This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
spk00: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Aurora Mobile fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session you'll need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question please press star 1 and 1 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Christian Arnell. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.
spk04: Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Aurora Mobile's earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on its IR website at ir.jiguang.cn. On the call today are Mr. Wei Dongluo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shannon Bong, Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Guangyan Chen General Manager. Following their prepared remarks, they will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions. which are difficult to predict and may cause the company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties, and or factors are included in the company's filings with the USSEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. With that, I'd now like to turn the conference call over to Mr. Luo. Please go ahead.
spk01: Thanks, Christian. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Welcome to Aurora Mobile's 2033 first quarter earnings call. Before I comment on our Q4 results, I would like to remind everyone that the quarterly earnings debt is available on our IR website. You may refer to the debt as we proceed with the call today. Overall, if I were to give a comment for the performance of this quarter, the appropriate description for this quarter is growth, growth, and growth. The reasons are as follows. Firstly, we have record for the first time in history consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. Secondly, our total revenue grew every single quarter in 2023. Thirdly, developed subscription revenue also record sequential revenue growth in all quarter of 2023. Fourthly, our gross profits also grew in every quarter of 2023. Last but not least, our overseas product, Engagelab, continued to expand globally and record great results this quarter. Next, let me share more lines on the business and revenues. For our total good revenue, we achieved positive growth of 5% quarter-of-quarter, driven mainly by the growth in developer services revenue. Now, let me go through our different revenue streams. Developer services revenue, which consists of subscription services and value-added services, decreased 12% year-over-year, but grew 8% quarter-over-quarter, mainly due to the weakness seen in the value-added services offset by the 5% growth in subscription services. Next is the detailed discussion of each business line. Subscription service revenue, which will be 48.8 million, are 5% both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. This was mainly driven by increase in ARPU both year-over-year and quarter-of-quarter. Within the year 2023, the subscription services revenue grew sequentially in all four quarters mainly due to the steady increase in ARPU throughout the year. In Q4 2023, our team has completed a handful of private deployment projects for many customers. I'm very encouraged by this trend and believe more good results will come. Some of the notable new and renewable customers in this quarter include, but not limited to, 360 Finance, China Telecom, China Pacific Insurance, Everbright Bank Credit Card Center, and SF Express, just to name a few. Value-added services revenue, 1.8 million, decreased 60% year-over-year, but increased by 38% quarter-off quarter. which was due to the annual single day and double 12 online shopping festival in Q4, where advertisers increased their spending and made more budget allocation to us. However, no such event in Q3. Next, I would like to share with you some exciting news and great achievements we can have in Q4 for our EngageLab business. Firstly, by the end of 2023, We have more than 170 customers sign up to purchase our Engagelab products. This was a tremendous 70% growth between the quarters. Secondly, the cumulative signed contract value of Engagelab has exceeded maybe 15 million, representing a great 50% growth between the quarters. Thirdly, our Engagelab customers are from 17 different countries around the world. As we share in our Q3 earnings script, we aim to grow this business every quarter, and we did it. We achieved great milestones between the quarters for engaged business. I'm very proud of the hard work that the team has put in over the past quarter in order to record such an impressive customer number and contract value growth. This is by no means any easy task considering the tough overseas market environment and the uncertainty clouding the air. We continue to see strong demands for our EngageLab products overseas. Our EngageLab product is a non-stop customer engagement platform, enable our customer to use any of all the following messaging channels, web push, email services, SMS service, and WhatsApp business API. Based on the feedback we received, the key major advantage of our EngageLab product is it allows our customer in different countries and regions to engage their own customers in an effective yet cost-efficient manner. We aim to ensure we stay ahead of the game by continuing to trade and fine-tune our products on a regular basis. More importantly, for us to meet and exceed our global customers' expectations. With that, I will now pass the call over to Xianglin. who will share more about the vertical applications and other aspects of our financial performance for this quarter.
