Tag: PEANUTMEDIA

Being consciously single is not a new term. Over the past few years, especially during the pandemic, it has become a trend to enjoy staying single.

According to a study by Bumble, a dating app where women are dominant, 53% of respondents said that it is “actually OK” to be partnerless. Instead of searching in dating apps aimlessly, people are more inclined to live with elegance and confidence before meeting the right person. Another survey also shows that 83% of women are content to wait until finding their Mr. Right. In other words, people are more cautious about dating and building a relationship.

Despite this, humans’ desire for social connection will never wane for we are social animals, and consequently, this creates a breakthrough point from which social networking apps can adapt to users’ shifting demands.

Dating apps like Tinder are actively incorporating interactive and immersive features to attract users to congregate. Beyond such conventional products, fashionable social apps launched by companies such as Newborn Town and Hyperconnect, offering various audio- and video-based features for online-party and friend-making, have become companions in users’ leisure time. Meanwhile, IMVU and similar social apps, derived from the concept of metaverse, allow users to interact in virtual scenarios with a virtual avatar and to join real parties without leaving home.

It can be said that social apps are evolving from a dating tool for two to a gathering place for all.
1. Tinder starts to “Explore”
In September 2021, Tinder launched “Explore” to diversify social networking experiences. Explore has been providing multiple interactive modes and features at the very beginning, including Hot Takes, Vibes and Swipe Night. Aside from many subsequent innovative explorations, it has recently introduced a Festival Mode. With these new features, Tinder becomes more of an entertaining and companionable app than a simple tool in which users can swipe left or right. Users can also filter out more accurate interest tags by these activities and thus meet like-minded intimates.

A few days ago, Tinder released a user trend report for 2022 on its website, subtitled Dating Games are Dead in 2022 said Young Singles. As stated in the report, Tinder saw a 49% increase in members adding the phrase “situationship” to their bios in 2022. In other words, rather than being a tool for looking for a partner, Tinder offers a variety of social networking activities for young people to identify compatible relationships that can progress naturally without being defined purposively.

Match Group, the parent firm of Tinder, revealed in June 2021 that it had acquired Hyperconnect successfully, a leading social discovery and video technology company from Korea. According to Match Group, they are going to develop their products with Hyperconnect’s expertise in the video industry. It is conceivable that social apps like Tinder will update more video functions to broaden interactive experiences for members.

2. New genes of emerging social apps
Unlike traditional dating apps that cater to new trends by function adjustments, social products emerged recently no longer focus on date matching, but appear in front of global users with genes of partying and companionship.
MICO, a live-streaming video social app, has gained popularity in MENA, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and North America over the past year or so. This app has a ton of features, including the ability for users to do or watch live streaming, make video calls or text chats with their friends or anybody they are into, and even play mini-games while chatting.

Similar to TikTok, content creators in MICO attract fans with their talent and charm, then, as a result of sharing interests, a social network centred on the creator is established. According to MICO, its users are incredibly loyal, social networks in the app can accompany users for a very long time, and meeting and having fun with friends through MICO has become a daily ritual for many.

Behind MICO is Newborn Town, a global company with audio and video social networking as its core business. Aside from MICO, there is a voice-based social product by Newborn Town called YoHo, as well. YoHo, in contrast to MICO, concentrates on the MENA market and is also experiencing strong growth in Southeast Asia. That is mainly because in these regions where religious norms and culture are more conservative, voice socialization is more user-adaptable than video socialization that necessitates revealing one’s face.

There are many voice rooms with different themes in YoHo, so users can chat with strangers in whichever room they like or set up a room with their friends. These voice rooms, accommodating as many as hundreds of speakers or as few as two or three, have developed into hubs for users to socialize, make friends and share information.

3. A virtual social paradise in metaverse
Over the past year or so, the metaverse concept has taken over the world. Even Facebook, a well-known social media company, has become Meta. Socialization is an indispensable element of metaverse. Then, as metaverse is getting well-known, an increasing number of social apps with metaverse are showing up in app stores, making socialization more imaginative.

In a social app called IMVU, more than one million people visit it and spend an average of 55 minutes per day. These users customize their avatars, share experiences, shop, hang out at cool parties, and even earn real money creating virtual products on IMVU. Currently, IMVU provides more than 60 million virtual props, from clothing to different accessories, with which users can personalize their virtual avatar to fully express their individual style. In addition, users can also tailor their chat rooms, host, or join parties in various virtual scenarios, and interact with others with exclusive dynamic.

IMVU stated in late 2022 that it would unveil Limited Edition NFTs. NFTs will more incentivize creators of virtual goods and complete IMVU’s metaverse. After looking into IMVU and other equivalent products, we may already get a glimpse of the future of social networking and even the ultimate form of the internet. These apps are no longer just a place for users seeking a romantic relationship, instead, they have evolved into a platform for one to infinitely connect with others without space-time constrains, and to engage in actual social interactions in a virtual world.

Socialization, as a rigid demand of humans, has never changed, but social scenes and forms are continually evolving to meet users’ requirements. Today, online dating services, which have been available for almost 30 years, are being different as a result of the fact that young people are no longer addicted to fast-food dating and relationships.

Nowadays, these services place a greater emphasis on giving users the chance to showcase their special traits and meet close friends, realizing immersive online social experiences, forming permanent spiritual companionship, and building a kind of paradise for various virtual parties.

