Yalla Group Limited

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for YALA Group Limited's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. Now, I will turn the call over to your speaker host today, Ms. Kerry Gowell, IR Director of the company. Please go ahead.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to YALA's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. We released our earnings press release earlier today, and the release is now available on our IR website as well as on Newswell Outlabs. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of the U.S. Private Security Certification Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our future results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in our earnings release and our annual report filed with the SEC. YALA does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. Please also note that YALA's earnings press release and this conference call include a discussion of unaudited gap financial information, as well as unaudited non-gap financial measures. YALA's press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-gap measures to the unaudited most directly comparable gap measures. Today, we'll hear from Mr. Tao Yang, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, who will provide an overview of our latest achievements and growth strategies. He will be followed by Mr. Sifis Mayu, the company's President. we will briefly review our recent business developments. Mrs. Karen Hu, our chief financial officer, will then provide additional details on the company's financial results and discuss our financial outlook. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open the call to questions. Mr. Jeff Xu, our chief operating officer, will join the Q&A section. With that said, I would now like to turn the call over to our chairman and chief executive officer, Mr. Tao Yang. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you everyone for joining our third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. We are thrilled to report a robust cold quarter marked by record high revenues and enhanced profitability. Our third quarter revenues reached 88.9 million USD, exceeding the upper end of our guidance by 8%, while our net income increased by 11.2%. year-over-year to USD 39.2 million. Behind this impressive performance was our continued commitment to deepening our localization capabilities, which enabled us to keep rolling out new gamification features and operating events that fulfill MENA users' social and entertainment needs. Quality revenue growth while improving operating efficiency has been a key company objective this year. To that end, the team has consistently refined operational procedures and optimized user acquisition strategies over the past several quarters. Moving forward, we will remain focused on user experience and product excellence. enriching our product ecosystem and pursuing high-quality, sustainable development. MENA's digital transformation has progressed rapidly this year, drawing a surge of global attention, talent, and investment to the region. We have seen gaming emerge as one of the critical drivers of this digital transformation. GCC countries by introducing supportive policies and initiatives to facilitate the development of the gaming and esports sectors. This summer, the Esports World Cup puts Saudi Arabia in the global spotlight for gamers and industry professionals worldwide, with over 1,500 players worldwide competing across multiple games for a record-breaking USD 60 million prize. The event showcase key MENA countries policy commitment to the gaming industry and their infrastructure capacity for large scale events. As a crucial growth market for the global gaming industry, MENA still holds immense potential for further development, which is gradually being unleashed Looking at the group's business, gaming services are now a revenue contributor with growing importance within our group. The proportion of revenues attributable to gaming services has surpassed 30% over the past few years. In addition, our keen insight into Mina's gaming industry dynamics have led to our proactive entry into the mid-core and high-core game market with the other games. We currently have several staff developers for mid-core and high-core games and expect to begin testing some of them by year-end. Our product development and release schedules are designed to bring streaming Polish games to market at optimal time to capture their corresponding user base and market share. And we look forward to seeing this new initiative for fresh growth in the upcoming years. Expanding from casual games to minicole and hardcore game is a milestone. Not a sprint, we are committed to elevating Yala Games' standing in MIA's mid-core and high-core game market, capitalizing on our wealth of experience and know-how in casual games to drive success. Guided by Yala's co-organizational values and USD, especially the last two letters for Simple and Target, We will continue to refine every Yala game product by taking a straightforward and pragmatic approach. We are confident that we can engage our loyal users in the region whom we've served for nearly a decade with high quality games that align with the Yala brand while also leveraging these new games to broaden Yala's growth product ecosystem and market reach. In conclusion, the first rollout of digital transformation initiatives across MENA countries is steadily unlocking the market's growth potential. As the largest online social networking and gaming platform in MENA, we will seize every opportunity to contribute to this transformation and the economic development of the region. With strong business fundamentals and increasingly robust product ecosystem, we have full capital confidence in our ability to expand our role in the region's evolution. Now, I will turn this call over to our president. for a closer look at our recent developments.