CyberAgent Inc

TSE:4751

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q2

[Unknown Executive]

[Interpreted] With respect to today's conference, our President, Fujita, will be taking us through the results. Thank you.

[Susumu Fujita, executive]

[Interpreted] This is Fujita. Thank you for your time today. So January to March, second quarter, I would like to take you through our results for this quarter. This quarter, we performed well overall. Last year, in the second quarter, we saw -- we were thinking that it will be very difficult to achieve year-on-year growth because we did very well in the previous fiscal year in the second quarter, but we did overachieve our previous year second quarter results.

With respect to Media or ABEMA, of course, ABEMA is not profitable on its own, but media -- the Media Business became profitable this quarter. And the Ad Business, the OP margin has grown for the third quarter in a row. So we have focused on the quality of our business.

And with respect to the Game business, the console, Granblue Fantasy: Relink became a big hit and anniversary events of major titles contributed and we saw great results this quarter as well for the Game business. This is the consolidated sales, UMA MUSUME became a huge hit, but we smashed those results and reached a net new record high. So we believe that we are on track in a good position.

And this is the OP. As you can see in the graph last year second quarter, we saw great results, but we overachieved those results this year. This is the SG&A expenses, no major changes here. Number of employees, no major change here either. But in April -- on April 1, we welcomed around 500 new graduates. So they will be -- you will see them on our results from the next quarter onwards.

This is the P&L and the balance sheet as well, no major changes. For the FY 2024 forecast, last third quarter -- last fiscal year, we announced that we will commit to increase the sales and profits. And it's been about a year now, but we are on track, continuing to improve sales and profits.

And we're through half the year, but operating profit or profit, we are certain that we will be able to achieve our annual targets, but we are not going to revise these targets this year at this point in time. And we would like to go through each sector, Internet advertising. Of course, we'll continue to improve sales over a long period of time.

And as I mentioned in the summary at the beginning, the operating profit margin is recovering. UMA MUSUME became a hit and we were rich from that hit. And we wanted to make sure that we make investments at that time and we've invested in AI and DX at that time. And it's been a year since, and the operating profit margin has recovered since then.

The KIWAMI Series, we released new services recently and Japanese language models -- we developed Japanese language models as well. And so we focus on the advertising business, but our strength is accelerating technology, so we can proudly say that.

Moving on to the Game business. This is the sales. UMA MUSUME become a big hit. And then we have -- now it's been a year, but we are making sure that we are performing well both in terms of sales as well as operating profit.

This quarter, we released Granblue Fantasy: Relink. Those of you who may have -- who played here, understand that this is a very good quality game that we could be proud of. Globally, we have many users, user base is expanding and 80% of the purchases have been made overseas: China, U.S. We're seeing great traction.

Moving on to UMA MUSUME. May 24, we will release the UMA MUSUME movie, but we want to nurture this IP so that it will be loved for a very long time.

Moving on to the Media Business. Overall, it's staying well. It's tracking well. And as I mentioned in the summary, it's -- we have come to a breakeven point very naturally organically. ABEMA -- we were not profitable with ABEMA, but ABEMA is doing well especially in terms of ads and related businesses are growing quite rapidly.

The WIE for ABEMA has reached historic high, excluding the World Cup. But after the World Cup was -- we had the World Cup. We saw the user base expand. And especially sports content are doing well. They're very popular.

We have partnered with external companies: DAZN and WOWSPO. You can now watch those services on our platform. And I personally think this is extremely convenient and the usability is excellent. And we're seeing more and more soccer fans come to ABEMA. So European have their Champions League, are happening very soon. So we're seeing very good traction.

BABEL LABEL creates dramas and movies and they're part of the group. And The Parades is released Netflix and it's become a smash hit and this will be releasing Golden Week in Japan as well. But 18x2 Beyond Youthful Days has been a big hit in Taiwan already. So we now have a structure in place where we can create excellent content.

So this is a summary. With respect to ABEMA, we want to not bring in cost, but we want to make sure we're investing and still become profitable. And so we are on track. And with respect to the advertising business, as I mentioned, we have invested in AI and DX and they're starting to bear fruit. So we're going to remain on this path.

With respect to the Game business, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, we have created high-quality content that is accepted by the global market and so we're confident. So we want to continue to make our own IPs, Granblue Fantasy and must make sure that we're nurturing our own IPs as well. And overall, we want to make sure that the entire company is going to remain committed to increasing sales and profit. This has not changed.

That concludes my earnings briefing explanation. Thank you.

[Unknown Executive]

We would like to conclude the earnings briefings or FY 2024 second quarter for CyberAgent. If you have any questions, please contact the IR team. Thank you very much for watching today.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]