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| Statement |
|---|
| These events gained widespread recognition from advertisers, significantly expanded our monetization abilities and highlighted our competitive advantage |
| At Sohu Media Portal, we further refined our products, upgraded technology and expanded premium content offerings, resulting in an enhanced user experience |
| And also, I hope to do it better to -- because we are -- we have some -- also some -- continue our effective and innovative marketing campaigns that bring advertisers |
| But the macro economy situation is not in the -- it seems not improving in the near future, right? So, we expect not much improvement, but definitely will be better than Q1 seasonality |
| We continue to refine our operations, expand our premium content offerings and diversify their delivery formats, which resulted in stable user metrics and user stickiness |
| And leveraging these high-profile events, we were able to better meet advertisers' needs and further consolidate our influence and differentiated advantages as mainstream media platform |
| These further consolidated our position and unique competitive advantages in the popular science and knowledge dissemination verticals and demonstrated an upward value and our commitment to being a socially responsible media platform |
| Cost of revenue or gross profit widening, because our current goal or our ambition is really to have strong products and attrition of basically to develop large user base |
| For short format, we -- and live streaming, we reinforced our leading position in knowledge and science-related live streaming with highly regarded IP, Charles' Physics Class leading the way |
| In our mobile game business, we upgraded character attributes and many other aspects of a major clan in legacy TLBB Mobile, which helped to increase player engagement |
| These live-broadcasting events brought together users with common interest to our platform, enhancing their vitality and engagement within our user community, both online and offline |
| While driving the content consumption, we continuously enhanced the social features -- social network features, which not only enhanced interactions between users, but also stimulated the generation and social distribution of more high-quality content |
| So, it seems I don't see any -- definitely, the seasonality -- definitely will not be a -- no problem with Q2, right? There is no seasonality issue, since Q2 is normally -- is a strong quarter for advertising |
| Thanks to these efforts, our bottom-line performance hit the high end of our guidance for the fourth quarter of 2023 |
| In the fourth quarter of 2023, we successfully hosted the 2023 Sohu Dancing Festival, the K-pop, and 2023 Sohu Hanfu Festival |
| Our top game strategy will continue to guide us going forward as gaming technology rapidly advances and the market demand becomes deeper and more diversified |
| Empowered by our distinctive IP, the Physics Class, we hosted various innovative content marketing campaigns, such as [Talk Under the Starry Sky and Talk on the Top of Snow Mountain] (ph), which served as a continuous source of premium content and sparked discussions and disseminations across multiple platforms |
| Before I pass the call to Joanna to go through our financial results in detail, we are pleased to announce that on March 2, a few days ago, 2024, our Board of Directors authorized an increase in Sohu's previously announced share purchase program from up to $80 million to up to $150 million of the outstanding ADS shares of Sohu over a two-year period |
| At Sohu Media Portal, in 2023, we focused on improving the user experience through algorithms and products optimization |
| In the fourth quarter and the full year of 2023, we continued to optimize operating efficiency with strict budget control, despite the external economic environment and cautious budgeting by advertisers |
| We also proactively promoted the social distribution features and enhanced the broadcasters' ecosystem by hosting various events centered on hot topics |
| Good evening |
| We will creatively explore new ways to better meet players' needs, expand our portfolio for international markets, allocate additional resources to professional talent development and invest in content and technology innovation to bring more high-quality games to the market |
| Within our PC game business, we revamped the skill sets of each clan in regular TLBB PC to highlight their respective characteristics and allow players to combine skills more freely |
| Lastly, our online game business remained stable, delivering revenues in line with our expectations |
| And thank you, everyone, for joining our call |
| We'll maintain our core competitiveness in developing MMORPGs going forward, while also producing card-based RPGs, sports games and casual games |
| At Sohu Video, we continued to execute our Twin Engine strategy to expand and diversify our offerings across different formats, including live streaming content |
| Thank you |
| With TLBB Vintage, we introduced new gear and a related development system to enrich players' battle strategies |
| Statement |
|---|
| Brand advertising revenues, $20 million, down 30% year-over-year and 9% quarter-over-quarter |
| First is that your first quarter guidance, I think the advertising came a little bit softer than our estimate |
| Online game revenues, $480 million, down 18% compared with 2022 |
| Online game revenues, $115 million, down 5% year-over-year and 2% quarter-over-quarter |
| For the fourth quarter of 2023, total revenues, $141 million, down 12% year-over-year and 3% quarter-over-quarter |
| Brand advertising revenues, $89 million, down 14% compared with 2022 |
| For the full year of '23, total revenues, $601 million, down 18% compared with 2022 |
| So, the macroeconomic situation is not as good |
| This implies an annual decrease of 25% to 33% and a sequential decrease of [16%] (ph) to 26% |
| The advertisers are being cautious in their budgets |
| I think the advertising market seems -- is trending even down faster than we expected, right? We can see that |
| Quarterly operating loss was $32 million compared with an operating loss of $21 million in the same quarter last year |
| This implies annual decrease of 7% to 15% and a sequential decrease of 4% and a sequential increase of 5% |
| The quarterly operating loss was $36 million compared with an operating loss of $33 million in the same quarter last year |
| If we are keeping some of the cost of revenue -- I mean, the cost of revenue for online advertising, does that suggest that the gross profit for online advertising in the first quarter could be actually negative? Just kind of a little bit color like how you guided so much wider on the loss |
| So that explains that we have forecast a wider loss for Q2 |
| So that's why we only started talking to these advertisers last few days because they all came back to work, and that's why Q1 is even a slower quarter compared with the Q1 of last year |
| We're not retreating or we're still fighting |
| This forecast reflects management's current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty |
| Can you elaborate a little bit the current macro environment that you have seen and the advertiser budget sentiment? Is that been trending weaker than you previously expected, or is it in line with what you are expecting? And then, do you expect the macro to turn better in the second half this year, or do you think the weak macro could last a little bit longer? And then second question is on your loss guidance |
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