spk02: Thanks, Chris. Next, I'll go over the revenue for vertical application where it is made up of financial risk management and market intelligence. Vertical application had a tough quarter where revenue recorded single-digit decline both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. However, for financial risk management, revenue grew 17% year-over-year and stay pretty much stable quarter-over-quarter. The 17% year-over-year revenue growth was positively impacted by a 26% customer number growth. In particular, one good trend that we have observed is that the fact that customer number has recorded sequential growth in every quarter of 2023. These Q4 customers that we have signed up include but not limited to Meituan, 360 Finance, Weizhong Bank, Ningbo Bank, and many other licensed financial institutions throughout China. As for market intelligence, the revenue decreased 40% year-over-year and 10% quarter-over-quarter due to the continued weak demand for Chinese-based app data as the investment sentiment towards Chinese ADR still remained lackluster. Nevertheless, amidst this slow market condition, we still managed to sign up some well-known large customers such as Baidu, iQiyi, Taobao, 58, and many top-tier global hedge funds and investment funds. I'll now go through some of the key expenses and balance sheet items. On to operating expenses, the Q4 operating expenses was at RMB 61.2 million, representing 36% decreased year-over-year but slightly increased 2% quarter-over-quarter. Overall, we are very pleased with our expense control and monitoring effort between the years. In summary, our Q4 OPEX has decreased year-over-year by $34.2 million. This is a testament of our commitment to wisely spend every single penny. And if you look at the OPEX on an annual basis, it has decreased by around 108 million between the years, representing a 30% decrease year over year. This again shows the management determination to effectively execute its cost-saving plans as previously announced. I think at this stage, the company is well managed and ready for the next growth phase cycle. With this relatively low OPEX to run the business, So long as we execute top-line growth plan well, I believe the good result will come sooner rather than later. Next, I'll go through the individual OPEX categories. In particular, R&D expenses decreased by 23% year-over-year to revenue of $27.1 million, mainly due to lower headcount that reduced salary costs and associated share-based compensation, and a decrease in server depreciation expenses due to the growing cloud initiative. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 10% year-over-year to RMB $22.1 million, mainly due to decrease in salary costs resulted from headcount reduction as we further make adjustment to operate at the optimal level. G&A expense decreased by 66% year-over-year to RMB $12.1 million, mainly due to one-time non-cash impairment loss of $32 million recognized in last year, Q4 of 2022. Further streamline of the headcount also contributed to a decrease in salary cost between the years. And for the quarter ended 12-31-23, the adjusted EBITDA, which is calculated as an EBITDA excluding share-based compensation, reduction in forced charges, impairment of long-term investment, and change in fair value of foreign currency swap contract, we recorded another positive adjusted EBITDA in this quarter. And this is a historical event where we have consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. Onto the balance sheet. I'll share two very important KPIs that we closely monitor. We continue to maintain a healthy AR turnover days at 38 days, which is a two-day improvement quarter over quarter. These two shortened days is very important, as they let us collect cash from customers at an even shorter period of time. We believe this 38 days turnover is leading the industry in terms of collection days. Secondly, one of the key financial KPIs that we track for performance of SARS company is the total revenue, which represents cash collected in advance from customer for future contract performance, continue to be the high balance of RMB 141.5 million. This is the eighth consecutive quarter where our deferred revenue balance has exceeded $130 million. This is very important as we are collecting more cash in advance from customers and this greatly improves our cash flow at the same time mitigates risk of bad debts. On the cash flow, we have another great quarter in Q4 of 2023 where we recorded net operating cash inflow of $11 million and total cash inflow of $16.6 million This was a combination of our sales team actively collecting cash from customers and we tightly control our cash spending. Next, total assets were at RMB349.1 million as of December 31st. This includes cash and cash equivalent of RMB115 million, accounts receivable of RMB34.3 million, prepayments and other current assets of RMB20.2 million. Fixed assets of $1.4 million, long-term investment of $112.9 million, goodwill of $37.8 million, and intangible assets of $17.9 million resulted from the Sandcloth acquisition in March 2022. Total current liabilities were at $241.3 million as of December 31, 2023. This includes accounts payable of $21.1 million, current operating lease liability of $4 million, deferred revenue of $141.5 million, accrued liabilities of $74.7 million. At this juncture, let me take a few minutes here to summarize the growth quarter that Chris has mentioned earlier. In Q4 of 2023, our total revenue and developer subscription revenue grew in every single quarter of 2023. Gross profit has also recorded sequential growth in all quarters of 2023. And for the first time in the history, we have consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. Total annual operating expenses decreased by $108 million between the years. And our Engage Lab products are flourishing globally, signing up more and more customers and contracts every quarter. We have done many things right in this quarter and the result has shown as such. We are well pleased with the Q4 execution effort and numbers. Nevertheless, we will not sit on our laurels. We will continue to execute our plan and deliver the goods. Lastly, before I conclude, I'll give an update on the share repurchase plan. In the quarter ended December 31, 2023, we have repurchased 53,000 ADS. Cumulatively, we have repurchased a total of 188,000 ADS since the start of our repurchase program. And this concludes management prepared remarks. We're happy to take your questions now. Christian.
spk00: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you'll need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. And to withdraw your question, you can press star 1 and 1 again. Thank you. We will now take our first question. First question is from the line of Calvin Wong from Speaker Capital. Please go ahead.