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Social networking establishes the connection and interaction between people. Entering the Internet era, social networking products bring everyone closer to each other. For Internet companies, social networking products are closest to people and can build an infinite commercialization derivative space based on the relationship chain, which is why this business looks both sexy and real.

Recently, ShineGlobal, a global industry think tank, released the “Global Audio and Video Social Networking Market Report 2022” which provides a detailed overview of the global audio and video social networking market size, market segmentation in 2022, and the industry development trends in 2023.

After the epidemic, audio and video social networking has undoubtedly become the most popular product format in the sector, and more and more developers are eager to have a try. In addition to TikTok, a short-video app that has successfully achieved globalization in recent years, audio and video social apps such as Match Group’s Azar, Joyy’s Bigo Live, and NewbornTown’s MICO have gradually become the main force of globalization.

1. Audio and Video Social Networking Has Become the “Rigid Demand” for Users Around the World
In 2022, although our offline activities gradually restored, the online life is still a major trend, and people continue to migrate their life scenes from offline to online. Social networking, as an indispensable part of people’s daily life, has maintained a rapid growth. Currently, most social networking products on the market have incorporated audio or video features with strong immersion, making users, especially the young, more dependent on these products.

According to Frost & Sullivan’s forecast, the global social media market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.1% from 2021 to 2024, with a CAGR of 27.6% for video social market size and 25.8% for audio social market size. The growth rate of audio and video social far exceeds the overall growth rate of online social market. It is expected that by 2024, the overall size of the global social media market will reach US$300 billion, of which the audio and video social market size is US$181.3 billion. Video social is expected to reach US$128.7 billion, accounting for 42.8%; audio social is expected to reach US$52.6 billion, accounting for 17.5%.

Currently, the normalization of the epidemic has driven a high increase in users’ time spent on social media in almost every country and region. In social apps, there is an average of 325% year-over-year growth in usage time per user. This trend is also reflected in the number of downloads. According to Branch, downloads of social apps saw rapid growth at the beginning of the outbreak, and maintained a stable trend afterwards.

In terms of market performance, global audio and video social app downloads are mainly from countries such as India, the US, Brazil, and Indonesia, while users from countries in the Middle East, Africa, and other emerging markets are embracing audio and video social products most rapidly.

In addition, the Report lists in detail the mega apps and established apps in each segment of the audio and video social networking, as well as products that have achieved rapid growth since 2022. For example, in “Sociality + Live streaming”, Bigo Live and MICO are at the top. In “Sociality + Voice Call”, Litmatch has grown rapidly in the past year, and its cumulative downloads exceeded 45 million in the first 10 months of 2022. In “Sociality + Game”, WePlay is recognized as the product that has rapidly captured the hearts of young users in many markets around the world in the past year.

2. ByteDance, Match Group, NewbornTown and Joyy Group Have Stepped Out of Various Successful Routes
It’s easy to get a social app to gain the favor of a group of people, but it’s tough to get it popular in multiple countries around the world and become an integral part of their social entertainment lives. Gaining a firm foothold in multiple regions and developing into a global social product cannot be achieved without innovative product ideas and mature operation methods. ByteDance, Match Group, NewbornTown, and Joyy Group have been able to stand out from the fierce competition by putting on unique “armor” for their products.

ByteDance: Copying + Localization
We can say, the most successful global social product in recent years is TikTok. In the harsh international environment, its global monthly active users exceed 1.5 billion, making it not only the fifth largest social app in the world, but also overturn the landscape of online video social networking. In the US and UK, the average monthly usage time of the app has exceeded that of YouTube, affecting the entire mobile ecological landscape and stimulating the rise of a number of short-video platforms, such as India’s MX TakaTak and Moj, both of which were ranked in the top 10 apps with breakthrough in downloads by data.ai. Today, ByteDance has made TikTok a threat to YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram.

TikTok has leveraged some of the strategies that have proven successful in China. Previously, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, gained traction by using “hashtag challenges,” such as its partnership with Haidilao Hot Pot to call on users to create their own hot pot recipes. Such regular region-specific events proved to be a sustainable strategy for user growth. In the US, TikTok partnered with famous American host Jimmy Fallon’s hit show to launch the “#TumbleweedChallenge”, which brought TikTok great exposure.

In terms of market selection, the first phase of TikTok’s globalization layout chose to be in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, believes that Japan is a market where overseas products are not accepted easily, so Japan can be a litmus test for globalization to some extent. If Japanese users can accept a product, then users in Southeast Asia and other Asian countries can also accept it.

In August 2017, TikTok landed in Japan and set up its first overseas office there. In just three months, TikTok reached the first place in the list of free apps in App Store in Japan, and then topped the same list in Thailand in January 2018. Subsequently, TikTok could be found in the top 10 most-downloaded apps in many Southeast Asian countries. Then, TikTok directly began to expand into the North American market, and gradually expanded from North America to other markets.

TikTok’s success is also based on its understanding of local users. ByteDance has adopted a polycentric-oriented strategy when expanding to different markets at the same time. The reason is obvious: The algorithm-driven product model is applicable and standard, but video content is not, so ByteDance set up subsidiaries in different countries to make TikTok better localized and launched different versions of TikTok to users.

