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2026-05-29
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Earnings documents stored for WB.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-29

Weibo Q1 2026 Tests AI And Video Push Against Earnings Pressure

Simply Wall St.

Never miss an important update on your stock portfolio and cut through the noise. Over 7 million investors trust Simply Wall St to stay informed where it matters for FREE. Weibo, listed as NasdaqGS:WB, reported Q1 2026 results that highlight a refocused homepage feed and upgraded video content. The company outlined greater use of AI-powered advertising tools and a more stable advertising business during the quarter. Shareholders also approved the re-election of directors at the annual general meeting, keeping the current leadership team in place. Weibo enters this phase of product and advertising changes with its stock at $7.86 and the share price down 25.4% year to date. The stock has also fallen 24.9% over 3 years and 77.2% over 5 years. This provides context for how investors may view any signs of business improvement. For readers watching NasdaqGS:WB, the focus now is on whether an optimized feed, stronger video offering, and wider use of AI tools can support engagement and advertising performance. The continuity in Weibo’s board may help keep these initiatives on a consistent track as the company works to translate them into more resilient monetization over time. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Weibo by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Weibo. Does the team leading Weibo have what it takes? See our full breakdown of the management team's track record and compensation. The Q1 2026 numbers give mixed signals for you as an investor. Revenue of US$421.33 million was higher than the US$396.86 million reported a year earlier, helped by a 9% rise in advertising revenue and management’s push on video content and AI-powered tools. At the same time, net income fell from US$106.96 million to US$34.72 million, with basic EPS from continuing operations moving from US$0.45 to US$0.15. That gap between revenue and earnings points to either higher costs, weaker margins, or both, even as user retention and ad conversion trends are described as improving. The renewed focus on an optimized feed, video content, and AI-powered advertising lines up directly with the narrative that AI integration and interest-based feeds can deepen engagement and support more efficient ad placements. The drop in net income and EPS could challenge the narrative that AI and content partnerships alon...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-29

Weibo (WB) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 7 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — Gaofei Wang Chief Financial Officer — Fei Cao Gaofei Wang: [Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. On today's call, I'll share with you highlights of Weibo's product and monetization in the first quarter 2026. On the user front, in March 2026, Weibo's MAU was 562 million and average daily users reached 254 million. Our MAU is still in a modest decline on both a year-on-year and a quarter-over-quarter basis. This is primarily driven by our strategic focus on enhancing the user experience and driving user retention. We have proactively rationalized our channel budget allocation, shifting our focus towards improving the conversion rate of newly acquired users into active users. Concurrently, driven by our recent efforts to optimize information feed product experience for our core business, which includes engaged users and click-oriented users, coupled with the sustained growth in video content consumption on the platform, the scale and engagement frequency of our core users have maintained a solid trend. As a result, our DAUs achieved modest growth quarter-over-quarter. Our total net revenues for the first quarter reached USD 421.3 million, an increase of 6% year-over-year. Our total ad revenues reached USD 369.8 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year. Our non-GAAP operating income for the quarter reached USD 119.8 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 28%. Next, I will highlight Weibo's key development in the first quarter across user growth and engagement, content ecosystem competitiveness and monetization. On user growth and engagement, in 2026, we will focus on improving user retention and building a high-quality, highly engaged and sustainable user growth framework. Information feed still remains in optimization stage post the product update last year and related strategies began to deliver positive results starting in March, with content consumption and interactive measures among our core users beginning to improve. And meanwhile, the sustained growth in time spent on our video playback pages has served as a more solid foundation for the growth of our overall user time spent and retention. Moving on to information feed product. In 2026, the strategy focuses on the product optimizat...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-28