spk03: Good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. First of all, congrats to your management for consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. This is a great result. Well done. I would like to have two questions, if I may. The first one, a follow-up on these adjusted EBITDA. I just want to hear from management how you see these adjusted EBITDA will trend going forward in 2024. That's the first question. And second question, again on EngageLab, you know we've been tracking your EngageLab business every quarter. So it seems that it has been doing great with better than our expectation results in terms of customer number and contract value every quarter. So we would like to know two things. A, are you expecting such explosive growth every quarter going forward, and B, What is the revenue contribution by EngageLab in this quarter? Thanks.
spk02: Okay, thanks, Kevin. Let me take a minute to recap your question. So I have two questions. One is on positive adjusted EBITDA, and the other one is on EngageLab. Yeah, let me take this question. Yeah, I guess, yes, we are very pleased with the fact that we delivered another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2023. And as I say, this is a historical event for us since IPO to have two quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. This is possible through the hard work that we have put in every day, day in and day out. And I believe, besides the fact that you, our shareholders and investors are really thrilled to see this positive adjusted EBITDA that we have recorded. And if we peel through, the most important thing that I think we'd like to deliver the message is, the OPEX numbers over the four quarters. You see one good trend that I have mentioned. Between the years, the annual OPEX between 2023 and 2022 has actually decreased by $108 million. So in summary, we have saved or trimmed our more than $100 million expenses in 2023 through various cost-cutting initiatives that we have undertaken. from headcount reduction, and then we review all the expenses. We even reduced our office rental space. So we have been working hard over the past year to seriously reduce our OPEX in the past 12 months. So what this means is really, really important. With this much lower OPEX, we are in a good position for 2024. As I said, so long as we continue to grow our top line domestically or through EngageLab globally, I believe sooner or later the positive adjusted EBITDA will come as a natural cause of event. So this is the answer to your first question. The second question is on EngageLab. Yes, I think we are really thrilled and as mentioned by Chris, he's really happy to see that things have been trending well. I guess the fact that this is no fluke is a result of, again, our commitment and our investment by the company and the dedication by the team to expand overseas. And let me recap the great achievement in Q4 for EngageLab that Chris has mentioned. Firstly, the contract value has grown 50% between the quarters, achieving cumulative up to RMB 15 million by Q4. And secondly, the customer's number has grown 70% to 170 between the quarters. And this 70% customer number growth is simply impressive. And thirdly, our customer has come from 17 different countries around the world. So in summary, we do have high hopes for this business to grow every single quarter. As I mentioned in the previous quarter, in addition to using ISV, Independent Software Vendor, arrangement that I talked about last quarter, we have started sending teams to overseas markets to further solidify our position there. And just last week, we started a small team in Singapore to kick off our expansion plan. And we believe the overseas market, especially Southeast Asia, is where we can first grab more market share due to the proximity, the cultural familiarity, and the high penetration of Chinese cell phone there. So this is the English step. And for the revenue contribution that you asked, it is still not material. This is simply the fact that, as you are aware, we recognize revenue based on amortization depending on the length of the contract, be it one year or two years. So the $15 million contract that I mentioned earlier will make its way to the books over the years. However, one number that I can share with you is that the recognized English Lab revenue, which is the overseas revenue, has grown eight times from Q1 of 2023 to Q4, which means Revenue recognized is on an explosive growth. So if I may summarize, I would like to leave this message with you and all the callers in today's call is the fact that our EngageLab business is doing great. We will continue to invest in the necessary infrastructure to ensure great service delivery and quality service. And we will continue to explore every single market in Southeast Asia every quarter. Kevin, I hope this answers your question.
spk03: Okay, very clear. Thank you.
spk00: Thank you. We will now take our next question. This is from the line of Brian Kinslinger from Allianz Global Partners. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thanks so much. Good evening to you guys. And thanks for taking my questions. I have a whole bunch. Subscriptions are growing nicely, you mentioned, due to the higher ARPU. Can you talk about new customer accounts? I think I heard 26 in the quarter. But generally, what are new business trends like? What industries are driving this recovery? And maybe discuss your ability to continue to grow subscriptions and the impact the Chinese economy might have on the service offering or is having.
spk02: Okay. Yeah, thanks, Brian. This is Shannon. I guess for industry for subscription we don't see any particular concentration. I think it's across the board. As we mentioned a couple of quarters ago, for the past few years we have seen the change in terms of how people look at push notification investment rather than investing in their own infrastructure, employing employees, engineers to do this work, they now are more than willing to outsource to a company like us. So we see this change in terms of mentality by companies. That's where we pick up all the new customers, be it private cloud or public cloud. So we do not see any concentration in terms of where the new customers are from.
