[2024 Q1 Report] revenue fell by 5%, but net profit increased by 6%, iQiyi's first-quarter financial report is happy or worried?
According to the financial report, iQiyi (IQ.O) will achieve revenue of 7.93 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2024, a decrease of 420 million yuan or 5% from 8.35 billion yuan in the same period last year.
This was mainly due to the decline in membership service revenue. In the current quarter, iQIYI's membership service revenue was less than 4.8 billion yuan, a decrease of about 750 million yuan or 13% from 5.55 billion yuan in the same period last year.
The online advertising revenue was 1.48 billion yuan, an increase of about 80 million yuan from 1.4 billion yuan in the same period last year, and the content distribution revenue was 930 million yuan, an increase of 200 million yuan from 730 million yuan last year. Other businesses achieved revenue of 720 million yuan, an increase of 50 million yuan year-on-year.
In the first quarter, among iQIYI's major sectors, content distribution and other businesses contributed 250 million yuan in revenue increment, and the total number of membership services and online advertising that accounted for the majority decreased by about 670 million yuan, and finally decreased by 420 million yuan.
In the first quarter of last year, because of the hit drama "Hurricane", the revenue base was high, and the average number of daily subscribers also reached 129 million, and continued to decline in the following three quarters: 111 million, 108 million and 100 million.
Starting in the first quarter of this year, iQIYI decided not to disclose subscribers and ARM (monthly average single member revenue) data. Management explained that overemphasizing the number of members could interfere with day-to-day work, leading management to focus too much on short-term goals and neglect more important long-term strategies.
Tencent disclosed in its first quarterly report that the number of paid members of Tencent Video increased by 8% to 116 million. Not surprisingly, Tencent Video's paid members should exceed iQiyi's average daily subscribers. Of course, the concept or definition of membership is not completely consistent among each company, and it can only be used as a reference here.
After iQiyi went public in 2018, it lost money for 5 consecutive years until it achieved a scale profit of 1.953 billion yuan in 2023. Since then, it has gotten rid of the trouble of loss.
In the first quarter of this year, iQiyi once again achieved a net profit of 666 million yuan, a profit increase of 38 million yuan compared with 628 million yuan in the first quarter of last year, and it is also very hard.
The total cost was 5.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5%, and the cost of the majority of content was 4 billion yuan, a decrease of 5%; Selling, general and administrative expenses were 920 million yuan, down by about 190 million yuan or 17%, and R&D expenses were basically unchanged, about 430 million yuan.
But at the same time, iQiyi's total debt at the end of the first quarter was 33.5 billion yuan, and it bore interest expenses of 280 million yuan, which also swallowed up part of the profits.
After the release of the earnings report, iQiyi's stock price rose 12% on May 16 and fell 9% on May 17, with the latest stock price of $5.26 and the latest market value of $5.05 billion.
On March 28, 2018, iQIYI's U.S. stock was listed, with an issue price of $18, the highest was more than $46, and the lowest was less than $2.
Although the stock price has been sluggish for a long time, iQiyi began to make a profit last year, and as of the end of the first quarter of 2024, it has 5.05 billion yuan in cash on its books, and it can seek long-term development after survival.