On the evening of April 21, BlueFocus released its 2023 annual report, achieving operating income of 52.616 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.44%, and a net cash flow of 633 million yuan from operating activities, becoming the first marketing company in China with revenue exceeding 50 billion yuan.
On the same day, BlueFocus released its first quarter 2024 earnings report. Continuing the strong growth momentum in 2023, the operating income in the first quarter of 2024 was 15.782 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61.47%. "In 2024, we are expected to continue to grow significantly in revenue, moving towards $10 billion. "AI will undoubtedly reshape the future of the marketing industry, and it will also reconstruct the new BlueFocus, and our internal strategy is very clear: to become a leader in generative AI, with both scale and imagination." ”
Overseas marketing is growing rapidly
Open up the second growth curve
During the reporting period, BlueFocus's main business continued to grow, among which the full-case promotion service and overseas advertising grew rapidly. The promotion revenue of the whole case was 11.282 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 73.05%. The revenue and gross profit margin of overseas advertising showed a rapid growth trend, with revenue of 37.363 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.69%, accounting for more than 70% of the total revenue, and the growth rate of gross profit margin also reached 10%. In 2023, the ad revenue growth rate of agency Meta and Google will remain in the double digits. With the breakthrough of closed-loop e-commerce, the advertising revenue of TikTok For Business has increased by nearly 50%. After the company started official agency cooperation with Microsoft Advertising and Pinterest in 2023, its performance has developed rapidly, showing exponential growth.
Under the new opportunities brought about by economic globalization and the construction of the "Belt and Road", more and more Chinese enterprises are entering the global market and taking it as a new strategic growth point. As early as 2015, BlueFocus accurately laid out its overseas business, and now it has enjoyed market dividends, which not only promoted the company's rapid development, but also formed a significant scale effect. At present, BlueFocus has achieved one of the best market shares in the overseas market of major media platforms, and has helped more than 70,000 Chinese companies enter the global market, and many customers have grown from small companies to unicorns.
As China's high-quality development continues to inject impetus into the recovery of the world economy, BlueFocus is also opening up the second growth curve of its overseas business, and has implemented "affiliate marketing", "cross-border DTC brand self-operated incubation", and data and technology platform business based on overseas small and medium-sized media, looking forward to achieving large-scale growth and large-scale profitability, and laying a solid foundation for the sustainable growth of overseas business.
xR+AI innovation empowerment
The commercialization of virtual-real interaction continues to land
In the era of AI, the virtual and real interaction represented by the metaverse is accelerating. In 2023, BlueFocus will actively integrate cutting-edge technologies such as generative AI, virtual reality, and blockchain on the basis of the comprehensive layout of people, goods, and venues in the metaverse, and promote the commercialization of xR+AI in the marketing industry, government, cultural tourism, finance, and automobiles.
Su Xiaomei, a creative reproduction digital person under BlueFocus, combined with AI technology to continue to produce creative cultural content in the fields of virtual short dramas, urban cultural tourism, offline activities, etc., appeared on CCTV's May Fourth Gala, as the digital spokesperson of Meishan City and the recommendation officer of Song Culture to help Dongpo Culture go to sea, and became the recommendation officer of the Dragon Year Lantern Festival in Shanghai Yuyuan Garden, and launched the short dramas "Butian Song" and "Treasure Map of Beijing". Su Xiaomei also appeared at the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Expo and Fair, becoming a digital exhibitor of the central axis, participated in the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference Metaverse Industry Forum, and was listed in the TOP10 of China's virtual digital human influence index report for two consecutive years. In addition, the VR immersive exploration of cultural tourism products created by BlueFocus - Huaxia Roaming Central Axis, adopts a new generation of spatial computing and virtual reality production technology, combined with LBE large spatial positioning capabilities, allowing users to achieve full immersion, travel, interaction and free exploration through VR headsets.
At present, it has cooperated with more than 180 top IP resources, covering history and culture, literature and science fiction, natural science, etc., and the immersive space projects in cooperation with some local governments are also being implemented one after another. Film and television production and other businesses, and expanded its technology and service capabilities to the field of new digital infrastructure, launched the small xR immersive experience device BLUE BOX, and built a new marketing model combining digital and real;
Benefiting from the boom of the cultural tourism industry, the metaverse business has accumulated rich practical experience after three years of accumulation and practice, and is expected to leverage a larger market in the future to achieve thick accumulation. In 2024, BlueFocus will adhere to the professional position of "technology + content + operation", continue to promote the commercial implementation of xR + AI, combine new production tools, new technology products, and new collaboration models, integrate digital asset production, online and offline content operation and distribution capabilities, provide innovative application solutions for local governments and enterprises, actively promote the integration of digitalization and quality, and promote the integration and commercialization of advantageous resources.
从All In AI到AI First
The 1000-day-a-day trip to the using a 30-day,000-a-day trip to the using a new, 35-day-a-day trip to the US.
Since the release of the AI² strategy in 2023, generative AI has been gradually integrated into BlueFocus's daily work, including business model, process improvement, organizational structure, and talent development, and the "people + AI" work model has achieved 100% full coverage, and the overall business productivity has increased by about 50%.
In September 2023, BlueFocus released the industry model BlueAI 1.0, and joined hands with Baidu, Zhipu, Microsoft China, Google and other cloud platforms to deepen the application of AI, focusing on global consumer insight, scenario-based creative generation, social media creation, intelligent search, marketing knowledge base and other fields. In a year, BlueFocus has created nearly 300 real AI marketing cases, with AI-driven revenue reaching 108 million. In 2024, AI-driven revenue is expected to grow by 5-1 billion RMB, achieving extraordinary growth. BlueAI will also continue to evolve into a multi-modal and multi-scenario AI agent. Based on the industry model, we will build an enterprise-level marketing assistant to empower market insight, consumer interaction, and multimedia content creation, and further improve the level of AI for organizations and businesses.
"We will not only continue to resolutely pursue 'AI First' on this basis, but also pursue 'AI First' based on that. Pan Fei said, "Embracing AI giants and cooperating with the world's best AI technology is not only BlueFocus's advantage, but also the firmest choice for BlueFocus' AI strategy." "In 2024, BlueFocus will explore and practice in a down-to-earth manner to create a true AI Native model: on the one hand, it will innovate at the organizational level and try to build a pure AI job-driven team, with AI Native as the core architecture process and business, and on the other hand, it will boldly build a new model of AI native marketing, native content or generative marketing.
According to the analysis of industry insiders, judging from the current growth momentum, standing at a new starting point where revenue breaks the 50 billion mark for the first time, BlueFocus's annual revenue in 2024 is very likely to exceed 10 billion US dollars, or it may become the first domestic marketing company with revenue exceeding 10 billion US dollars. Looking ahead, on the basis of scale, the continuous growth of the main business and AI empowerment go hand in hand, as well as the continuous optimization of the gross profit margin of the overseas business, which will promote BlueFocus to grow to higher quality and move steadily towards the long-term strategic goal of the 100 billion blueprint.
The following is a letter from Mr. Pan Fei, CEO of BlueFocus, to investors: