as a potential headwind last quarter, and let me give you an update so far.
Leveraging model training and optimization, our alternative approach delivered solid attribution results and thus have earned recognition among our customers gradually. As such, the impact from IDFA changes has been less than widely feared as well as our own expectations.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Lastly, let me take this opportunity to share with you the momentum we've seen during the recent Tokyo Olympic Games.
Leveraging Weibo's unique positioning to serve public conversation and our massive user scale, we are encouraged to see strong momentum in key metrics such as hot trends, topic discussion and engagement of athletes' accounts. Built upon years of population in our sports ecosystem around athletes, media and professionals, Weibo has become the go-to platform for Chinese Olympic teams to join and for our users to find media updates and to discuss around Olympic-related topics. As a result, Weibo's MAUs traffic and interaction all reached record high in July 2021, giving us confidence in further reinforcing our competitive moat based on unique value proposition.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Furthermore, on the monetization front, we are delighted to see the solid momentum in the first half of the year continuing into the third quarter. For instance, our differentiated social marketing playbook featuring hot trends and athletes' endorsements resonate greatly with the Olympic team sponsors, such as ANTA, which enabled us to capture higher brand plus performance ad customers and their wallets. With such good momentum, we are well positioned to tap into incremental market opportunities in the second half of the year.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] With that, let me turn the call over to Fei Cao for a financial review.
Thank you, Gaofei, and hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's Second Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Let's start with user metrics.
In June 2021, Weibo's MAUs and average DAUs reached 566 million and 246 million, respectively, both surpassing the peak level in March 2020 during the pandemic outbreak.
On an annual basis, we had a net addition of approximately 43 million MAUs and 16 million DAUs, a notable reacceleration compared with prior quarters, leveraging our strength in serving public conversation, initiatives on video front as well as effective channel investment.
Turning to financials. As a reminder, my prepared remarks will focus on non-GAAP results and all comparisons are on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. Now let me walk you through our financial highlights for the second quarter of 2021.
Weibo's second quarter 2021 net revenues were $574.5 million, an increase of 48%, exceeding the high end of our guidance.
Operating income was $223.2 million, an increase of 83%, representing an operating margin of 39%.
Net income attributable to Weibo reached $182.8 million, an increase of 60% representing a net margin of 32%.
Diluted EPS was 19 -- sorry, was $0.79 compared to $0.50 in second quarter 2020.
Now let me give you more color on revenues.
Weibo's advertising and marketing revenues for the second quarter 2021 increased 47% to $502.3 million. Mobile ad revenues were $470.3 million, contributing approximately 94% of total ad revenues, up from 89% last year. On top of good user momentum, Weibo delivered strong ad revenue growth with monetization scale reached a record high.
We are delighted to see broad-based strength across key verticals. In terms of revenue contribution, our top 3 verticals were FMCG, e-commerce and 3P products. Leveraging the e-commerce peak season, Weibo reinforced its unique value proposition to advertisers in serving their integrated branding plus performance needs and thus tapped into incremental ad wallet of these pillar industries.
In terms of growth, the fastest-growing verticals were luxury and 3P products as Weibo has become the go-to platform for these sectors to capture the hearts and minds of Generation Z users who hold the next generation of consumption power in China.
From the ad product perspective, promotive feeds continued to be the largest part, followed by social display ads and other ad offerings such as promotive trends and topics. Our formal social marketing products delivered a competitive ROI and resonated greatly with brands and merchants, leading to healthy growth for each of these product categories. In particular, revenues from promotive trends and topic products continued to lead growth among major ad products with customers embracing the sweet spot of our traffic and utilized the differentiated and native ad format for brand exposure, interest, cultivation and conversion. Additionally, we also delivered robust video ad growth built upon a higher penetration of video content and ongoing optimization of video ad offerings.
Overall speaking, we are pleased with current demand versus supply dynamics where our ad revenue was driven by both incremental monetizable traffic and a positive ECPM trend on a year-over-year basis.
Ad revenues from Alibaba for the second quarter increased 12% to $40 million, a moderate slowdown in terms of growth rate. As communicated earlier, ad spend from Alibaba highly correlated to its own marketing strategies and thus may fluctuate quarter-to-quarter. That said, our cooperation with Alibaba positions us well to capitalize on ongoing digitalization trend and get value for brands and merchants on both platforms.
