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Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Sunland's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host today, you who are Sunland's IR representative. Please go ahead.
Yuhua
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining Sunland's third quarter 2023 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operating results were issued in our press release and were used via services earlier today and are posted online. You can download the earnings press release and sign up for our distribution list by visiting our IR website. Participants on today's call will be our CEO, Mr. Tung Bo Liu, and our financial brokerage executive, Mr. Hongyu Li. Management will begin with prepared prepared remarks, and the call will conclude with a Q&A session. Before I hand it over to the management, I'd like to remind you of some landscape harbor statements in relation to today's call. Except for the historical information contained herein, some of the matters discussed in this conference call are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current trends, estimates, and projections, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Communist Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. With that, I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Tung Bo Liu.
Tung Bo Liu
Thank you, Yu Hua. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Sunland's third quarter 2023 conference call. Prior to commencing, I would like to kindly remind all attendees that the financial information referenced in this release are presented on a continuing operation basis, and all figures are denominated in RMB unless explicitly specified otherwise. In Q3, our business has constantly adjusted to the evolving economic landscape and has strategically progressed despite the challenges. Our overarching objective of propelling the group toward sustained and high-level profitability has yielded positive results as we maintained sizable net profits for 10 consecutive quarters. Net income reached $131.6 billion. Net revenues, despite a slight year-over-year decrease, exceeded the high end of our guidance range and reached 524.6 million. We were also pleased to see our ongoing efforts to optimize our product structure and expand our course portfolio rewarded with enhanced operational results, reflecting a 14.3% year-over-year increase in our new student enrollments and a 6.7% year-over-year increase in course buildings. We are delighted in our capability to remain profitable under a challenging environment. This success is a tribute to improvements in gross margins, the implementation of cost-cutting measures, and enhanced financial planning and analysis across the entire business. Our cost of revenue has achieved a year-over-year decrease of 24.5%, and the Gen A expenses have achieved a year-over-year decrease of 21%. We firmly believe that only by adhering to long-term perspective and ensuring the healthy growth of the enterprise can we create sustainable value for shareholders and users. Now, let's turn to the performance of each of our major cost programs. Due to uncertainties Surrounding the microeconomic environment, our degree or diploma-oriented consumers have adopted a more conservative approach to the spending. This sector experienced a year-over-year revenue decline of 55.2%, influenced by our strategic reduction in marketing activities. We will persistently enhance our operational efficiency through continuous market observation and remain dedicated to providing premium courses for our in progress students. The segment including professional certifications, professional skills and interest programs has represented as our new growth driver accounting for 17.4% of the revenue and exhibiting a year-over-year revenue growth of 23.8%. We have strengthened our determination and confidence to increase investment in interest-based education following through process of testing and validation. The number of new student environments in professional certifications, professional skills, and interest programs in the first three months of 2023 increased by 29.1% compared to the same period of 2022. And the total number of head students has exceeded 1.2 million since 2021. Today, we would like to delve deeper into our analytics sector. There are several noteworthy shifts in the end-of-education landscape. Firstly, there's the burgeoning market potential of the silver economy. While the age group of 20 to 15 remains a steady-fast pillar in the industry, It's crucial to highlight that the demographic size of the silver generation continues to grow. According to the data disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2022, China's elderly population reached to 18 million, which is 16 and above. Among them, 153 million are Internet users, indicating that at least one in every two elderly individuals has Internet access. A significant portion has already adopted the habits of online learning, communication, and socialization. Furthermore, projections indicate that during the 14th five-year plan period, China's population aged 60 and above surpassed 300 million, accounting for over 20% of the total population. With the aging population, extended life expectancy, and the rising per capita income, This represents a significant incremental market. Of course, tailored to elderly individuals, covering various interest areas, such as vocal music, musical instruments, and . of a community of content creation, services, capabilities, and technological expertise. We quickly gained recognition from this group. Specifically, according to our survey, the satisfaction rate for calligraphy courses is as high as 94.59%, and for traditional Chinese printing courses, it reaches an impressive 98.25%. We are delighted to say that this group not only learn online, but also can connect with like-minded friends. Establish new social relationships from our platform. We received numerous feedback from this group and their vivid narratives resonate deeply with us, affirming the meaningful impact of our work. They illustrate how our learning platform caters to the diverse interests and learning needs of various users, fostering continuous personal development and meaningful connections. Sixthly, the increasingly competitive job market is still calling for higher overall qualifications for individuals, leading a varied and personalized demand for end of education. The transformation is evident on the supply side as well, with an increase in the diversity of professional courses offerings. Our strategy is in alignment with the market as well. We have meticulously curated and provided a suite of premiums tailor-made courses with a professional focus. We are pleased to witness our students' unvarying commitment to actively participate in these courses, and we take pride in assisting them in navigating the challenges of the dynamic working environment. Additionally, we have carefully augmented our selection of interest-based courses in response to the burgeoning inclination towards personalized and passion-driven education. We strive to provide a comprehensive range of additional services and products that extend beyond the confines of traditional learning experience. Furthermore, we have also been closely monitoring the application of new technologies in our industry, such as the latest AIGC technology in our education of business content. We are optimistic about the prospects of the development of this technology. It's worth mentioning that our product development expenses have also increased by 5.3% compared to the previous culture. In summary, drawing on a decade of valuable experience and industry acclaim, we are positive to rapidly and efficiently expand our market presence going forward. Our dedication remains unwavering as we adjust our educational offerings to align with the changing needs of learners, reinforcing our leading position in adult education sector. With that, I will turn the call to our financial controller, Hang Yu, to run through our financials.