NewbornTown: Brand Marketing Based on Local Conditions
NewbornTown also made localized development as its competitive advantage. It has been on the road to globalization since 2013 and has built a mature and replicable system for globalized operations, enabling its products to land quickly in key markets and grow efficiently with localization. In the past year, the company has further rooted itself in regional markets and continued to deepen its localized operations.

To expand its brand presence in different countries and regions, and to make users not feel that they are using a foreign product, MICO, NewbornTown’s live-streaming social app, is conducting brand marketing campaigns in different markets to suit local cultures and customs.

In the US, MICO provided a platform for local rap fans to show themselves, shooting music videos for contest winners; in Japan, MICO held joint events with local soccer clubs; in Thailand and Vietnam, MICO joined hands with famous local musicians to create theme songs and shoot music videos, which have created a wave of discussion in local social media; in the Middle East, MICO held industry media gatherings and creators’ conferences, to promote a positive perception of the online social entertainment industry in the local community, and promote the development of the industry in the Middle East.

Today, MICO is the head live-streaming social product in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and is rapidly expanding in North America, Japan and South Korea. Through a mature and replicable globalized operation system, NewbornTown’s customer acquisition efficiency and operation efficiency have been continuously improved, and it has surged in the global social market.

Match Group: Acquisition After Acquisition
Match Group, a global dating giant, is the parent company of Tinder. After launching Tinder in 2012, Match Group has acquired a number of dating apps such as Meetic, Plenty of Fish and Hinge. In 2021, Match Group acquired Hyperconnect, a Korean social media company, for US$1.73 billion, which was Match Group’s largest acquisition to date.

Hyperconnect’s core product is Azar, which has grown to become the highest-grossing one-on-one video social app in the world. According to Match Group’s CEO Shar Duby, 75% of Hyperconnect’s revenue and users come from Asia, just to complete Match Group’s regional strategic footprint.

In addition to complementing the markets, Match Group is also looking at its “live video” technology. Previously, Match Group’s apps were still based on profile matching and swipe-matching, and this acquisition may be more of a complement of product type.

It can be said that Match Group is a dating company that grew up by self-operation and acquisition at the same time. Through self-development + acquisition along the way, Match Group is now a huge dating empire with dozens of dating products such as Tinder, Match, Hinge, Meetic, OkCupid, Pairs, Plenty Of Fish, OurTime, Azar, The League, and others.

Joyy Group: Cost Reducing and Efficiency Enhancement, Back to the Essence of Business
In the midst of the overall global economic downturn and the decline in users and revenue of online products, the audio and video social industry continues to grow. However, in 2022, the user growth rate of many audio and video social products declined, and one of the reasons for this phenomenon is that many companies cut costs and increased efficiency, greatly reducing their investment in marketing.

In this regard, several practitioners expressed the same view. Most of them believe that in 2022 many social companies reduced costs and increased efficiency, returning to the essence of business. The person in charge of an audio technology service provider said that since the last year, with the increasing cost of customer acquisition, many products have shifted from the pursuit of user growth to the pursuit of revenue generated by users, focusing more on cash flow.

Take BIGO, the global business of Joyy Group, as an example, in the second quarter of 2021, BIGO’s revenue reached US$598 million, with total costs + expenses of US$570 million and adjusted net profit of US$19.44 million, an adjusted net margin of 3.3%. In the second quarter of 2022, BIGO’s revenue reached US$503 million, with total costs + expenses of US$445 million. However, its adjusted net profit reached US$86.3 million, with an adjusted net margin of 17.2%. It is widely believed that cost reduction and efficiency enhancement is one of the reasons for the steady growth of BIGO’s earnings.

To conclude, many social industry practitioners believe that the product format of “Sociality + X” and products focusing on a certain vertical group will have more opportunities for development, and it will be difficult to see the competitive pattern of one single player getting dominance.

We still believe that there will be a lot of globalized social products in the future, and we are all looking forward to the birth of the next “TikTok”.

For further information, please contact:
PEANUT MEDIA LIMITED
Direct Line: +86-755-61619798 x8210
Email: hswh.project@czgmcn.com

On August 25, Newborn Town Inc. (HKG: 9911) released its 2022 interim results. For the half ended June 30, the Company’s total revenue reached RMB 1,374 million, up 32.3% YoY; adjusted EBITDA reached RMB 210 million, up 19.5% YoY; profit attributable to the owner of the Company reached RMB 83 million, up 121.3% YoY.

The Company’s successful model of social networking business continues to be replicated around the world. Its social networking revenue reached RMB 1,266 million, a growth of 52.4% YoY, indicating a steady breakthrough in the core business. At the same time, with the smooth progress of refined games, the Company’s revenue from its innovative businesses totaled RMB 108 million, a rise of 91.7% compared to H2 2021, marking an accelerated diversified development.

• ‘Replication in Products’ + ‘Replication in Markets’ showing social networking products spread globally

Newborn Town has long focused on global open social networking, and has built an audio and video social networking product matrix, including MICO, an open social platform, YoHo, an audio-based social product, and Yumy, a video-matching social product. As of June 30, the Company’s social products had accumulated 419 million downloads. Average MAUs (monthly active users) in the second quarter reached 23.09 million, representing an increase of 27% YoY.

With years of experience in exploring global markets as well as audio and video technology, Newborn Town has distilled a “replicable” model for its social networking business.

