On March 12th, Yalla Group, known as the "Middle East's Tencent," announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year ending December 31, 2023. The report reveals that Yalla's revenue for Q4 2023 reached $80.925 million, with social services contributing $52.18 million and gaming services $28.491 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%. Net profit soared to $29.652 million, a 79% increase from the same period last year's $16.565 million.
For the entire year of 2023, Yalla's revenue hit $318.9 million, with social services accounting for $211.8 million and gaming services for $106.7 million. The overall net profit grew by 35.5%. This growth is primarily attributed to Yalla's investment and deepening focus in the mid-to-heavy gaming segment, successfully positioning its gaming business as a strong competitor to its social services.
Yang Tao, the founder, chairman, and CEO of Yalla Group, emphasized the growth in gaming service revenues during the earnings call. The increase is largely due to continuous improvements in gaming mechanics and deep experience in the Middle Eastern and North African gaming markets. Yalla's mid-to-heavy games, "Merge Kingdoms" and "Age of Legends," featuring Yalla’s specialized voice chat room gameplay, have significantly boosted user engagement and payment willingness.
"Merge Kingdoms" particularly stands out with its popular COK-Like gameplay in the Middle East, integrating social features like gifting, leaderboards, mini-games, and music playback. This approach meets both the gaming and social interaction needs of users in the Middle East and North Africa. Despite varying market performances, both games exhibit potential for growth as evidenced by their Revenue Per Download (RPD) trends.
Beyond gaming, Yalla also shines in leisure and social applications. Its leisure gaming platform "Yalla Ludo" and other tailored versions have achieved substantial global downloads and steady revenue. Social products like Yalla, YallaChat, and WeMuslim maintain user activity and loyalty through various activities, festive marketing, and feature updates.
Particularly, WeMuslim, designed for the Muslim community, offers precise prayer times, a Qibla compass, and an Islamic calendar. It also provides translations of the Quran in multiple languages based on the user's phone system language. Since its launch, WeMuslim has garnered over 22.7 million downloads globally, with primary markets in Egypt and India. Yalla Group's diversified strategy has enabled it to maintain high-quality growth amidst a complex and changing economic environment.