Yu Hua
Thank you, Tun Bo. Hello, everyone. I'm pleased to present our third quarter results. which are in line with our expectations and demonstrate the effectiveness of our pursuit of sustainable growth. As you can see, last quarter was another excellent quarter in operations. As a result of steady growth in interest-based programs, new student enrollments went up by 14.3% and growth billions increased by 6.7% year over year. Thanks to our strategy of balance, sustainable growth and profitability. Growth profit margin increased by 2.5 percentage points to 87.8% compared to the same period last year. Operating expenses as a percentage of gross billings decreased by 2.1 percentage points compared to the third quarter of last year. These improvements were reflected in overnight income. Last quarter, we achieved net income of $131.6 million, our 10th profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2021. Looking ahead, we are optimistic about long-term growth. We are committed to expanding online course offerings, optimizing course effectiveness, and providing exceptional service to our students. These strategic initiatives are conducive to seizing new opportunities, and consolidating our position in the industry, which in turn will help us maintain our competitive edge in the industry and continue to value our stakeholders. Now, let me work through some of our key final results for the third quarter of 2023. All comparisons are year over year, and all numbers are in RMB, unless otherwise noted. In the first quarter of 2023, Net revenues were 500 under 24.6 million, a decrease of 9% year-over-year. Cost of revenue decreased by 24.5% to 64.1 million in the third quarter of 2023, from 84.9 million in the third quarter of 2022. The decrease was primarily due to lower compensation expenses related to our cost of revenue strengthening. Gross profit decreased by 6.3% to $460.5 million from $491.3 million in the third quarter of 2022. In the third quarter of 2023, operating expenses were $368.5 million, representing a 4.1% increase from $325 million in the third quarter of 2022. Sales and marketing expenses increased by 9.6% to $295 million in the third quarter of 2023 from $269.1 million in the third quarter of 2022, primarily due to increased spend on branding and marketing activities. General and administrative expenses decreased by 21% to $35.1 million in the third quarter of 2023 from 44.4 million in the third quarter of 2022. Product development expenses decreased by 27% to 8.4 million in the third quarter of 2023, from 11.5 million in the third quarter of 2022. Product development expenses were mainly comprised of compensation expenses. Night income for the third quarter of 2023 was $131.6 million compared with net income of $168.1 million in the third quarter of 2022. Basic and diluted net income per share was $19.13 in the third quarter of 2023. As of September 30, 2023, the company had $751.8 million of cash cash equivalents and restricted cash and 122.3 million of short-term investments. As of September 30, 2023, the company had a deferred revenue balance of 1,277 million compared with 1,690.9 million as of September 31, 2022. Capital expenditures were incurred primarily in connection with IT infrastructure equipment and the leasehold improvement necessary to support the company. Capital expenditures were $1.4 million in the third quarter, compared with $1.3 million in the third quarter of 2022. And now for our outlook. For the first quarter of 2023, Sunlight currently expects net revenues to be between $490 million to 510 million, which would represent a decrease of 11.9% to 15.3% year-over-year. This outlook is based on the current market conditions and reflects the company's management's current and preliminary estimates of market operating conditions and customer demand, which are all subject to change. With that, I'd like to open up the call to the questions. Operator?
Operator
thank you to ask a question you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced and to withdraw your question please press star one and one again for the benefit of all participants on today's call if you wish to ask your question to management in chinese please immediately repeat your question in english Once again, if you would like to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced and to withdraw your question, you can press star one and one again. There are no questions so far. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. At this time, there are no questions coming through, so that will conclude the question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the conference back over to Yuhua for any closing remarks.
Yuhua
Once again, thank you everyone for joining this call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon. Good day and good night.
Operator
This concludes this conference call.
Yuhua
You may now disconnect your line.
Operator
Thank you.
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