Shrinking Hello Group Targets Tantan Breakeven in 2023 from buzai232's blog

Shrinking Hello Group Targets Tantan Breakeven in 2023

More than a year after kicking off a major overhaul at one of its two main units, dating app operator Hello Group (MOMO.US), often called the "Tinder of China," is saying it still needs time to return to a growth track.To get more news about tantan topup, you can visit topuplive.com official website.

That's the big picture coming from the company's latest quarterly earnings, which show its revenue continued to shrink in the second quarter, extending a streak dating back to early 2020. It predicted its third quarter revenue will continue sliding by at least 14.9%, similar to the 15.3% decline it posted for the three months through June, according to the announcement released last Thursday.

During an investor call after the results release, management also said the company would continue using its ongoing retrenchment strategy by "prioritizing growth with profit instead of growth (at any) cost.". Under that strategy, the company has tightened its belt across business lines, while cautiously expanding into newer areas.

We'll delve into that strategy shortly and analyze what it means for the company's longer-term development. But first let's review some of the details from its latest financial report, starting with a 26% decline in Hello Group's net profit to 345.6 million yuan ($50.1 million) in the second quarter on revenues of 3.1 billion yuan. The company attributed its sluggish business partly to the resurgence of Covid-19 in China during the period, saying it "brought many challenges and uncertainties to the overall market environment and our execution of strategic goals."

China's tightening regulation of livestreaming businesses with new rules implemented early this year also dealt a heavy blow to the company. Its "live video service" revenue - responsible for about half of its total - fell nearly 30% to 1.5 billion yuan year-on-year during the latest quarter. Hello's platforms allow broadcasters to accept virtual gifts from viewers, with Hello taking a cut. The regulation released in March contained strict guidelines on such gifting, including a cap on how much money a broadcaster can accept, thereby also limiting that revenue source for Hello.

Investors gave Hello's latest earnings a muted thumbs-up, with its stock edging up slightly by 3% in the two trading days after the results were announced. But the company's Friday's closing price of $5.32 is just a fraction of the more than $50 it reached at its high in June 2018, and is well below its IPO price of $13.50 from 2014.

Hello's downward trend follows a similar pattern for most U.S.-listed Chinese companies over the past year on delisting concerns and a series of regulatory crackdowns launched by the Chinese government targeting data-rich companies. But it's also valid to say waning investor appetite for Hello owes to its own struggles over the past two years as its business fails to grow.

In terms of valuation, Hello now trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 4.5, which is quite cheap compared with peers both at home and abroad. Chinese social media giant Weibo Corp. (WB.US; 9898.HK) trades at 14.5 times and Match Group (MTCH.US), owner of the original Tinder, trades at a whopping 157 times.