Value-added service, VAS, revenues were $72.1 million in the second quarter, an increase of 54%, primarily attributable to the revenues derived from the interactive entertainment company acquired in November 2020 as well as increasing revenue generated from our gaming business.
Turning to costs and expenses.
Total costs and expenses for the second quarter was $351.2 million, an increase of 32%. The increase was primarily due to a step-up in marketing spend and higher personnel-related costs.
Operating income in the second quarter increased 83% to $223.2 million. Operating margin was 39%, up from 31% last year, exceeding our expectations. We are pleased with the further operating efficiency achieved by our platform this quarter, and we'll focus on keeping good balance between investment for growth and margin performance for the company's development in the long run.
Turning to income tax. Under GAAP measures, income tax expense for the second quarter was $46.9 million compared to $40.7 million last year.
Net income attributable to Weibo in the second quarter was $182.8 million, representing a net margin of 32% compared to 30% last year.
Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow items.
As of June 30, 2021, Weibo's cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $2.9 billion compared to $3.5 billion as of December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily resulted from investment activity we made during the first half of 2021 and was partially offset by cash provided by operating activities.
In second quarter of 2021, cash provided by operating activities was $94.1 million. Capital expenditures totaled $9.5 million. And depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $13.6 million.
Lastly, let's talk about our financial outlook.
We anticipate our third quarter of 2021 revenues to increase by 20% to 25% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. This forecast also reflects Weibo's current and preliminary view and is subject to change.
With that, let me now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.
[Operator Instructions] First question is from the line of Thomas Chong of Jefferies.
[Foreign Language] Congratulations on a very strong set of results and strong revenue guidance. I have 3 questions. My first question is about the second half advertising outlook. And follow-up after that, can management also comment about our assessment about the impact on the pop-up ads in open apps as well as education regulations together with a more cautious industry outlook in the property, auto as well as the travel sector? And my third question is about our feed ad. Can management comment about the growth drivers such as pricing as well as inventories?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] So thank you very much for your question. So let me, first of all, answer the question about the drivers of the growth in the second half of this year.
So as you can see, that even though we had the factor that last year we had a pandemic and the base number was pretty low, however if we're talking about the year-on-year performance comparing with the same period in 2019, we're still enjoying 36% to 40% of the growth. And also in Q1, we're also accelerating the growth overall speaking.
As a result, what you're going to see is that talking about our strong abilities, especially talking about the commercial marketing capabilities, and especially we have a marketing strategy of focusing on the content and hot topic marketing and also the combination of brand and performance. So what you can see is that in almost all industries, we enjoy pretty good growth on the app. And especially in FMCG, which is a very promising industry, we enjoy over 50% of the growth. And also, in those not-that-promising kind of industries, for example in digital and also automobile, still we enjoy 50%-and-more growth.
So as a result, what you can see is that we really focus on a lot the sales and also products as well and especially targeting those industries with a great amount of combination and synergy between brand and performance as well. So this particular method has been highly recognized by the customers.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, second of all, I would like to comment on the other aspects, especially talking about the inventory and also the product -- of the ad.
So we can see this -- that in the remarks, we already mentioned that in the first half, we had actually a very good inventory created for the -- because of the increase on the video part and the video consumption. And also the ad load, et cetera, of that particular new inventory is very high.
And also, another thing is that for the Tokyo Olympics, which happened in July and also August, what you can see is that we reached the historical high and also peak on the traffic and data. And also, this particular traffic is still increasing even after the pandemic -- I mean, Olympics. And also, this is a very good direction for the future.
And also, third of all, we are talking about the kind of products. So not only we are talking about the particular ad product of combining ad performance and also the branding as well, but also we are talking about the marketing-related ad for brand and content as well. This has been also highly recognized by our customers and also becoming one of the major drivers for our further growth. Okay.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, what you can see is about the price. So since the second half of last year, what you can see is that we were increasing the demand from the core industries. And also, because of the improvement of our Fensi Tong FST, we can see that the performance increased.