Weibo Announces First Quarter 2026 Unaudited Financial Results

PR Newswire

BEIJING, May 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Weibo Corporation ("Weibo" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: WB and HKEX: 9898), a leading social media in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026. "We are pleased with the first quarter results," said Gaofei Wang, CEO of Weibo. "On the user and product front, we optimized the homepage feed consumption experience and enhanced supply and distribution of quality video content, driving user retention and engagement on our platform. On the content ecosystem front, we enhanced user content consumption efficiency and engagement by improving the quality of trending content, deepening community interaction, and strengthening AI-powered search capabilities. On the monetization front, our advertising business exhibited stabilized trend in the first quarter. We continued to expand our unique content marketing approach across more industries and clients, while leveraging AI to systematically improve advertising conversion effectiveness." First Quarter 2026 Highlights Net revenues were US$421.3 million, an increase of 6% year-over-year or an increase of 1% year-over-year on a constant currency basis [1]. Advertising and marketing revenues were US$369.8 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year or an increase of 3% year-over-year on a constant currency basis [1]. Value-added services ("VAS") revenues were US$51.6 million, a decrease of 11% year-over-year or a decrease of 15% year-over-year on a constant currency basis [1]. Income from operations was US$110.9 million, representing an operating margin of 26%. Net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders was US$34.7 million and diluted net income per share was US$0.14. Non-GAAP income from operations was US$119.8 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 28%. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo's shareholders was US$91.9 million and non-GAAP diluted net income per share was US$0.34. Monthly active users ("MAUs") were 562 million in March 2026. Average daily active users ("DAUs") were 254 million in March 2026. First Quarter 2026 Financial Results For the first quarter of 2026, Weibo's total net revenues were US$421.3 million, an increase of 6% compared to US$396.9 million for the same period last year. Advertising and marketing revenues for the first quarter of 2026 were US$369.8 million, an increase of 9% compared to...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-28

Weibo Q1 Non-GAAP Earnings Fall, Revenue Rises

MT Newswires

Weibo (WB) reported Q1 non-GAAP earnings Thursday of $0.34 per diluted share, down from $0.45 a year

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-28

Weibo Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat

Interested in Weibo Corporation? Here are five stocks we like better. Weibo’s Q1 revenue rose 6% year over year to $421.3 million, driven by a 9% increase in advertising revenue as internet services, autos and local services fueled growth. Non-GAAP operating income was $119.8 million, but the operating margin narrowed to 28% from 33% a year ago. AI and video are becoming central to the platform’s strategy. Management said AI is already helping with ad generation, search and creator tools, while video engagement continued to grow at double-digit rates and remains a key priority for boosting retention and time spent. Costs rose as Weibo invested in growth initiatives, with total expenses up 13% and value-added services revenue falling 11% due to lower game-related revenue. Management also flagged macro uncertainty and industry competition as ongoing risks, even as the company maintained a strong cash position of $2.59 billion. Netflix's Pivot to Profit: The New Discretionary Blue Chip Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) reported higher first-quarter 2026 revenue as advertising returned to year-over-year growth, while management said the company is focusing on user retention, video consumption, artificial intelligence tools and content marketing to support longer-term growth. Chief Executive Officer Gaofei Wang said March monthly active users reached 562 million and average daily active users reached 254 million. Monthly active users declined modestly both year over year and quarter over quarter, which Wang attributed primarily to Weibo’s decision to rationalize channel budget allocation and focus more on converting newly acquired users into active users. Daily active users increased modestly from the prior quarter, supported by retention among core users and growth in video content consumption, he said. → Rocket Lab Keeps Making Headlines and Highs—Here's What's Driving the Latest Move Warner Bros. Discovery’s Blockbuster Deal Faces a Hostile Rewrite First-quarter net revenue totaled $421.3 million, up 6% from a year earlier, or 1% on a constant-currency basis. Advertising and marketing revenue rose 9% to $369.8 million, or 3% on a constant-currency basis. Non-GAAP operating income was $119.8 million, representing a 28% operating margin. Wang said Weibo’s advertising growth was supported by its positioning around “hot trends,” social networking and content marketing, including...

TranscriptFY2026 Q12026-05-28

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 99 paragraphs
Speaker 5

Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Gaofei Wang, and our Chief Financial Officer, Fei Cao. The conference call is also being broadcasted on the internet and is available through Weibo's IR website. Before the management remarks, I would like to read you the safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. During today's conference call, we may make forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including statements of our beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Weibo assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements in this conference call and elsewhere. Further information regarding this and other risks is included in Weibo's annual report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC.