spk05: And then can you just speak to the Chinese economy? Is it neutral right now to the impact on your revenue? Is it offsetting? the strength in demand and you could do much better on the recovery. Just kind of take us through the impact the economy is having on your subscriptions in China.
spk02: Sure. If you compare domestic and overseas, I'm sure you can sense that overseas market is where the growth is from. Yes, domestically, we do not see such explosive growth, but we still think that it will go through a stable but relatively low growth domestically.
spk05: But EngageLab is not having a big impact on your revenue. So I assume still the growth and recovery is coming in China, no?
spk02: Yes, yes. But the growth is much slower compared to EngageLab.
spk05: And then can you quantify the change in ARPU for subscription that's driving this? And is there still opportunity to grow ARPU even more? And if so, what gives you that confidence?
spk02: Sure. If you look at the R pool from Q1 of 2023, it's around 8,000 renminbi. And come Q4, it's 11,000. So this is, we have seen a 17% growth year over year. And we do see this to continue to grow, but at a much slower pace, probably about single-digit 5% growth. And partly of this is the fact that we are able to complete some of the private cloud project as well, which is of much bigger contract value. So this is what is driving the upward growth. On an annual basis, the same customers, we are not able to increase the price too much.
spk05: Got it. Thank you. That's helpful. And then in terms of non-subscription revenue, such as vertical applications, I know this includes market intelligence and other services, but it seems like that revenue base is stabilized. What has to happen in terms of market conditions to begin to get confident that revenue line will begin to recover and grow even more?
spk02: Yeah, if you look at the advertising business, in a way, we do not invest as much in it, so we let it run on its natural cost. So there's fairly much... fluctuate, depends on the overall sentiment, right? If you look at how the four quarter pan out every single year, the advertising market will pick in Q2 and Q4. Q2 being the 6-18 online festival, and then the Q4 is just what Chris has mentioned. We've got W11, W12. So these are the two picks. So that is for value-added service. And for vertical application, I think overall the market intelligence is still a bit slow in terms of the demand for Chinese ADR, APP numbers. But what we've seen is the financial risk management is doing well. It's increasing 17% year over year. So this is where we earn money to the credit companies or the banks who are trying to get the creditworthiness of individual lenders or the borrowers the borrowers of their credit cards. So we see this trending up in terms of the inquiries. Each bank is buying our services. So if you look at the three non-subscription businesses, financial risk management is something that we have higher hopes in terms of continued growth.
spk05: Got it. And then just to the balance sheet, it looks like quarter to quarter you increased cash by $4 million. I think I heard Cash flow, if I did a quick calculation from operations, was up $1 million and change. So what were the other sources of cash that increased $4 million compared to the cash flow of $1.3 million sequentially?
spk02: Sure. In Q4, we divested one of the investments that we have made. So we received some additional cash based on that. So that is under investing activities.
spk05: But that investiture doesn't have any impact on revenue?
spk02: No, no, not at all. It's pure divestiture of investment.
spk05: And then lastly, on seasonality, I assume the first quarter is your weakest quarter given holidays. Correct me if I'm wrong. And just help us with any other seasonality. I think you said the second quarter and the fourth quarter your strongest for, but I just want to make sure that I understand completely the seasonality.
spk02: Sure. If you look at overall in terms of business, even the entire China, if I may, the Q1 will be slow. Simply the fact that your Chinese New Year, February is a shorter month, so everybody's away. So the last thing they want is to sign contract and do everything else. So Q1 will definitely be a slow season. But for non-subscription business, I think only the value added service, which is the ad service, will peak in Q4 and Q2. The others, assuming if the economy is doing as it should be, we should see an uptrend every single quarter from Q1.
spk05: And to the previous caller's question, given the seasonal weakness in the first quarter, I assume you won't be EBITDA positive, but in quarters following that, you will be? Am I reading it right or am I not reading that right?
spk02: Yeah, I think it will be pretty much what you say. Q1 will be difficult to get positive. Right.
spk05: But do you think you'll be around break-even after?
spk02: Yeah, that's the goal. That's the goal, yes.
spk05: Okay. Thank you so much. And nice work on the recovery over the year.
spk02: Thank you, sir.
spk00: Thank you. As a reminder, if there are any further questions, you can press star 1 and 1 on your keypad. And to withdraw your question, you can press star 1 and 1 again. Please stand by while we check for any further questions. There are no further questions at this time. So I will now hand the conference back to Christian Arnell for closing remarks. Thank you.
spk04: Thank you everyone for joining the call tonight. If you have any further questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to the IR team. That concludes the call. Thank you and have a good evening.
spk00: Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating and you may now disconnect.
Disclaimer