In terms of the products, the Company has accumulated successful experiences and applied those to new products, so as to promote fast growth and to expand their commercialization space. For instance, launched last year, Yumy has seen gross profit and become one of the top 10 best-selling social networking apps in 50 countries/regions after continuous optimization of its business model. It is a typical case of “Replication in Products”.

In terms of markets, Newborn Town landed in new markets rapidly while consolidating its leading position in the markets where the Company has established a competitive edge. By now, YoHo, the product which started from the MENA region, has been successfully replicated in the market of pan-Southeast Asia. In the first half of the year, revenue from Non-MENA regions accounted for nearly 40% of YoHo’s overall revenue, which proved significant to increase YoHo’s revenue by more than 70% YoY.

Through ‘Replication in Products’ + ‘Replication in Markets’, Newborn Town found equal success in replicating its proven model of a single product to multiple products, and its success in a single market to multiple markets. The Company will keep developing mega-apps to cover global markets in more directions to realize strong and promising growth.

• Diversified growth accelerated as games show impressive monetization potential

In addition to the social networking business, the Company also made important breakthroughs in its innovative businesses that consists mainly of games in the first half of the year. The loss from the game business has narrowed significantly, which was one of the major reasons for the doubled profit attributable to the owner of the Company.

Specifically, products of the Company’s Merge game series, “Mergeland – Animal Adventure” and “Mergeland – Alice’s Adventure” were formally launched in April and June respectively. The series received rapidly increasing downloads and revenue after launch, and has become one of the top 10 best-sellers in the categories of puzzle and casual games in seven countries.

Bubble Shooter Star, another refined game by Newborn Town, also has good performance as indicated by the figures (e.g.: retention on the 30th day is above 15%) after it was launched at the beginning of this year. The game has shown great monetization potential as at present, its monthly revenue has reached the USD 1 million level.

In the second half of the year, further efforts will be made to promote the game experience, the user volume, and the monetization of the three games, so as to solidify the innovative businesses as a new point for growth.
What’s more, the Company’s Metaverse layout has been further enriched. In the first half of the year, it built partnerships with leading virtual technology companies to explore the creation of digital virtual characters, the construction of virtual scenes, the empowerment of AI virtual technology and other aspects. It also invested in Shi Mi Network, a smart wearable devices manufacturer, to take the “portal” of the Metaverse and accelerate the deep integration of the Company’s social products with the Metaverse.

Big progresses of the innovative businesses have further accelerated the diversified growth of the Company, and the second growth curve is becoming clearer.

• Consolidated advantages and extended borders to keep high-quality development

The Company’s commitment to R&D is a precondition for its performance breakthroughs. In the first half of the year, the Company’s R&D expenses were RMB 91 million, up 69.6% YoY. As of June 30, the Company’s R&D team expanded by 30.6% compared with December 31 2021. At the same time, through continuous cost optimization efforts, the Company’s selling and marketing expenses in the first half totaled RMB 199 million, down 31.8% YoY.

On the other hand, the Company has persisted in localized operations to pursue Longtermism. It conducts in-depth operations and brand building efforts based on the understanding and respect of local cultures, and tries to integrate into the local industry and social development through industry media gathering and public welfare charities.

In the first half of the year, MICO released a theme song MV for Thailand, which was created and performed by a well-known local band. The song has been played for more than 90 million times due to its lively style catering to the local youth. It became a hit on local social media in a short time and aroused a boom of dance imitations that made the relaxed and cheerful style of the Company’s social products rooted in the hearts of local users.

In the MENA market which the Company has deeply explored, Newborn Town, as a leading social networking company in the local market, held an industry media gathering of more than 20 local media. It helped the local market to establish a positive understanding about online social entertainment while promoting the development of the industry in the region.

With the continuous increase of R&D investment and the further promotion of localized operation, the Company’s technology and operation middle platforms have become increasingly mature. Jointly, these strengths favored the Company in promoting the rapid upgrading of its social products in terms of user experience, market expansion and content distribution, and further accelerating the development of its social networking business.

In the future, Newborn Town will continue to enrich its product matrix, expand its market layout, optimize its operating efficiency, and explore diversified development opportunities to extend its boundaries. The Company will accelerate its progress towards the goal of “becoming the largest global open social networking platform”.

For further information, please contact:
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Weimob Inc (2013.HK) released its 2021 financial report earlier this week (3-28), showing that its adjusted total revenue in 2021 reached 2.686 billion yuan, a record high, and its performance increased by 36.4% against the background of overcoming unfavorable factors such as downward pressure on the macro economy. After adjustment, the gross profit of RMB 1.517 billion increased by 51.3% year on year. Among them, the digital business sector achieved revenue of 1.967 billion yuan, an increase of 70.9% compared with 2020. Subscription solutions and merchant solutions in this sector achieved high growth of 90.9% and 47.5% respectively. The “WOS” new business operating system developed by Weimob Inc has been officially put into beta this month, and it may become a powerful engine to drive the future growth of Weimob Inc.

