The short-video giant said they are confident of a turnaround in profit this year
Kuaishou Technology (1024:HK) (Chinese: 快手科技), China’s short-video giant, recorded a revenue of CNY 81.08 billion (USD 12.77 billion) and an adjusted net loss of CNY 18.8 billion in the full year of 2021.
According to the financial report filed on March 29, Kuaishou reported a gross profit of CNY 34 billion in 2021, up 42.9% year on year. The loss for the year narrowed by 33.1% to CNY 78.08 billion.
Among the total revenues, online marketing services increased by 95.2% to CNY 42.7 billion from CNY 21.9 billion in 2020, which Kuaishou attributed to internal organizational restructuring throughout the year.
Online marketing services contributed 52.6% of the total revenue, while live-streaming generated 38.2%. The remaining 9.2% came from other services.
The average daily active users (DAUs) and monthly active users (MAUs) on the Kuaishou app were 308.2 million (up 16.5%) and 544.2 million (13.1%), respectively.
The closed-loop e-commerce marketplace Kwai Shop (快手小店) became the main driver of its robust growth. According to the report, the new service garnered 98.8% of Kuaishou’s total e-commerce gross merchandise value, which surged 78.4% to CNY 680 billion
Kuaishou’s major expenses came from selling and marketing. The report showed they cost CNY 44.18 billion in 2021, up 66% year on year, and rose from 45.3% in 2020 to 54.5% of the total revenue last year.
As of press time, Kuaishou shares closed at HKD 75 apiece with a market capitalization of HKD 319.27 billion. Its largest rival, TikTok’s Chinese version Douyin (Chinese: 抖音) is expected to accumulate 835 million users by 2025. Other domestic short-video players include Bilibili (BILI:NASDAQ) and Huya (HUYA:NYSE).