Chinese video sharing service Bilibili (NASDAQ: BILI) on Monday reported a 58% increase in the first-quarter top line to $204.7 million, helped by a 27% growth in mobile game revenues. This surpassed average analysts’ consensus of $192.6 million.
Meanwhile, the company said its loss for the quarter narrowed to 6 cents per share, compared to 11 cents per share projected by the Wall Street.
BILI shares gained 3% following the announcement. As the US-China spat has taken a back seat, Bilibili, like other Chinese rivals, has benefited. For the year-to-date period, the stock has gained 14%.
Average monthly active users (MAUs) reached 101.3 million during this period, while average monthly paying users reached 5.7 million, a 132% increase from the same period in 2018.
CEO Rui Chen said, “Looking ahead, our focus for 2019 remains on continued user growth and enhancing our commercialization capabilities. We have a number of initiatives underway to support this goal, including rolling out new and diversified games titles, further advancing our live broadcasting and value-added service streams, and progressing our new business initiatives for our growing community.”
Revenues from advertising increased to $16.8 million, representing an increase of 60% from the same period of 2018. This increase was primarily attributable to the ramp-up of brand advertising and performance-based advertising driven by further recognition of Bilibili’s brand name in China’s online advertising market.
The anime site, which went public in April last year, said it currently expects net revenues to be between RMB1.45 billion and RMB1.49 billion in the second quarter of 2019.
Chinese video streaming service iQiyi Inc (NASDAQ: IQ) is set to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday. Read full preview here.