High-speed growth of business; SaaS revenue grows against the trend
In 2021, the persistence of the epidemic brought many challenges to consumers and To B enterprises. Weimob Inc focuses on the digital transformation and upgrading of enterprises, continuously strengthens the development of multi-product lines, further promotes the three strategies of “customization, ecology and internationalization”, overcomes the adverse effects of external environment, and achieves the contrarian growth of performance. The financial report shows that the digital business income of Weimob Inc in 2021 was 1.967 billion yuan, an increase of 70.9% compared with 1.246 billion yuan in 2020. Among them, the revenue of Weimob Inc subscription solution (SaaS sector) reached 1.188 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 90.9% year-on-year. The number of paying merchants was 102,813, a year-on-year increase of 5.0%. The average income per user increased by 57.7% to 11,553 yuan.

At the same time, with the continuous promotion of TSO’s full-chain marketing solution, the business solutions in the digital business sector of Weimob Inc have achieved good results. The financial report shows that in 2021, the business solution revenue was 779 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.5%; The gross income of accurate delivery was 10.95 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.1%. The number of paying merchants increased by 26.7% to 57,909, and the average income per user was 13,454 yuan.

The financial report shows that the R&D expenditure of Weimob Inc in 2021 was 775 million yuan. Among them, the total investment of strategic projects such as the new business operating system WOS and the construction and operation of the middle platform reached 682 million yuan. Due to the increased investment in R&D and the merger and acquisition of Xiangxinyun and Haiding in 2021 and previous years, Weimob Inc lost 566 million yuan in adjusted net profit in 2021. However, these investments promote the cost reduction and efficiency increase of Weimob Inc. The financial report shows that the company has abundant cash flow, with cash and cash equivalents of 3.809 billion yuan, and its financial structure is healthy and sustainable.

The strategy of customization has achieved fruitful results, and internationalization has steadily advanced
The financial report shows that the reason why Weimob Inc achieved high revenue growth in 2021, benefiting from the core strategy of “customization, ecology and internationalization” of the group. With the support of TSO’s full-chain marketing solution and smart retail and other key businesses, Weimob Inc’s customization strategy achieved fruitful results. In the smart retail sector, in 2021, Weimob Inc’s smart retail revenue was 426 million yuan, 193.6% year-on-year, and its share in subscription solution revenue further increased from 20.2% in 2020 to 36%. At present, the number of smart retailers in Weimob was 6,126, the number of brand merchants was 1,003, and the average order income of brand merchants per user was 234,000 yuan.

The Weimob smart catering business also achieved a breakthrough. In 2021, Weimob Smart Catering completed the technical and operation system layout of “three stores integrated and global operation”. During the reporting period, Weimob’s smart catering revenue was 53.616 million yuan, up 19.6% year-on-year, accounting for 4.5% of subscription solution revenue. There were 8,406 smart catering merchants, and the average order revenue per user of catering merchants was 17,000 yuan. By the end of 2021, Weimob smart catering customers accounted for 41% of China’s top 100 restaurants; The revenue from catering orders accounted for 51%.

Promoting ecology, WOS New Business Operating System as a new growth engine
As one of its three core strategies, Weimob Inc’s ecological strategy has also made remarkable achievements. In terms of developer ecology, in 2021, Weimob Cloud PaaS platform will continue to empower ecological partners, with over 50 new high-quality ecological partners and over 400 new cloud market applications.

In order to create a good foundation for smart business, the WOS New Business Operating System was officially put into public beta in March 2022. WOS new commercial operating system integrates SaaS business integration, ecological partnership and PaaS platform infrastructure, and realizes the comprehensive upgrade of product strength, technical strength and ecological strength, demonstrating the technical strength of Weimob Inc.

In 2022, Weimob will continue to improve WOS product strength, better serve customers through Weimob cloud empowering eco-partners, and drive the growth of product strength and commercial strength by technology, so as to realize faster product development, better product experience and service, and more ecological applications and services, so as to promote customers’ purchase, increase customer renewal fees and increase ecological income. CITIC Securities holds that “WOS” is expected to become the new growth driver of SaaS with the improvement of merchant coverage and the acceleration of commercialization.

In terms of investment layout, in 2021, Weimob Inc and Yicun Capital jointly established “Weizhi Digital Industry Fund” and invested in outstanding projects such as Shuyun, Haizhi and Meichuang. In November, 2021, Weimob Inc announced the acquisition of 51.89% equity of Shanghai Xiangxinyun Network Technology Co., Ltd., and incorporated Xiangxinyun into the listed company system, thus deepening the digitalization capability of smart retail shopping guide.

Weimob Inc said that in 2022, the company will focus on seven directions: focusing on key customers and continuing to lead; Open and win-win, create ecological barriers; TOS full-link operation, helping customers smart grow; Continue to increase investment in private track and consolidate the leading position in the industry; Cloudy layout drives new growth; “7+X” to create a new growth flywheel; Cross-border development and layout of the global market. Under the background of accelerating the digitalization process of Chinese enterprises, Weimob Inc has made sufficient product reserves, technical reserves, talent reserves and capital reserves, laying a solid foundation for the development in the next five years.

Media contact:
Micky Sun, Weimob Inc
Email: jingyi.sun@weimob.com
Website: http://www.weimob.com

Weimob Inc (2013.HK) is the leading cloud-based commerce and marketing solutions provider for SMBs. For information, visit www.weimob.com.

On July 20, 2021, Global New Material International Holdings Limited (Global New Material) (6616.HK), having developed pearlescent materials and synthetic mica as new materials in the consumer sector, ushered in strong momentum with its stock price soaring to an intraday increase of 14.68% on the third trading day following its entry into the capital market.

