51Talk Online Education Group

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for 51 Talk Online Education Group's 4th Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Mr. David Chong, Investor Relations for the company. Please go ahead, David.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 4th Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call of 5.1 Talk. The company's results were issued via Newswire Services earlier today and are posted online. You can download the earnings press release and sign up for the company's distribution list by visiting ir.51talk.com. Mr. Jack Wang, our CEO, and Ms. Cindy Tang, our CFO, will begin with some prepared remarks. Following the prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A session. Before we continue, please note that the discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Mitigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's Form 20F and other public filings as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable law. Please also note that Earnings press release and this conference call include discussion of unaudited gap financial information as well as unaudited non-gap financial measures. 5.1 Talks press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-gap measures to the unaudited most directly comparable gap measures. I'll now turn the call over to our CEO, Jack Wang. Jack, please go ahead.

Thank you, Kevin. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call today. We concluded financial year 2024 with gross billings growing by 74.4% year-over-year and net revenues increasing by 87% year-over-year. Even more encouraging is that we achieved this while strengthening our cash positions delivering a full-year positive operating cash flow of US dollar 5.8 million. Throughout financial year 2004, we made significant progress in building out our local teams and developing more localized marketing and product contents. We are also expanding into new geographic markets to drive In 2024, we've already seen the benefits of integrating AI into our operations, reflected in the improvement of operational efficiency and a narrowing of operating losses. We believe 2025 will continue to be a pivotal year for AI adoption and further efficiency improvements. Especially, AI will enable more personalized course plans and exercises tailored to students' proficiency levels, as well as enhanced progress tracking. With that, I will now turn the call over to Cindy, our CFO.

Thank you, Jack. Now let me walk you through our fourth quarter financial details. Fourth quarter net revenues were $15.2 million U.S. dollars. a 117.3% increase from the same quarter last year, largely driven by the increase of active students who attended lesson consumption. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 77.5%. Gross billings grew by 93.4% from the same quarter last year to 21.4 million US dollars. Q4 operating expenses was $13.4 million, an increase of 35.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Specifically, this has been driven by Q4 sales and marketing expenses of $10.1 million, a 40.9% increase from the same quarter last year due to higher sales personnel costs related to increases in the number of sales and marketing personnel and higher marketing expenses. Q4 product development expenses were $0.9 million, an 8.0% increase from the same quarter last year. Finally, Q4 general and administrative expenses were $2.4 million, a 28% increase from the same quarter last year. Overall, Q4 operating loss was $0.9 million, while net loss attributable to the company's ordinary shareholders was $1.4 million, an 80.1% and 75.7% decrease from the same quarter last year, respectively. Q4 GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per ADS were negative $0.24 and $0.2, respectively. The company's total cash, cash equivalents and time deposits were 29.2 million US dollars at the end of the fourth quarter. Advances from students were 45.1 million US dollars at the end of the fourth quarter. Looking forward to the first quarter of 2025, we currently expect the net gross billing to be between 21.5 million US dollars and 22 million US dollars. The above outlook is based on our current market conditions and reflects the company's current and preliminary estimates of the market and operating conditions and customer demands, which are all subject to change. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now open the line for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. Please ask your questions, and you may re-enter the question queue if you have further questions. And at this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. And our first question will come from Damon Zhang with Eurotis Investments. Please go ahead, sir.

Hello, Mr. Guan. I want to ask a question in Chinese first. I'll just go over it briefly. I see that the growth speed of the first quarter is still growing, but the growth speed seems to be a little slower than the previous two times. I don't know if this is seasonal. The second question is that we saw that the whole financial flow in 2024 has achieved a turnaround. What is our view of the financial flow during the rapid expansion of 2025?

OK, then I will answer your question in Chinese. You just mentioned that the first question is about the problem of slow growth in the first quarter. In the first quarter, in most of our markets, it is a slow quarter. In fact, I think this is the guidance we have given in the first quarter. It will be relative to the actual cash growth in the fourth quarter. China China China Thank you. Okay, I can ask a question.

In the whole year of 2025, did we have a

Okay, thank you, Guan Yicheng.

It was a very bright night.

Again, if you have a question, please press star, then 1. As we are reaching the end of our conference call, I'd like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks. Mr. David, please go ahead.

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please contact 511 Talks Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.