On March 3, Weibo released its financial report for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021. In the fourth quarter, Weibo's total revenue reached $616 million, an increase of 20% year-on-year, of which advertising revenue reached $550 million, an increase of 21% year-on-year, and the proportion of advertising from mobile terminals reached 94%. For the full year of 2021, Weibo's total revenue reached US$2.26 billion, up 34% year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter, Weibo's adjusted operating profit reached $219.8 million, and its operating profit margin reached 36%. Adjusted operating profit for 2021 was $829.2 million, up 43% year-over-year, and adjusted full-year operating margin was 37%.
"In the fourth quarter, we concluded 2021 with solid performance, mainly due to the strong execution of our company strategy." Weibo CEO Wang Gaofei said. "In 2021, we will give full play to Weibo's unique competitiveness in the field of social media and achieve a steady increase in user scale and user activity.
In terms of commercialization, our revenue in 2021 exceeded US$2 billion, and our operating efficiency has been further improved, which fully reflects the strong momentum and resilience of our business in recovering after the epidemic. In 2022, we will continue to enhance our product functions, enrich the content ecology of the platform, be committed to serving a wider range of user groups, and provide customers with more efficient and innovative marketing models to achieve long-term value. ”
/ 01 /
Hotspot + social to create core product advantages
Harvest traffic growth peaks
According to the financial report, as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, Weibo's monthly active users reached 573 million, an increase of 10% year-on-year, and daily active users reached 249 million, an increase of 11% year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter, Weibo strengthened the product competitiveness of core functions such as hotspots and social networking, focused on increasing user activity, and harvested a new peak of traffic growth. On the one hand, by optimizing the content quality and distribution capabilities of the video recommendation stream, we can improve the user's content consumption experience and frequency, on the other hand, we will strengthen the accurate identification of the interests and characteristics of channel users, combine product strategies, and gradually guide users to transform into the super-talk community and increase users' willingness to actively access.
As of December 2021, the opening scale of Weibo video accounts has exceeded 25 million, and the scale of video accounts released in the month has increased several times year-on-year. Weibo combines key vertical areas, through support plans such as resources and traffic, and richer interactive gameplay, to enhance the production enthusiasm of high-quality video authors. At the same time, with the growth of the scale of video numbers, the content quality and distribution accuracy of the video recommendation stream have been continuously optimized, which has driven user activity and increased the inventory of video ads.
In terms of live broadcast products, Weibo in the fourth quarter improved the live broadcast experience in multiple scenarios, and at the same time strengthened the combination with key IP and events in the fields of entertainment, sports and games, further strengthening the user's live broadcast consumption mentality. In December, the average daily viewership of Weibo live broadcasts increased by more than 100% year-on-year.
In addition, the importance of community business in the Weibo ecosystem is getting higher and higher, and last year Weibo greatly enriched the category of super talk community, and upgraded and adjusted the underlying structure of super talk. At present, the average daily user blog posting volume of Super Talk accounts for nearly 20% of the whole platform. In December, the size of community users in sports, games and campuses increased significantly year-on-year. In the future, Weibo will also upgrade the product of the super talk community, greatly expand the type coverage and user participation of the Weibo interest community, and promote the further improvement of users' social stickiness and activity on Weibo.
In 2022, Weibo will continue to strengthen product operation investment in hotspots and social networks, deepen strategic cooperation with media, entertainment, games, and sports partners, and ensure Weibo's discussion and supply based on hotspots and IP. For example, the just-concluded Beijing Winter Olympics, through strengthening cooperation with partners such as central media and Migu, the overall traffic of the Beijing Winter Olympics exceeded the Tokyo Olympic Games, and the total reading volume of Weibo Winter Olympics related topics exceeded 450 billion, and the total discussion volume was nearly 300 million. The Chinese national team and all participants settled on Weibo, opened 176 athletes' super talk, and athletes posted more than 2,500 blog posts during the Winter Olympics, with nearly 45 million fans, and Weibo became the first platform for athletes' social interaction.
/ 02 /
Solid revenue growth
"Quality Advertising + Content Operation" strengthens the competitiveness of advertising
In the fourth quarter of 2021, although the macro environment and industry policies had a certain impact on the advertising market, with the strengthening of Weibo's marketing capabilities in key industries and the improvement of traffic monetization efficiency, Weibo's revenue still maintained steady growth year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Advertising revenue in the fourth quarter reached $550 million, up 21% year-over-year, and full-year advertising revenue in 2021 reached $1.98 billion, up 33% year-over-year.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, beauty and personal care, food and beverage, 3C digital, automotive and other industries still maintained a considerable revenue growth rate, while the luxury goods, shoes and apparel industries that focused on development also contributed to higher revenue growth. The combination of footwear brand ANTA and Olympic hot events, and the combination of luxury brand shows such as Alexander McQueen and Weibo live broadcast scenes, let more customers realize the unique marketing model formed by the combination of Weibo's "advertising products + user products + content operations", which can help customers effectively precipitate social assets, enhance the ability to reach accurate people, and thus enhance advertising effects. Weibo's advertising revenue and customer share in these industries have increased significantly.
In 2022, Based on the improvement of traffic, Weibo will continue to improve the scale of commercialization, monetization efficiency and market competitiveness from the dimensions of advertising products and sales operations. Weibo will combine its own characteristics and advantages to strengthen the innovation of content-based commercial products, launch more advertising products with industry competitiveness, and further optimize the ability to deliver effective advertising.
Based on the anti-risk ability of the product effect advertising model in the core industries, Weibo will maintain a steady growth rate in key industries, and promote the combination marketing method of "product effect advertising + content operation" to more industries and customers. In addition, in the sales operation dimension, Weibo will continue to improve the construction of sales system, operation coordination strategy, etc., for different industries, develop differentiated commercialization strategies, more closely support Weibo's marketing system, and improve the monetization efficiency of Weibo organizations as a whole.
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