On July 21, August 3, August 4 and August 11, Global New Material’s stock price recorded an intraday increase of 11.47%, 8.75%, 25.87 and 9.66% respectively. Over 19 trading days ended August 13, Global New Material saw its stock price rising by 104.89% and its market value exceeding HKD8 billion.

The earnings report released by the Company on August 30 shows that in the first half 2021, Global New Material recorded total revenue of RMB307 million, representing an increase of 25.3% as compared with that in the first half of 2020, a gross margin of 52.7% from 48.6% in the first half of 2020, a total gross profit of RMB162 million, representing an increase of 36.0% as compared with that in the first half of 2020, and a total profit attributable to the parent company of RMB94.10 million, representing a significant increase of 54.3%.

For now it appears that the capital market values the growth potential of Global New Material in the field of pearlescent materials. In the future, with the continued endogenous growth of the industry and the Company’s industry-leading role, Global New Material’s stock price momentum at the moment could be only the beginning.

Strong growth in multiple businesses drove revenue

Global New Material is specialized in pearlescent pigment products, coatings, mica and other related products. When measuring revenue in 2020, Global New Material is the world’s largest producer of synthetic mica-based pearlescent pigments, the world’s fourth-largest producer of pearlescent pigments, and the producer of pearlescent pigments with the highest market share in China.

In the first half of 2021, natural mica-based pearlescent pigment products, synthetic mica-based pearlescent pigment products and glass flake-based pearlescent pigment products, which accounted for the largest part of Global New Material’s total revenue, had their revenues increasing by 20.7%, 31.2% and 46.3% respectively and contributed to 25.3%, equivalent to RMB307 million, in the increase in Global New Material’s total revenue.

Impressive increase in gross margin and expense ratio further drove up net profit rate

Synthetic mica-based, glass flake-based and silica-based products are more profitable than natural mica-based products. In the first half of 2021, the revenue of these three types of products accounted for 44.4% of Global New Material’s total revenue, representing an increase from 41.9% in the first half of 2020, which led to a remarkable rise in Global New Material’s gross margin to 52.7% from 48.6% in the first half of 2020.

With the growth in both revenue and gross margin, Global New Material had its final net profit increasing significantly by 56.5% to RMB98.181 million, and its net margin increasing by 6.4 percentage points to 32%.

Great market potential and capacity expansion support future growth

Pearlescent pigments are advantageous over traditional pigments in terms of fading resistance, nontoxicity, safety and environmental friendliness, and therefore are rapidly replacing traditional pigments.

Compared with natural mica-based pigments, synthetic mica-based pearlescent pigments perform much better in terms of glossiness, transparency and high-temperature resistance, and generally do not contain heavy metals. Therefore, synthetic mica-based pearlescent pigments are more suitable for the fast-growing high-end markets such as automobiles and cosmetics.

According to a Frost-Sullivan report, the global market size of synthetic mica products is expected to exceed that of natural mica products in 2022; the market size of synthetic mica products and natural mica products will reach RMB15.4 billion and RMB9.7 billion respectively by 2025; the market size of synthetic mica-based products in China is expected to expand by 39.7% in the next five years and reach RMB7.6 billion by 2025.

In 2020, Global New Material came close to full capacity, with pearlescent pigments and synthetic mica products reaching nearly 14,000 tons and 10,000 tons respectively. Global New Material’s phase-2 plants are under construction, and once put into production, are expected to realize a capacity of 30,000 tons of pearlescent pigments and 30,000 tons of synthetic mica products. Forecast by Global New Material, a capacity of 6,000 tons of pearlescent pigments will be realized in the fourth quarter of this year, and a capacity of 6,000 tons of synthetic mica products will be realized in the second quarter of next year, which will lead to a further growth of Global New Material’s performance.

Media contact:
Haolu Wang, Peanutmedia
E: wanghaolu@czgmcn.com
T: +86 18345 162685
W: www.Peanutmedia.com

CMGE Technology, the leading international IP-oriented game-based company in China, released its 2021 Interim Financial Report, recording total revenue of RMB2.18 billion, gross profit of RMB840 million and adjusted net profit of RMB402 million, representing increases of 27.2%, 58% and 17.6% respectively, compared with the First Half 2020.

In studying the financial report, we were surprised as the growth potential of CMGE (HKG:0302) became apparent. Expansion to overseas markets contributed a lot to corporate performance with a significant increase in gross profit of 58%. According to the above data, CMGE saw a considerable increase in both its revenue and gross profit for the first half of 2021, and especially, its gross profit recorded a much greater increase than its revenue.

When measuring the revenue in different business segments, for the first half of 2021, CMGE recorded a total revenue of RMB1.5253 billion in its game publishing business, RMB567 million in its game development business, and RMB87.8 million in its IP licensing business, representing increases of 2.4%, 156.8% and 2012.6% respectively, as compared to the First Half 2020.

It is noticeable that in the first half of 2021, CMGE performed excellently in its overseas publishing business, and gained a total revenue of RMB219.7 million in those markets, representing an increase of 6250.4% as compared with the First Half 2020. CMGE’s outperformance in overseas markets is mainly attributed to its advantageous products and game publishing strategies.

In terms of products, CMGE pitches high-quality and hot-selling products tested by the domestic market to overseas markets to make certain of hitting a great success in overseas markets. In terms of game publishing strategies, CMGE focuses on in-depth localization and brand awareness to give full play to its great potential in overseas markets.