And also, talking about those others like performance-driven industries like the gaming and also e-commerce, because we have optimized our technologies and also service provided, we can see a very good growth on the ECM (sic) [ ECPM ] and especially enjoying a double-digit growth on the ECPM. All right.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, as you have talked to us about some negative factors happening in the second half, especially to the education industry and also real estate, so of course that is true, that we have been seeing a decrease over the planning on the customers in those industries in terms of their marketing plans. However, as I have already stated, for example, education industry only accounted for about only less than 2% of our total product. So I think that this particular impact was pretty much controllable. Okay.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, lastly, talking about the flash ad or the pop-up ad. So I think that it is truth that the ratification (sic) [ rectification ] of this pop-up ad really had a big impact or some of -- impact over the whole industry, including Weibo, so -- majorly reflected in the fact that the click rate actually has been reduced. And also, that is primarily impacting and influencing those customers with the performance-oriented plan. However, what you can see is that our major ad customers are still focusing on the branding and also the -- on effectiveness. So they would like to care more about exposure rather than the clicks. So -- and also, percentage-wise, it's pretty much limited. So as a result, I think that the impact is pretty much within the control scope. Okay.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, from the Weibo's own perspective, I think that in the guidance that -- covering the Q3 performance, we have already truthfully reflected and also evaluated the most strict regulations happening now in the education industry and also the pop-up ad industry. So that is to say that without those kind of factors, we should have been enjoying a higher and stronger growth in Q3 and also second half of 2021. So -- however, still, from the -- Weibo's perspective, we are going to continue the optimization of our ad model. And especially talking about the pop-up ad, we're going to actually have a better research over the new models and also the new recommendation algorithms, for example, try to minimize the impact to the lowest level. So of course, those kind of plans are still in the implementation and researching phase so that we are not showing them in the new guidance for the future growth.
Okay. Okay. [Foreign Language]
Our next question is from the line of Alex Ko of Morgan Stanley.
[Foreign Language] Let me translate into English. So congrats on the solid results. So on the user front, we had a strong quarter with accelerated pace of growth. Can management share what we have observed quarter-to-date and the expectation in the following quarters? We're also aware Weibo recently launched a rectification on fandom. So how would that impact the user growth and traffic in the second half of this year?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, first of all, I would like to comment on the very first part of the question, especially talking about the growth in the -- talking about traffic and also the future users.
So since Q4 of last year, we have already stated that we are going to invest and also focus more on the users acquisition as well as the users cost of acquisition and also the retention as well. So first of all, in terms of the channels, we have been collaborating more widely with those different brands and also operators as well as the other apps. So the user volume from this particular channel has been increased for about 2x.
And also, the next thing is that in terms of the strategy on optimization as well as our improvement over the user retention, et cetera, we have been reducing the overall cost of the user acquisition. So as a result, what we can see is not a significant increase in terms of investment paid into this particular area. Okay.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, what we can see is that talking about the products, so as we have already stated, that because of the generation of the interest feed and also the Super Topic and also growth on that as well as the very good growth over the relationship-based feed, what we can see is that we have further improved the activity and engagement of the users as well as the total kind of user number.
So for example, because of a lot of hot topics and also some of the big events happening, what we can see is that comparing with those platforms offering short videos or long videos, on Weibo, we can have a better retention tracked by -- to the customers and also users. And also, we are going to trigger a better discussion and wider discussion and more focus on Weibo on those super topics and important events.
So that is the result, that after the Olympics, we can actually have a very good retention of the users and also a very good increase on the users' volume. So what we can see is that we can forecast a pretty good result in this particular area in Q3 and also even forward. So that is to say that even though Weibo already had a pretty high Internet penetration, however, still, we think it's quite promising for Weibo to actually grow the user and also the user retention in the second half and also in the medium to long term. All right.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, second of all, you have mentioned something about the rectification of the fandom. So what we can see is that if you pay close attention to the announcement made by Weibo, we do not actually start paying attention to this particular fandom rectification starting from this year. But actually, from 2020 Q2, we already started paying attention a lot and started rectification over the fandom in this particular industry.