Speaker 5

All the information provided in this press release is current as of the date hereof. Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Additionally, I would like to remind you that our discussion today includes certain non-GAAP measures, which exclude stock-based compensation and certain other expenses. We use non-GAAP financial measures to gain a better understanding of Weibo's comparative operating performance and future prospects. Our non-GAAP financials exclude certain expenses, gains or losses, and other items that are not expected to result in future cash or are non-recurring in nature, or are not indicative of our core operating results and outlook. Please refer to our press release for more information about our non-GAAP measures. Before loading management prepared remarks, we open the lines for a brief Q&A session. With this, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Gaofei Wang.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

On today's call, I'll share with you highlights on Weibo's product and monetization in the first quarter of 2026.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

On the user front, in March 2026, Weibo's MAU 562 million and average DAUs reached 254 million. Our MAUs experienced a modest decline on both a year-over-year and a quarter-over-quarter basis. This was primarily driven by our strategic focus on enhancing user experience and driving user retention. We have proactively rationalized our channel budget allocation, shifting our focus towards improving the conversion rate of newly acquired users into active users. Concurrently, driven by a recent effort to optimize information feed product experience for our core users, which includes engaged users and click-based users. Coupled with the sustained growth in video content consumption on the platform, the scale and engagement frequency of our core users have maintained a solid trend. As a result, our DAUs achieved modest growth quarter-over-quarter. Our total quarter reached $421.3 million US, an increase of 6% year-over-year.

Speaker 6

Our total ad revenues reached $369.8 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year. Our non-GAAP operating income for the quarter reached $119.8 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 28%.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Next, I will highlight Weibo's key development in the first quarter across user growth and engagement, content ecosystem competitiveness, and monetization.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

On user growth and engagement. In 2026, we will focus on improving user retention and building a high quality, highly engaged, and sustainable user growth framework. In the first-Information feed [Non-English content]

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Moving on to information feed product. In 2026, the strategy focuses on the product optimization after the information feed upgrade, which aligns with our long-term direction. Building on Weibo strength in social network and hot trend discussion, we will further enhance the distribution capabilities of Weibo's distinctive native content, establish a more stable and consistent content consumption experience, and continue to strengthen users trust in the information feed.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Specifically, in the first quarter, we focused on a series of optimization initiatives aimed at balancing the distribution of social content, trending topics, and vertical interest-based content. For Weibo's engaged core users, while ensuring their consumption of social content, we also prioritize improving recommendation efficiency for trending and interest-based content. Meanwhile, we further strengthen the distribution of content from authentic accounts, high-quality original content, and reposted content, while stepping up governance over low-quality and overly promotional content to enhance the consumption experience within our information feeds. These strategies were gradually rolled out throughout the first quarter and began to make positive impacts in March. Looking at the preliminary results, the scale, time spent, and engagement volume of the socially engaged users within our information feed have all shown month-over-month improvement, demonstrating that our strategy is more effectively retaining and serving this specific user cohort.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

These preliminary results have bolstered our confidence to further advance the optimization of information feed product. In the second quarter, building upon the experience improvement for our socially engaged users, we will place greater focus on user groups that rely more heavily on the recommendation feeds and have higher expectation for content matching efficiency. Through the continued optimization of product strategies and content matching algorithms, we aim to improve the seamless content consumption for these users within the recommendation feed, and further strengthen Weibo's competitiveness in recommendation-driven content consumption scenarios.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Moving on to video. Our video business is set to serve as a crucial driver for increasing user time spent and retention throughout 2026. In the first quarter, we continue with the proven path established in the second half of 2025, and saw continued improvement of video consumption. During the first quarter, total time spent on the video playback pages achieved double-digit year-over-year growth, while also maintaining an upward trend quarter-over-quarter. Notably, the growth per capita time spent on video playback pages was even more pronounced.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Specifically, during the first quarter, our video business initiatives centered around two key aspects: distribution and supply. On the distribution side, we continued to optimize the recommendation conversion efficiency for videos across core scenarios such as information feeds and trending feeds. At the same time, we reduced the distribution weight of repetitive, low-quality, and excessively commercialized content. This ensures that the growth in video watch time is increasingly driven by high-quality content and arises in users' meaningful viewing behaviors. On the supply side, we further strengthened the supply of high-quality video content by investing more resources to attract high-quality video content creators, incentivize their content production. This includes celebrity and top KOL live vlogs, trending topic analysis, and derivative creation of popular content, all of which are distinctive to our platforms and strategically skew our traffic distribution towards these high-quality offerings.

Speaker 6

In the first quarter, both the number of top-tier accounts, for example, the golden and orange verified accounts, publishing original videos and the number of original videos posts recorded double-digit year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, we are also exploring and validating the introduction of more diverse video content formats, such as short plays and video podcasts.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

In the first quarter, leveraging the continued iteration of our video AI large models, we further built on the platform's strength in vertical IP by opening up AI creation tools to the creators, enabling them to produce derivative video content and extend IP-related content. As of April, we had made copyright materials available from over 20 top-tier TV drama and variety show IPs on the platform, and have actively collaborated with partners to launch AI-driven content recreation initiatives, which have attracted nearly 3,000 creators and generated nearly 8,000 pieces of AI content. Meanwhile, we further enhanced Weibo's AI creation platform by providing creators with resources such as graphic text generation tools, trending topic creation tools, video generation capabilities, copyright material, and campaign templates.

Speaker 6

This empowers creators with richer materials and inspiration, allowing them to translate their content expertise and creative ideas into publishable videos and text-based posts at a significantly lower cost. This, in turn, has helped improve content production efficiency for creators on Weibo.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Moving on to content ecosystem competitiveness. Throughout 2026, we will continue to focus on our 3 core businesses: trending topics, social network, and search, while further enhancing the health and core competitiveness of our content ecosystem. In the first quarter, our focus within the content ecosystem was on enhancing the quality of trending topic consumption, deepening community interactions, and advancing our AI search capabilities. Through these efforts, we aim to significantly improve users' content consumption efficiency and their overall engagement experience on the platform.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

With respect to hot trends, in the first quarter, we focused on strengthening the influence and credibility of our trending list. We optimize the ranking mechanism, improve the quality of content presented on the list, and enrich the content supply and discussion atmosphere on the landing pages. These efforts drove higher content consumption and more vibrant discussion under the hot trend scenarios. Compared with the fourth quarter last year, both average time spent and average discussion volume per user under the hot trend scenarios increased in the first quarter. The strengthened thickness of user engagement around hot trends further reinforce Weibo's competitive position as a go-to platform for hot trend discovery and public discussion.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

On social attributes, in 2026, we aim to deepen user engagement and increase revisit intention within interest-based communities, leveraging richer community engagement features and stronger interaction mechanisms. In the first quarter, the Super Topics community continued to enhance its product capabilities and standardize event-based operations across categories such as celebrities, IPs, and sports events, which sustainably drove user engagement. As a result, both DAUs and engaged users of Super Topics recorded year-over-year growth. With AI further integrated into product development efficiency and content understanding, we will continue to center on core needs of users of community products, accelerating its iteration of interactive community products and features, and thereby further improving users' social fulfillment and sense of belonging on Weibo.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

On search products, as we continue to enhance our AI capabilities, in the first quarter, we have upgraded our Weibo intelligent search function from a single term Q&A summary one into an AI-powered multi-term follow-up queries, and can understand multi-modal content including videos and image with text. Meanwhile, we integrated AI Agent capabilities into key scenarios such as public figure search and hot trend search, and have conducted product experiments on search landing pages and comment sections. Leveraging AI Agent capabilities will enhance the user search experience and efficiency, and further reinforce the Weibo's differentiated value proposition in the search market.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

Moving on to monetization, we have continued to execute on two key strategies that have underpinned our ad products and sales teams since 2025. First, driving broader adoption of Weibo's unique content marketing value across more industries and clients. Second, systematically improving ad conversion effectiveness by leveraging AI capabilities. In the first quarter, Weibo's ad revenues increased 9% year-over-year. Overall, Weibo continued to leverage its differentiated strength in hot trends plus social plus content marketing across proven marketing scenarios such as new product launches, Chinese New Year campaigns, sports events, and celebrity marketing, leading to growth across multiple key industries.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

By industry, the main growth contributors in the first quarter were verticals such as internet service, local service and automobiles. The internet service sector delivered robust year-over-year growth, primarily driven by incremental budget we captured from the internet service companies. For example, during the Chinese New Year period, various AI large language model players ramp up their marketing investment. Leveraging Weibo strong KOL ecosystem and professional discussion environment in the digital and technology verticals, we effectively fulfilled AI companies marketing need in areas such as new product launches, technology education, and word of mouth building, which resulted in a notable increase in related marketing revenues. We believe that as AI technologies and application continue to evolve, AI related content will become a major incremental driver of Weibo's content ecosystem.

Speaker 6

In May, the number of AI focused professional content creators, the average daily number of AI related hot trends, and the discussion volume of AI content on Weibo all increased more than 30% compared with January this year. This technological transformation in AI have been continuously stimulating content creation and user discussion on our platform, and will further build a flywheel between content ecosystem enrichment and monetization growth.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

The local service sector was also among the fast growing sector in the first quarter, supported by ongoing competition in food delivery, as well as seasonal boost from the Chinese New Year holiday. The automobile sector delivered double-digit year-over-year growth, primarily driven by favorable policies and new vehicle launches, relatively stable ad spend around new product launches, user reputation building, and brand awareness. The handset sector recorded modest year-over-year growth in the first quarter. Looking ahead, market competition in the sector continue to intensify. Despite ongoing support from trading subsidies, rising chip and memory cost continue to put pressure on handset manufacturers profitability, which may weigh on their ad budget going forward. We will closely track new product launch cycles and client budget dynamics, and optimize our sales strategy accordingly to ensure solid coverage of key clients.

Speaker 6

Among other verticals, the apparel and footwear sector achieved double-digit year-over-year growth in the first quarter, primarily fueled by the Winter Olympics, concentrated marketing campaigns by sports and outdoor brands, and celebrity endorsement activities. Through which advertiser effectively leveraged events and celebrity moments to boost the brand awareness.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 6

As mentioned last quarter, we have seen a recovery trend in demand for celebrities and IP-based content marketing from certain brand advertisers. In the first quarter, this trend continued to play out in a number of key industries and campaigns, with related revenues maintaining solid year-over-year growth and providing a meaningful supplement to our overall content marketing business. Celebrity marketing has always been a distinctive component of Weibo's content marketing capabilities. Over the past quarter, we focused more on enhancing service depth and ad placement efficiency for clients in this area. Based on clients' brand objectives, budget levels, and target audience, we integrated Weibo resources in hot trends, IPs, celebrities, and KOL ecosystems to provide more tailored resource matching, content planning, and campaign execution services. This initiative enables clients to effectively achieve brand exposure and user engagement, while our products and service capabilities are still being further refined.

Speaker 6

We have already seen encouraging execution results and client feedback in some of the pilot projects. Looking forward, we will continue to advance our celebrity and IP content marketing services, positioning them as a key component to deepen collaboration with brand advertisers and enhance our content marketing competitiveness, while driving greater synergy with our overall ad product portfolio. With that, let me turn the call over to Fei Cao for financial review.

Fei Cao

Thank you, Gaofei, and hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Let's start with user metrics. In March 2026, Weibo's MAUs and average DAUs reached 562 million and 254 million respectively. During the first quarter, we continued to focus on user quality, retention, and engagement. MAUs saw a modest sequential decline, mainly reflecting our ongoing rationalization of channel investment and the transition following our information feed revamp. At the same time, DAUs remained resilient and improved slightly quarter-over-quarter, supported by better retention of core users, continued optimization of the homepage feed experience, and improving video consumption. AI continued to serve as an important enabler across our product, content, and monetization systems. On the monetization side, AI-powered targeting, feeding, and ad creative generation continued to support Promoted Feeds and real-time bidding ad products.

Fei Cao

Internally, we are also expanding the use of AI tools to improve execution efficiency across product, operations, and sales teams. Turning to financials. As a reminder, my prepared remarks will focus on non-GAAP results. Monetary amounts are in US dollar term, and all comparisons are on a year-to-year basis, unless otherwise noted. Now, let me walk you through our financial highlights for the first quarter 2026. Weibo's first quarter 2026 net revenues were $421.3 million, an increase of 6%, or 1% on a constant currency basis. Operating income was $119.8 million, representing operating margin of 28%. Net income attributable to Weibo reached $91.9 million, and the diluted EPS was $0.34. Let me give you more color on the first quarter 2026 revenue performance.