For the Second Half 2021, CMGE will continue its efforts to expand overseas markets. For example, “The New Legend of The Condor Heroes: Iron Blood and Loyal Heart” will be launched in Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand; “Reborn!” will be launched in South Korea; “Sword and Fairy 7” will be simultaneously launched in mainland China and overseas markets.

Seek the “unchanged” in a changing era: focus on core IP and keep integrating R&D and operations
All Internet businesses are essentially dependent on traffic, products and operations. Games are a typical business centring on “Internet content”. CMGE mainly adopts the IP game strategy which, specifically speaking, is intended to build a business closed-loop based on the game publishing business, R&D business and IP licensing business that centres on “supply, cultivation, development and back-feeding” of IP, with IP as the core and with games as the foundation.

Why does CMGE stick to its core proprietary IP strategy?
First of all, IP can effectively reduce traffic acquisition costs and extend the game lifecycle. From the angle of operating data, IP games with a fan base have a higher fan conversion rate and have their fans showing stronger willingness to pay for games.

Moreover, IP ecological operation will enhance IP vitality and create greater added value. Film and television, animation, online literature, derivatives and other diversified businesses deriving from IP will increase CMGE’s corporate revenue and profitability.

Furthermore, organic IP operation will lead to higher IP popularity and further enhance the vitality of games.

Therefore, CMGE prefers to form an ecological closed-loop by relying on core product assets such as IP and conducting IP-based research and development. As a result of its adherence to the IP game ecological strategy for years, CMGE currently possesses 118 IPs (including 50 authorized IPs and 68 proprietary IPs), making it a game company with the most IPs in China.

Whether an IP can be transformed into competitive game products is determined in R&D, which is an important step in the process of IP core realization. Besides, in view of the severe homogeneity of game products and the scarcity of IP-based independent R&D capabilities, R&D strength matters a lot in the current game industry.

To ensure independent research and development, CMGE is also continuing its investment in outstanding producers and its acquisition of outstanding developers, and established “Man Tian Xing Workshop”, “Ling Dian Workshop” and “Da Yu Workshop” in the 1H of this year. From Nov 2016 to April 2021, CMGE invested in nearly all game development companies such as Phonecool Game and Love Games. In 1H 2021, CMGE completed its investment in R&D companies such as Shenzhen Heyao Network, Beijing Xinrui Game and Fuzhou Tornado.

By means of investment, CMGE has gained a continuous supply of high-quality games and has also achieved certain results in this respect. For example, “One Piece: The Voyage” jointly launched with Nuverse, “Soul Land: God of Battle Arise” independently published by CMGE, and “Dynasty Warriors: Hegemony” developed by EZFUN, invested by CMGE and published by Tencent on August 10 have ranked first among the Top Free Games in Apple’s App Store in Mainland China, and have been repeatedly recommended in “Hot Games Today” and “Best-selling Games” in the Apple Store since its launch.

In addition, operational efficiency and channel control are also of great importance for game companies.
Game operations essentially involve planning, organization, implementation and control of the entire production and R&D process and lifecycle of games. CMGE does this well. For example, “The World of Legend – Thunder Empire” and “Legend of Dragon City”, two games independently developed by CMGE, went online before 2020 and remained a stable contribution to CMGE’s revenue and profit in the first half of 2021, reflecting CMGE’s high operational efficiency and its strength in researching and developing high-quality games.

“Channel”, also known as “distribute”, is a process by which game products are made available to players. High-quality channels can synergize with games and lead to business expansion. In 1H 2021, CMGE reached strategic cooperation with Huawei on the game business. On April 29, 2021, Bilibili, previously acting as the cornerstone investor in CMGE’s IPO, increased its shareholding ratio in CMGE and served on CMGE’s board of directors.

Through strategic cooperation with top traffic platforms, CMGE has become more capable of dealing with channels. When disadvantages are eliminated and an ecological closed loop is formed, CMGE will surely thrive in the future.

Give back to society while seeking great development
Enterprises, as part of the social economy, must find a balance between corporate and social interests while seeking profits and growth, so as to achieve long-term development. CMGE takes strict control of its product by connecting to a real-time authentication system, with anti-addiction and age limit reminder systems, and by limiting the cumulative monthly spend by minors between the ages of 16 and 18 in games to RMB400. In 1H 2021, minors (under the age of 18) contributed only about 0.026% to CMGE’s game revenue in China.

CMGE has also made due contributions to public welfare and charity. It set up the eighth “CMGE Dream Libraries” in the Central Primary School of Lvcongpo Town, Badong County, Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei in April this year, and donated RMB1 million to Henan Charity General Federation to help fight the heavy rainfalls hitting Henan Province in July this year.

Contact:
Jing Gao, Peanutmedia
E: gaojing@czgmcn.com
U: https://www.Peanutmedia.com

Duiba Group (Hong Kong) Ltd, the well-known platform provider of management software, and interactive advertising platform operator founded by Xiao Liang Chen in 2014 and headquartered in Hong Kong, released its interim financial report on August 27, for the First Half 2021.

According to the report, Duiba (HKG:01753) recorded total revenues of RMB720 million, representing an increase of 53.82% from a year earlier, with profit attributable to owners of RMB62.804 million, representing a significant increase from a loss of RMB47.839 million in the First Half of 2020.