So that is to say that, for example, we are already changing and adjusting the operation of this particular area. Especially, we're managing those KOL agents as well as their fans as well. So we are encouraging more KOLs to really participate in those charity programs and activities as well as those positive, energy-oriented activities. So that is to say that as of median (sic) [ middle ] of last year until as of now, we have been already publishing over 40 different announcements of the working related to rectification of the fandom.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, Weibo -- it is true that Weibo is actually a kind of an ecosystem and also a kind of a user platform that is pretty much focusing on one of the important verticals, which is entertainment. And of course, since last year, we've been seeing that because of this justification and adjustment made on those functions as well as the new launch of some of the products, we did receive some of the impacts to this particular entertainment and also to our performance because of something happening in the entertainment industry.
However, the thing is that talking about, for example, last year, second half, and also Q1 of this year, we've been closing down some of the accounts and also try to rectify the content and also try to manage the fans and also the KOLs, et cetera.
So that is to say that a very good example would be that among the hot research and hot topics, entertainment accounted for -- used to account for about 30% to 40%. But now in Q2 of this year, entertainment topics only accounted for about 25% of those hot research and hot searches. So that is to say that from the second half of last year until the Q1, we did receive some of the impacts, but we believe that this particular rectification and also regulation is pretty much important to really strengthen and try to regulate the whole ecosystem that Weibo has.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, talking about this particular rectification of the fandom, I think that this is a very important thing happening to regulate the whole kind of entertainment industry. And also, as a platform that has been operating in this world for about 10 years already, we have been already witnessing the fluctuations and ups and downs of the entertainment industry. And also, what we are trying to do is also try to observe a further optimized regulation post against this entertainment industry.
And also, during the past 10 years also, we've been collaborating actively and communicated actively with the government to really try to understand the latest trend and also try to understand the latest requirements post -- upon the ecosystem that we have. So we are very much proactively optimizing and also changing our operating strategies. So not only this is really helpful for us to regulate Weibo internally, but also this is a very good thing to regulate the whole industry and also beneficial to the whole industry to really grow on a sustainable course.
[Foreign Language]
Our next question is from the line of Miranda Zhuang of Bank of America.
[Foreign Language] So my question is about the video business. Can management elaborate more on the initiatives for Weibo's video ecosystem, for example, the expansion of the content category, the assistance for the content creation and content distribution? And how does Weibo video compete with other video platforms with different value proposition? And also, can you provide more color on the development of the video ad monetization?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Okay. And also, first of all, talking about the whole ecosystem, so as we have already stated, that in 2021, our ecosystem will be pretty much focusing on the development of the video accounts. And also, we are encouraging more video creators to opening up their accounts and also further to boost the consumption as well as the supply of the video products.
So as we have already stated, that we have exceeded 10 million as a threshold of all the video creators. And also, 30,000 of them had already the followers of reaching 1 million. So that is to say that in Q2 quarter-on-quarter, we can see that we nearly doubled this particular volume of the videos created. Okay.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, next thing is about the kind of total consumption of the videos. So that is to say that we are still leveraging the advantage of Weibo as a social media platform, which is a very important one, and -- to really trigger the consumption of the videos and also the other kinds. Because what you can see is that go along with the consumption of videos, we also have the assumption -- I mean, consumptions by the users to the texts and images, et cetera.
And also, what you can see is that we are really triggering more kind of topics as well as the consumption of videos around the social media platform. And also, we are really encouraging more KOLs and also the other media to really disseminate those knowledges and also those videos as well as the content as well. So that is to say that we are trying our best to diversify the content that we are providing through Weibo.
So a very good example is that during the Olympics, what you can see is that not only we can see people's and also users' consumption around the videos, short videos, for example, as well as the other live streaming, but also all the discussions triggered by that is pretty much around the video as a product. So that is one of the major differentiating strategies and also unique selling points of Weibo. All right.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] And also, third of all, in terms of the ad monetization, what we can see is that with the increasing of the number of video accounts and also the increase in traffic, well, we can see a very good contribution to our ad inventory. And also, we see more customers post their ads on us and also place their ads on us.
So with also the enabling of the full-screen ad, we can see a kind of more placement as well as the enhancement of the efficiency of the advertisements. So that is to say that in Q2, we had enjoyed a higher growth on the video ad than the other format of the app. And now the video ad already accounted for about 1/3 of our total ad products and formats. Okay.
All right. Thank you. And there are no further questions. Now I'd like to hand the conference back to the management for closing remarks. Please continue.
Yes. Thank you for joining us today. See you next quarter.
Thank you. And this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect.