The game streaming platform suffered from plummeting profit amid government supervision and growing competition
Huya Inc (HUYA: NYSE) (Chinese: 虎牙) recorded a revenue of CNY 2.809 billion (USD 441.133 million) and a net loss of CNY 310 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to its financial report filed on March 22.
The company also reported a revenue of CNY 11.351 billion in 2021, up 4% year on year, and a GAAP net income of CNY 583 million last year, registering a year-on-year decrease of 33.9%.
Specifically, the company booked a revenue of CNY 2.613 billion from live streaming. With increasing income in content licensing, the platform also logged a revenue of CNY 196 million from advertising and other businesses, up 11.6% over the same period in 2020.
Huya boasted a record-breaking average monthly active users of 85.4 million on its mobile app, up 7.4% year on year.
As the government cracked down on online live streaming, traditional game streaming platforms faced increasing oversight, which has considerably dented their income from viewers’ gratuity. They are also challenged by short video platforms such as Bilibili (BILI: Nasdaq, 09626: HK) (Chinese: 哔哩哔哩) and Kuaishou (01024: HK) (Chinese: 快手).
Amid regulatory headwinds and heightened competition, other players fared even worse. Douyu, the second-largest game streaming giant in China after Huya, recorded a net loss for five consecutive quarters. Its net loss in 2021 hit CNY 620.2 million, compared with a net income of 404.7 million yuan in the same period.
Meanwhile, smaller competitors such as Tencent E-sports (Chinese: 企鹅电竞) seemed to shift towards short video operations.
As of December 31, 2021, Huya had cash, cash equivalents, short-term deposits, and short-term investments totaling CNY 10.959 billion.