Kuaishou has achieved remarkable results in reducing costs and improving efficiency, and the domestic business will turn losses into profits in 2022.
On March 29, Kuaishou Technology released its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2022. Kuaishou’s total annual revenue reached CNY 94.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, surpassing Bloomberg’s consensus forecast of CNY 93.1 billion. For the whole year of 2022, Kuaishou's domestic business will achieve profitability at the operating level, with an operating profit of CNY 192 million. In addition, the group's adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) also became positive, reaching CNY 1.81 billion. In the same period in 2021, its domestic business operating loss was CNY 8.68 billion.
In the fourth quarter, Kuaishou’s domestic business achieved an operating profit of CNY 1.3 billion, and the group’s overall adjusted net loss narrowed sharply from CNY 3.6 billion in the same period last year to CNY 45.32 million.
Since last year, Kuaishou has started to reduce costs and improve efficiency internally, and its revenue has continued to grow, but costs have been greatly reduced. This is the main reason for Kuaishou's domestic business to achieve profitability. According to the financial report, Kuaishou’s sales and marketing expenses in the fourth quarter fell by 4.8% year-on-year to CNY 9.7 billion, and the proportion of total revenue dropped from 41.9% in the same period in 2021 to 34.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022. After the listing, the ratio was lower than 35% for the first time.
Online marketing service (advertising) is its largest source of income, and the annual revenue of this business segment reached CNY 49 billion. Online marketing services, live streaming and other services (including e-commerce) accounted for 52.1%, 37.6%, and 10.3% of annual revenue respectively.
In terms of e-commerce, Kuaishou’s total e-commerce transaction volume (GMV) in 2022 will increase by 32.5% year-on-year to CNY 901.2 billion. Despite the impact of the supply chain and logistics in the fourth quarter, its e-commerce GMV still achieved a record high of CNY 312.4 billion in a single quarter, a year-on-year increase of 30%.
In terms of overseas business, its operating loss in 2022 will narrow by 44.7% year-on-year. This is because Kuaishou continues to focus on core country development strategies, further optimizes resource allocation, and improves operational efficiency.
Kuaishou continued to improve customer acquisition efficiency and retention performance by upgrading its user growth strategy and refining operations for different groups of people. According to the data, in the fourth quarter, the number of users of Kuaishou apps broke through a record high. The average DAU increased by 13.3% year-on-year to 366 million, and the average MAU increased by 10.7% year-on-year to 640 million.