JOYY Reports 16.8% YoY Revenue Increase in Q4, Driven by Livestreaming

JOYY Inc., a global video-based social media company, on Tuesday announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2021.

During the recent fourth quarter, JOYY’s net revenues increased by 16.8% to $663.7 million, up from $568.2 million in the corresponding period of 2020, primarily driven by growth in livestreaming income for BIGO Technology, JOYY’s subsidiary in Singapore. Livestreaming revenues increased by 15% to $620.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, from $539.7 million in the corresponding period of 2020.

Net income from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY during the fourth quarter of last year was $73.2 million, compared to net loss of $118.9 million in the corresponding period of 2020.

During the full year of 2021, JOYY’s net revenues increased by 36.5% to $2.62 billion, up from $1.92 billion in 2020, primarily driven by a 36.4% year-on-year increase in livestreaming revenues. Net Ioss from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY in 2021 was $115.9 million, compared to net loss of $18.7 million in 2020.

Now let’s look at the apps JOYY has launched. The total number of paying users of BIGO increased by 2.5% year-on-year to 1.51 million in 2021. The average mobile MAUs of Bigo Live, the livestreaming app under BIGO, increased by 11.9% year-on-year to reach 32.2 million in 2021.

The average mobile MAUs of Likee, BIGO’s short video app, decreased by 44.2% year-on-year to 67 million in 2021, primarily due to reduced spending on user acquisition via advertisement. Meanwhile, the average mobile MAUs of Hago, a leisure game social media platform under JOYY, decreased by 42.8% year-on-year to 9.5 million in 2021.

David Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JOYY, commented, “In 2021, as we continued to execute our globalization strategy and strengthen our diverse social entertainment ecosystem, we successfully enhanced our monetization capabilities across multiple product lines, achieving full-year revenue growth of 36.5%. On the capital return front, during the year of 2021, we have bought back $393 million of our shares, and have paid out a total of $160.1 million in dividends. These efforts are to demonstrate our confidence in the company’s long-term growth prospects.”

SEE ALSO: JOYY’s 2021 Q2 Revenue Increases by 39.7% Year-on-Year

For the first quarter of 2022, the company expects net revenues to be between $601 million and $616 million. This guidance excludes the revenue contribution from YY Live in the same period of last year.