HUYA Inc

NYSE:HUYA

Good day, and good evening, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to HUYA's first quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings webinar. I'm Hanyu Liu from HUYA investor relations. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions]



Participants of management on today's call will be Mr. Junhong Huang, our Acting Co-CEO and Senior Vice President; and Mr. Raymond Peng Lei, our acting Co-CEO and CFO. Management will begin with prepared remarks, and the call will conclude with a Q&A session.



Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today.



Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required on applicable law.



Please also note that HUYA's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial information as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. HUYA's press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited most directly comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to our Co-CEO and SVP, Mr. Huang. Please go ahead.

Okay. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings conference today. In the first quarter of 2025, HUYA's total net revenues stabilized year-over-year and grew quarter-over-quarter to RMB 1.51 billion. This was supported by our steady execution of our strategic business transformation, which drove a 52.1% year-over-year increase in game-related services, advertising, and other revenue to RMB 370 million.



This segment accounted for 24.6% of total net revenues, up from 16.2% in the same period last year. We were also pleased to deliver a net profit this quarter. Meanwhile, we continue to strengthen our live streaming content ecosystem, deepen collaborations with game companies and content platforms, and explore the integration of AI capabilities in our esports experiences, laying a solid foundation for future development.



Now let me share the details of our recent business progress, starting with our business transformation. As I just mentioned, our game-related services, advertising, and other revenues reached RMB 370 billion this quarter. It's worth noting that revenues from game distribution and in-game item sales are primarily recognized on a net basis after revenue sharing with game companies. As such, the total transaction value of our game-related services mainly comprised of the gross received generated through our game distribution channel, and the GMV for our in-game item sales is actually much higher than our reported revenue.



Let's begin with a closer look at our domestic game-related services and advertising businesses. In terms of game distribution, we proactively deepened our engagement with existing games despite a quarter with few major new game launches. By working with game studios, refining operational strategy, and unlocking the consumption potential of high commercial value user groups, that have naturally congregated within our game live streaming ecosystem, we achieved a solid and more balanced game distribution performance.



Total gross receipts generated through HUYA's game distribution channel in the first quarter more than doubled year-over-year and increased sequentially. In particular, thanks to various game events during the Spring Festival, several titles, including QQ Speed Mobile, Peacekeeper Elite, Delta Force, and League of Legends Mobile recorded significant increase in gross receipt through the HUYA channel, with each growing more than 50% compared to the fourth quarter of last year.



Several games we distributed from new partners also performed well as we continue to collaborate with additional game companies. These results underscore our extensive capabilities in operations and game promotions. As we continue to expand our role as game distribution and promotion channel, we plan to deepen our exploration of distribution service such as the exclusive distribution model to advance our progress.



For in-game item sales, we are consistently expanding our in-game item SKU offerings while enhancing our platform sales channel and purchasing experience, leading to a record GMV for in-game item sales in the first quarter as in-game item sales scale up 75 events, including popular competitions such as League of Legends, LPL. They are also benefiting our broadcaster ecosystem with game broadcaster generating more income from in-game item sales.



In addition to live channels and more sections, our community section has emerged as an access point for in-game item sales. In early April, we successfully showed an exclusive game skin for popular esports players from Honor of Kings beyond the buzz generated by the skin's initial release live streaming section.



These players continued engagement within the community led users to purchase the schemes through this channel, making it the second largest scale channel for the skin on our platform with the number of purchases more than 60% higher than other similar exclusive schemes activities. As users who are active in our community section tend to be more hardcore gamers, we believe that there is great potential within this section to expand our customer base for in-game item purchase and improve repeat purchase rate.



On the advertising side, lower brand advertising revenue due to fewer tournament and promotions as well as the high base contributed by some large-scale new games in the first quarter of last year caused our advertising revenue to decline year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. On the other hand, at the end of last year, we upgraded the presentation format for live channels on the HUYA Live apps, creating more efficient performance-based advertising scenario to strengthen our advertising business. While maintaining a strong focus on our domestic market, we have begun to actively explore and enhance our game-related commercialization capabilities in overseas markets.



