Bilibili loss narrows 36pc to 4.8b yuan

China’s video-sharing platform Bilibili’s (9626) net loss narrowed 36 percent to 4.8 billion yuan (HK$5.33 billion) in 2023 from a year earlier, thanks to reduced costs and increased revenue.

Revenue rose 3 percent to 22.5 billion yuan, as the cost to generate revenue fell by 5 percent over the previous year.

Value-added services, which account for 44 percent of total revenue, rose 14 percent to 9.9 billion yuan.

Advertising revenue climbed 27 percent to 6.4 billion yuan, while mobile games, IP derivatives and others fell 20 percent and 29 percent respectively.

Bilibili said the decrease in game revenue was mainly attributable to fewer new game launches and lower revenue contributions from certain games but claimed revenues from top-performing legacy games remained relatively stable.

Gross profit reached 5.4 billion yuan, 41 percent higher year-on-year, as its gross profit margin expanded for the sixth consecutive quarter to 26.1 percent in the last quarter of 2023.

Its operating cash flow swung to 266.6 million yuan from a negative 3.9 billion yuan in 2022.

The average daily active users exceeded 100 million in the fourth quarter – 8 percent higher than the same period last year – as users’ daily time spent “remained robust” at over 95 minutes on average.

Chairman and chief executive Chen Rui said Bilibili plans to keep facilitating a virtuous cycle between community and commercialization this year.