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Intrinsic Value is all-important and is the only logical way to evaluate the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses.
It is time. So we would like to begin CyberAgent's FY 2022 First Quarter Earnings Briefing.
This session is being live streamed. Please refer to the disclaimer included in the briefings document with respect to the content shared today.
Now I would like to hand the microphone over to President and CEO, Fujita.
This is the President and CEO, Fujita. FY 2022 first quarter, I would like to take you through the performance. FY 2022 -- sorry, this is for the first quarter, starting from October to -- and lasting until December 2021.
First, starting with the sales. It was, it went up by 30.6% year-on-year, and the OP went up by 2.8x. So within our -- the budget that we had internally, we didn't -- we have not disclosed the forecast for this fiscal year yet so we -- this is not disclosed yet, but it is far more than the budget that we had internally defined.
And in terms of the Media Business, it went up by 22.4% year-on-year, so it's doing well. And the Ad Business as well has grown by 14.7% year-on-year. And the Game Business grew by -- increased by 94.7% year-on-year. So we have significantly increased both sales and OP.
This is the quarterly results. This is the sales. I know that those of you who have been keeping an eye on us for a couple of years are aware, but the first quarter tends to be a difficult quarter for us. But year-on-year, we have grown by -- the OP by 2.8x, so we have significantly increased our profit -- or revenue -- sorry. Sorry, we were talking about sales. So the sales has increased significantly.
Last -- at the end of last year, when we didn't provide a forecast for this fiscal year, we told you that the Game Business is volatile, and it's hard to predict. And we wanted to make the Uma Musume a little bit more stable, and it is becoming more stable. We have seen signs of stability. And sorry, this is -- we've gone back and forth a little bit, but the OP has grown by -- increased by 2.8x. So we significantly increased profits as well.
In terms of SG&A, the Game Business and WINTICKET, we have launched a marketing campaign. So the ad spend has increased slightly.
And we have 6,171 employees to date -- as of the end of December.
And this is the PL, and this is the balance sheet. There's no major changes to the balance sheet either.
So in terms of the forecast for this fiscal year, we have not provided a fiscal year forecast yet. As we mentioned, for the first quarter, we have far surpassed our internal budget. And Uma Musume, we wanted to make sure that the business is a little bit more stable and we're starting to see signs of stability. So in April, when we announced the second quarter performance, we hope to give you -- provide you with a business forecast.
Moving on to the individual businesses. The Internet Advertising business, as you can see, for the 6 consecutive quarters, we have increased sales. So it is growing steadily, especially the Internet Ad business, our strength is technology. So we're using AI. And also DX as well is -- we are seeing great many opportunities.
So even within the Internet Advertising business, we have continued to make up-front investments. And one area is digital transformation. We're working with large companies as well as local governments as well. So in various areas, we are working together with various entities.
And with respect to the Internet Ad business. Within the last quarter, first quarter, we've established 3 companies. One is CyberAgent DX. So we are working with large companies to create new revenue streams. So this is one company. And another company will support the unmanned staff-free stores as well as another company will plan, produce and operate online events. So we are planting the seeds for new businesses.
Moving on to the Game Business. Last year, Uma Musume Pretty Derby became a huge hit, and it was very scary. We didn't want to just become a temporary hit, but it has continued to generate a high level of sales. It's becoming more stable as well. And we're going to be having an anniversary in February, but we want to continue to operate this game so that it will be loved for a long time to come.
And the operating profit was JPY 17.1 billion for this quarter.
Uma Musume Pretty Derby has surpassed 12 million downloads. And as I mentioned before, next month, is going to be its first anniversary.
Also we are going to release GCREST next month, and we are all working on Jujutsu Kaisen and FINAL FANTASY as well as Tokyo Revengers. So these are major titles that we will be releasing, which we will be releasing one by one going forward.
Moving on to the Media Business, as you can see from the graph, the business is performing well. ABEMA is growing and also the Media-related business is also doing very well.
This is the number of downloads. It's reached -- exceeded 76 million downloads. And the WAU, we had a Major League when Ohtani was very popular, doing great. So we benefited from that as well. But the WAU has been -- remained stable at a high level. And currently, we have shogi and mahjong.
So we have exclusive unique content as well as high-quality dramas and variety shows as well. We released them one after another. But going forward, we want to continue to improve on the quality and develop more original content as well, so we want to add to the portfolio.
And we also have musician lives as well, LDH, Keisuke Kuwata, Hikaru Utada. We have live events and also combat sports as well, Naoya Inoue, as well as wrestling. So we have released big content on Pay-Per-View, one after another. And ABEMA has -- and with an ABEMA, Pay-Per-View has become established -- has been established as 1 genre. And ABEMA is now compatible with Nintendo Switch as well, so you can watch our content on the gaming console.
And this is the sales for ABEMA. As you can see here, advertising business grew significantly and we didn't -- we're no longer disclosing these figures. But the subscription is also increasing as well. Related business also has grown significantly mainly around WINTICKET. WINTICKET has grown significantly. It's only been about 2 years since we launched, but it has continued to grow significantly rapidly. And we also have MIDNIGHT KEIRIN. We have our own program as well.
And WINTICKET as a service, we issue WINTICKET in addition to the original program, but the online gaming market online betting market has grown from JPY 142 billion to JPY 185 billion. So it has grown by -- the market has grown by 1.3x. And we've also expanded our share from 0 to this level. It says 13%, but we started from 0 and it went to 13% and then to 27%. So it is a dramatic increase.
Also the other day, we announced that we have welcomed BABEL LABEL, a content studio, into our group. It's a consolidated subsidiary now, and their production quality is on the world-class level. So we are trying to gather top creators to this company to continue to create world-class content from the studio.
And this is the document that we share every time. But with respect to ABEMA, advertising and subscription will be the foundation and then grow related businesses for ABEMA. And this was the plan, and we're on track. We're progressing per the strategy. And over the mid- to long term, this has not changed either.
Ad and Game, while it's still stable, we want to launch a new media business and grow the business -- expand the business and then monetize the business. And it's been fine since we launched ABEMA and we talked about how we're going to spend 10 years to grow this business, and we're halfway there.
And in the past, we invested in blogs as well as the smartphone businesses as well. So forwent -- the profits were in front of us to invest and we've invested so that's why we are where we are now, but we're also at a stage where we need to invest again.
So we will continue to keep mid- to long term in mind to operate our company. So we hope that, likewise, you will support us over the mid- to long term. That's it from me. Thank you very much.
This concludes CyberAgent's FY 2022 First Quarter Earnings Briefing. Should you have any questions, please reach out to the IR counterpart. Thank you very much for joining us today.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]