Particularly through our global mobile application service platform to better leverage the commercial value of our content and user traffic. In addition to our existing app promotion and live streaming service, we are developing diverse business models targeting overseas market, including game distribution, in-game item sales, regional exclusive distribution and game advertising services. We are strengthening our partnership with Chinese game companies that are expanding overseas as well as local firms.



As of the first quarter, we have partnered with multiple game companies to distribute sales in game items for approximately 50 games, including PUBG Mobile, Honor of Kings, Arena Breakout, Delta Force and Devil May Cry.



We have also launched operational activities tailored to each game's characteristic and key events, such as frame challenge feature and enhanced localized game promotion by collaborating with local broadcasters on our overseas game live streaming platform. These initiatives are demonstrating promising growth with our overseas game-related services, delivering a multifold sequential revenue growth in the first quarter. Given current development and market trends, we are confident that they will continue to help expand our overseas user base and scale up our business. We believe overseas game-related commercialization initiatives hold significant potential, making them a key growth engine for our company going forward.



Next, our professional content enrichment efforts. We continue to solidify our leading position in licensed esports tournament in the first quarter. We broadcast a proxy monthly 75 events, including popular competitions such as League of Legends LPL, First Stand tournament, Honor of Kings KPL, Crossfire CFPL, Counter Strike 2 EPL Season 21, Veterans VCT Bangkok Masters and Peacekeeper Elite League PEL. This diverse lineup caters to the viewing needs of a wide range of esports enthusiast. Our internal data indicates that HUYA's market share in esports broadcasting continued to improve this quarter, reinforcing our position as the top game live streaming platform for watching esports tournaments.



We are also consistently innovating diverse in-house produced content and broadcast approximately 25 self-organized esports tournaments and entertainment PGC show this quarter. Our highly anticipated HUYA League of Legends Legend Cup Season 3 commenced at the end of March and is still underway. Building on the success of the previous 2 editions, we upgraded this event with the establishment of dual competition drones in China and South Korea, enhancing the competitive pace and match excitement. The Legend Cup Season 3 has also partnered with the comprehensive international esports event serving as the Asian Championship League LoL tournament, a key cooperation that underscores HUYA's professional influence in esports.



During the first quarter, Lantern Festival, we launched our Pick and Chicken [Indiscernible] Challenges developed in collaboration with a well-known television network.



Through offline activities integrated with online interaction and a brand of themes across agricultural products, transitions, shopping and entertainment. This entertainment program attracted viewership comparable to some top-tier esports content. In addition, we introduced [Comparing to the End] single season and eSports music crossover program featuring professional singers and popular broadcasters, which received positive audience feedback and expanded our content reach.



As we entered the second quarter, we kicked off our self-organized Dota 2 tournament Model Cup in early May. This event featuring top retail professional Dota2 players has already attracted great attention. We will also introduce several large-scale events produced in-house in the coming months, including an offline esports music festival and a top-tier virulent tournament.



Turning to product upgrades under our AI + Live Streaming strategy, we are exploring the integration of AI capabilities in our esports experience. At the Legend Cup Season 3, we leverage end-to-end AI solution to transform the viewing experience and introduce Hu Xiao Ai, pioneering scenario AI agent for esports viewing as a smart viewing companion for our users.



Hu Xiao Ai strategy might scope in the pre-match team formatting phase, analyzing team's champion pool capability with data-driven insights, which transforms team Captain's decision-making from experience based to visual strategy simulation based. During the in-match fan and peak phase, Hu Xiao Ai becomes a tactical profit generating real-time counter strategy sheet maps that offer viewers a deep dive into professional players tactical decision.



In post-match analysis and engagement, Hu Xiao Ai professional esports coach, rapidly producing highlights reels and injecting humor into post-match analysis with field MVP reviews in elevating the entertainment value of esports content. Hu Xiao Ai can understand the game grace e-sports dynamic and provide live commentary throughout tournament, engaging users with a viewing companion that is both tactical and entertaining.



Our statistics show that as of early May, over 300,000 [ HUYA ] chat was generated during the Legend Cup Season 3 with approximately 17% of them related to interactive discussions initiative by Hu Xiao Ai. This demonstrates a substantial lift in the viewing experience with fans actively engaging with the content in a more immersive and interactive way.