Significantly, Duiba recorded revenues on Software as a Service (SaaS) user management processes of RMB68.56 million, representing a sharp increase of 142%. We could guess from the report that Duiba achieved strong First Half 2021 financial results with its existing strategies. But what of Duiba’s potential future development?

Getting through tough times to turn around poor profitability
Founded in May 2014, Duiba is a SaaS user management systems provider and interactive advertising platform operator committed to providing enterprise customers with user acquisition, user activation and retention: realization covering the entire user lifetime.

With consideration to the COVID-19 situation, advances in digital technology and the influence of geopolitics have expedited the development of service companies in China, and the rapid growth of high-quality SaaS user management operators such as Duiba, and talk of an emerging SaaS unicorn:

On the one hand, for Chinese SaaS companies, the biggest pain point is the long profit-making cycle. Duiba acquired lots of customers by launching the free-of-charge SaaS user management platform in the early days, and began to offer paid services in April 2018 which led to a significant increase in its business performance.

From 2017 to 2019, Duiba recorded revenue of RMB650 million, RMB1.14 billion and RMB 1.65 billion and an adjusted net profit of RMB120 million, RMB210 million and RMB340 million, respectively, and achieved a three-year profit compound growth rate up to 69.4%.

The above data could tell that Duiba has gone through its no-profit period, and the financial data in the first half of 2021 could also tell that Duiba has come to the performance growth period. On the other hand, what many Chinese companies need from the SaaS industry are integrated solutions, instead of services for any single segment.

The user management services provided by Duiba are full-cycle management services and integrated solutions which cover user acquisition, user activation and retention, realization and other several aspects. Besides, in 2015, Duiba took the lead in conducting the interactive advertising business to reach target customers in non-first-tier cities, and achieved a win-win situation for advertisers, media providers and users through ad realization.

Support for banks with breakthrough offline strategies
The SaaS field is a big market. For SaaS service providers, whether or not they can seize market opportunities has nothing to do with their own strength, but their ability to take the best advantage when opportunity knocks. We find in a careful analysis of Duiba’s source of new customers that the increase in Duiba’s unit price and customer base mostly comes from offline sources, such as typical banking institutions.

For Duiba, providing SaaS services to banks is a great choice with vast potential opportunities:
First of all, banks are driven by the current trend to move their businesses online. According to a McKinsey survey, 40% of Chinese respondents expressed their preference for mobile banking, and 20% of Chinese respondents expressed their intention to use offline banking outlets less. In the context of the 5G technology and the coming era of 5G, banks will face great difficulties in acquiring new customers in the future and even lose their existing customers if they do not move their businesses online as soon as possible.

Furthermore, banks face challenges in moving their businesses online. Being accustomed to the comfortable days in the past, banks have no idea of Internet, and are too weak to confront Internet giants and fintech companies. Therefore, from the perspective of input-output ratio, banks desperately need outsiders such as SaaS service providers to help them move their businesses online.

Moreover, more and more customers prefer digital banking channels to traditional banking outlets in the context of COVID-19. According to a BCG survey, after COVID-19, the utilization rate of mobile banking is expected to further increase by 19%, and that of traditional banking outlets is expected to further decrease by 26%.

Duiba’s advantages in giving professional support to banks are described as below:
On the one hand, Duiba has run online since the beginning and has unique advantages online, and therefore, it can help banks to gradually convert customers who get banking services at offline banking outlets into online customers and include them in banks’ systems and to retain existing customers in face of the fierce horizontal competition.

On the other hand, Duiba focuses on user management and is familiar with “Gen Z”, and therefore can help banks acquire new customers including “Gen Z”.

In Duiba’s experience, Gen Z is more likely to participate in discussions on online social platforms and to focus on pan-entertainment information. In terms of daily consumption habits, Gen Z prefers to share membership to watch movies, place group orders for takeaways, search “price-cutting”, “coupons” and other discount information before shopping online, and the joy of “bargain hunting” in sales and shopping festivals.

Therefore, in view of Gen Z’s consumption habits, Duiba has helped banks to come up with many operation modes centring on user habits, such as IP pets, interactive games and mystery boxes.

According to the feedback from Duiba’s partners, with the help of Duiba, one out of four active users of bank cards can be converted on average to apply for instalment credit, with an event participation rate of 72.74% and a sharing rate of 53.8%. It can be seen that the SaaS services provided by Duiba can efficiently support banks in conducting their businesses.

In return, Duiba’s professional support to banks has also laid a foundation for its steady long-term business performance. On the one hand, key customers such as banks are very resilient to risks and are less likely to lose due to insolvency, and they are financially strong and have a strong willingness to renew.

On the other hand, key customers face high replacement costs. For banks, they will not change a SaaS service provider they have selected unless in unavoidable circumstances. This is because if they change, they will not only have to pay high costs of data transfer involving several divisions and businesses but also face the risk of data loss.

Generally speaking, key customers such as banks have a positive, long-term and sustainable impact on the growth of Duiba’s business performance. But in addition, Duiba has expanded its business since April 2018 to include offline companies with strong latent demand for user management solutions, a nimble strategy that led exactly to Duiba’s business outperformance.

Contact:
Jing Gao, Peanutmedia
E-mail: gaojing@czgmcn.com
Website: www.Peanutmedia.com