We are encouraged by these initial results, and we will continue to advance our AI-driven initiatives under our AI + Live Streaming strategy. By applying AI models throughout the entire cycle of live streaming content production, distribution and consumption, we aim to create long-term value for HUYA in live streaming, esports and other areas.



In summary, we believe that our positive progress across various business segments in the first quarter has laid a solid foundation for our development throughout the year. We will continue to enhance and expand our game content and service platform and explore new commercial opportunities moving towards a more diversified and sustainable business model that deliver value to our users and stakeholders alike.



With that, I will now turn the call over to our acting Co-CEO and CFO, Raymond Lei. He will share more details on our results. Raymond, please go ahead.

Thank you, Junhong, and hello, everyone. I'll start with an overview of our financial performance. In the first quarter of this year, our total net revenues stabilized year-over-year after previous declines, driven by the year-over-year growth in game-related services, advertising and other businesses. Notably, live streaming revenues saw a slight sequential increase this quarter, contributing to a marginal sequential improvement in our total net revenues.



The number of paying users in the first quarter remained flat year-over-year, standing at 4.4 million, excluding those who made in game purchases through our game distribution business but didn't pay via our platform or related services. On the cost side, we continued to optimize content costs, particularly those related to esports tournaments, but increased incentives for broadcasters to participate in live streaming and provide game-related services during the live streaming industry off-season around Chinese New Year, resulting in a gross margin of 12.5% for the quarter.



Furthermore, despite a substantial decrease in interest income compared with the previous period, primarily due to our dividend payments, we still achieved a positive net income for the quarter with non-GAAP income of RMB 24 million. Let's move on to more details of our Q1 financial results.



Our total net revenues were RMB 1.51 billion for Q1 compared with RMB 1.5 billion for the same period last year. Live streaming revenues were RMB 1.14 billion for Q1 compared with RMB 1.26 billion for the same period last year, primarily due to the continued impact of the macroeconomic and the industry environment.



Game-related services, advertising and other revenues were RMB 370 million for Q1 compared with RMB 244 million for the same period last year. The increase was primarily due to higher revenues from game-related services, which were mainly attributable to our deepened cooperation with Tencent and other game companies, partially offset by decreased advertising revenues.



Cost of revenues increased by 3% to RMB 1.32 billion for Q1, primarily due to increased revenue sharing fees and content costs, partially offset by decreased bandwidth and server custody fees. Revenue sharing fees and content costs, a key component of cost of revenues, increased by 4% to RMB 1.17 billion for Q1, primarily due to increased customer-related costs, partially offset by lower costs related to licensed esport content and in-house produced content.



Gross profit was RMB 188 million for Q1 compared with RMB 221 million for the same period last year. Gross margin was 12.5% for Q1 compared with 14.7% for the same period last year, primarily attributable to increased revenue sharing fees and content costs as a percentage of total net revenues.



Excluding share-based compensation expenses, non-GAAP gross profit was RMB 192 million and non-GAAP gross margin was 12.7% for Q1. Research and development expenses decreased by 4% year-over-year to RMB 130 million for Q1 primarily due to decreased personnel-related expenses and share-based compensation expenses. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 20% year-over-year to RMB 61 million for Q1, primarily due to decreased marketing and promotion fees as well as personnel-related expenses.



General and administrative expenses increased by 2% year-over-year to RMB 61 million for Q1, primarily due to higher share-based compensation expenses. Other income was RMB 4 million for Q1 compared with RMB 12 million for the same period last year, primarily due to lower government subsidies. As a result, operating loss was RMB 60 million for Q1 compared with a loss of RMB 39 million for the same period last year.



Excluding share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets from business acquisition, non-GAAP operating loss was RMB 36 million for Q1 compared with a loss of RMB 16 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP operating margin was negative 2.4% for Q1. Interest income was RMB 65 million for Q1 compared with RMB 117 million for the same period last year primarily due to a lower time deposit balance, which was primarily attributable to the special cash dividend paid in May and October 2024.



Net income attributable to HUYA Inc. was RMB 1 million for Q1 compared with RMB 71 million for the same period last year. Excluding share-based compensation expenses and amortization of intangible assets from business acquisition, net of income taxes, non-GAAP net income attributable to HUYA Inc. was RMB 24 million for Q1 compared with RMB 92 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP net margin was 1.6% for Q1.



Diluted net loss per ADS was approximately RMB 0. Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS was RMB 0.10 for Q1. As of March 31, 2025, the company had cash and cash equivalents, short-term deposits, and long-term deposit of RMB 6.25 billion compared with RMB 6.73 billion as of December 31, 2024.



Finally, let me provide an update on our shareholder returns. Through our up to USD 100 million share repurchase program, we repurchased 21 million HUYA shares with a total aggregate consideration of USD 69.8 million as of the end of March 2025. Looking ahead, we will remain committed to reinforce our business and operational foundations and returning value to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchase. With that, I'd like to open the call to your questions.

[Operator Instructions]. Today's first question comes from Nelson Cheung from Citigroup.

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]. So let me translate Nelson into English. Congratulations for a solid quarter in first quarter. And with a solid year-on-year growth for game-related revenues in the first quarter, wondering if management could elaborate more on the business outlook and the prospects for this segment.

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted] In the first quarter, HUYA's game-related services, advertising and other revenues reached RMB 370 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 52.1%. This growth was primarily driven by the increase in game-related services revenues, partially offset by a year-over-year decline in brand advertising revenues.



The decrease in brand advertising revenues was primarily due to fewer tournaments and promotional activities during Q1 this year as well as the high base effect from major new game launches in the same period from last year. It is worth noting that since our game distribution and in-game item sales revenue is primarily recognized on a net basis, after revenue sharing with game companies.



The total transaction value of our game-related services is significantly higher than our reported revenue.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



Specifically, in terms of domestic game distribution, despite limited major new game launches in the market this year, we proactively deepened our engagement with existing games through cooperations with game studios and refined operational strategies.



We continued to unlock the consumption potential of high commercial value user groups that have naturally congregated within our game live streaming ecosystem, forming a more stable and balanced foundation for our game distribution business. In the first quarter, the total gross revenue generated through HUYA's game distribution channel more than doubled year-over-year and increased quarter-over-quarter.



In particular, thanks to various game events during the Spring Festival, several titles, including QQ Speed Mobile, Peacekeeper Elite, Delta Force and League of Legends Mobile recorded significant increases in gross revenue through the HUYA channel, with each growing more than 50% compared to the fourth quarter of last year.



Additionally, games from new partners that we collaborated with also performed well. These results underscore our extensive capabilities in operations and game promotions. As we continue to solidify our position as a game distribution and marketing channel, we plan to enhance our exploration of game agency publishing, including exclusive distribution models to further expand our business.



We also look forward to capturing opportunities as more new games launch in the market.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



For in-game item sales, we are consistently expanding our in-game item SKU offerings while enhancing our platform sales channel and also purchasing experiences, leading to a record high in GMV for in-game item sales in the first quarter. As in-game item sales scale up they are also benefitting our streamers ecosystem with more game broadcasters generating better commercial income from in-game items sales. In addition to life channels and the most efficient our community section has emerged as an effective access point for in-game items sales.



In early April, we successfully showed an exclusive game skin for renowned Honor of Kings esport player. Beyond the buzz generated by the skin's initial release session the player continued its effective engagement within the community. It has also attracted many users to purchase for through this channel making it the second largest sales channel for the skin on our platform. With the number of purchases more than 60% higher than the previous similar exclusive schemes activities. As users who are active in our community section tend to be more hardcore gamers, we believe that there is great potential to expand our customer base for in-game item purchases and improve repeating purchase rate.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



While maintaining a strong focus on our domestic market we have begun to actively explore and enhance our gaming related commercialization capabilities in overseas markets particularly through our global mobile application services platform to better leverage the commercial value of our content and user traffic. In addition to our existing app promotion and live stream services in overseas markets we are developing diverse business models including game distribution, in-game items sales, regional exclusive distribution and game advertises.



We are strengthening our partnerships with Chinese game companies that are expanding overseas as well as local firms. At the same time, we have launched operational activities tailored to each game's characteristics and key events. Furthermore, we are enhancing localized game promotion by collaborating with local broadcasters on our overseas game live streaming platform.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



These emerging initiatives are demonstrating promising growth with our overseas game related services delivering multi-port revenue growth in the first quarter. Given current business trajectory and market outlook we are confident that by expanding our overseas user coverage and business scale our overseas game related commercialization business has the potential to become one of the companies important growth engines.

And our next question comes from Ritchie Sun from HSBC. Hi Ritchie. Please go ahead.

Thank you management for taking my questions. So, I have two questions. So, first of all our convention comments on the outlook in quarter outlook and full year outlook for the revenue and second of all is given the geo-political tensions and there has been some risk around the management's comments on how do we plan to address this risk. [Foreign Language].

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



Thank you for your questions. With regard to the first question and the first quarter, HUYA's total net revenue increased slightly quarter-over-quarter to approximately RMB 1.51 billion. Thanks to the year-over-year growth in game-related services, advertising and other businesses, our total net revenue have stabilized year-over-year after previous declines. This also reflects the steady progress of our strategic business transformation and the company's execution capabilities.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



Based on what we are currently seeing, we expect that our total revenue have essentially bottomed out. On one hand, as the marginal year-over-year impact from economic and industry conditions weaken and as we continue to optimize our live streaming operations and enhance our user interaction features, live streaming revenues are expected to stabilize.



On the other hand, we anticipate that game-related services, advertising and other business revenues will achieve relatively fast year-over-year growth this year, particularly on the foundation of continued growth in domestic game-related services and advertising business.



The enhancement of overseas game commercialization is also expected to become another future growth engine. Therefore, based on the current business situation, we expect HUYA's total revenue to achieve a growth this year.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



The company continuously monitors U.S. listing regulations and regulatory requirements and is committed to fulfilling the responsibilities and obligations of a public company. Facing a constantly changing international situation and global economic trends, we closely monitor potential impacts that changes in the external environment may have on capital markets.



To the company's knowledge regarding the first of delisting risks for U.S.-listed China-based companies recently reported by the media, the U.S. government has not yet issued new formal regulations. We will continue to monitor this situation. Meanwhile, the company is also prudently assessing potential risks and actively exploring corresponding situation, including evaluating opportunities in other capital markets.



As we have always emphasized, HUYA consistently values and is committed to protecting investors' interests. If there is any material information, the company will make timely announcement in strict accordance with relevant requirements and fulfill its disclosure obligations.

Now we will take next question from Yanyan Xiao from China International Capital Corporation.

[Foreign Language] And my question is how should we estimate the company's future profit trend?

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]

This quarter, we continue to optimize costs related to esports content. But increased incentives for broadcasters to encourage the streaming and participation in providing game-related services during the Spring Festival's quiet season.



Additionally, we have higher-margin brand advertising revenue declined both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter due to seasonal weakness and the high base effect from last year. As a result, our gross margin this quarter decreased slightly compared to the same period last year, but increased quarter-over-quarter to 12.5%.



Despite significantly lower interest income due to dividend payments, we still achieved a positive net income for the quarter with non-GAAP net income reaching RMB 24 million.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



Regarding future profit trends, considering that our shareholder return measures will result in reduced cash surplus on our balance sheet, coupled with factors such as declining market interest rates. This year's interest rate income, especially in the second half of the year will be significantly lower than the same period in 2024. Therefore, this year's bottom line performance will rely more on the improvements in the company's operational results.



[Foreign Language] [Interpreted]



Specifically, on the cost and expenses side, we will moderately increase investment in self-produced content, which will also benefit the commercialization of development of game-related services, advertising and other business.



At the same time, we expect further improvements in copyright content costs in the future. Profit performance will also be affected to some extent by changes in overall revenue scales and structure. Overall, we expect that the company's non-GAAP operating results will show notable improvement this year.

Thank you. That's all for our Q&A session today. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact HUYA Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website or Piacente Financial Communications. This concludes today's call, and we look forward to speaking to you again next quarter. Thank you.