Fei Cao

We started the year with our advertising business returning to year-over-year growth, supported by improving demand from selected verticals and continued execution in content marketing and performance-based ad products. Weibo's advertising and marketing revenues for the first quarter 2026 were $369.8 million, an increase of 9%, or 3% on a constant currency basis. By industry, our largest three verticals were FMCG, e-commerce, and 3C products in terms of growth. Internet services, automobile, and local services were the major contributors. Advertising revenues from internet companies increased primarily due to incremental advertising spend from leading players in the sector. The automobile sector also saw substantial growth, supported by auto-related content ecosystems and ad spend from electric vehicles. For the handset sector, advertising revenues recorded modest growth, but we remain mindful that their marketing budgets may face pressure amid intensified competition with the handset market, as well as rising component costs.

Fei Cao

As for areas facing headwinds, FMCG continued to face a year-over-year gap, although we saw sequential recovery as certain advertisers resumed spending in celebrity and KOL marketing campaigns. The online game sector was still on a descending trend due to lack of blockbuster releases this quarter. By ad product, Promoted Feeds ad was the largest, followed by Social Display, Search, and Topic. Promoted Feeds delivered solid growth, benefiting from better ad matching in the revamped information feed, continued demand for Weibo's differentiated IP and content marketing solutions, and deeper AI integration in targeting, feeding, and creative generation. These product improvements helped advertisers combine brand exposure with more measurable conversion objectives. Ad revenues from Alibaba for the first quarter were $43.3 million, an increase of 2% year-over-year or a decrease of 4% on a constant currency basis.

Fei Cao

The modest decline of revenues from Alibaba was primarily due to high base last year, which included one-off revenues from promotional ad budget for Alibaba's sponsorship of Spring Festival in 2025 and AI-related budget in the first quarter last year. Ad spend from Alibaba highly correlates to its own marketing strategies, which may fluctuate with Alibaba's campaign priorities and product launch schedule, et cetera. Value added service revenues were $51.6 million in the first quarter, a decrease of 11% or 15% on a constant currency basis. The decrease was primarily attributable to decline in game-related revenue. Turning to costs and expenses. Total costs and expenses for the first quarter was $301.5 million, an increase of 13%, mainly due to higher ad production cost and marketing spends, partially offset by the decrease of general and administration expense.

Fei Cao

During the quarter, we continued to make major investments in selected monetization related initiatives, primarily around advertising product capabilities, content marketing ecosystem, and client service offerings. We will continue to manage the pace of these investments with ROI discipline and within a controllable budget framework. Operating income in the first quarter was $119.8 million, representing operating margin of 28% compared to 33% in the same period last year. While operating margin declined year-over-year due to less investments, we remain focused on balancing near-term execution needs with sustainable profitability and healthy cash flow generation. Turning to income tax. Under GAAP, income tax expenses for the first quarter were $15.7 million compared to $24.3 million last year, mainly due to decrease in deferred tax liability related to equity pickup adjustment.

Fei Cao

Net income attributable to Weibo in the first quarter was $91.9 million, representing a net margin of 22%. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow items. As of March 31st, 2026, Weibo's cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $2.59 billion compared to $2.41 billion as of December 31st, 2025. In the first quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $164 million. Capital expenditures totaled $11.9 million, and the depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $15.5 million. Let me share some color on our shareholder returns. We have completed the distribution of the annual cash dividend of $0.31 for ordinary share or ADSs for the fiscal year 2025, with aggregate amount of approximately $150 million in May 2026.

Fei Cao

We will continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation, balancing shareholder returns with the financial flexibility needed to fund our long-term product, AI, and the content ecosystem initiative. Overall, first quarter was a quarter of continued transition and steady execution. While macro consumption sentiment and industry competition remain uncertain, with the initial signs of stabilization in core user engagement and advertising demand. We will continue to balance investment needs with operating efficiency and healthy cash flow generation as we build a more sustainable foundation for long-term development. Before turning to the Q&A session, let me provide you a brief update on ESG front. In April, we published our fifth ESG report highlighting our efforts across social value, tech empowerment, information security, employee development, content ecosystem, and green operations.

Fei Cao

MSCI also recently upgraded our ESG rating from BB to AA, recognizing our progress in sustainability, innovation, and social responsibility. Please visit our IR website for more information. With that, let me now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

Operator

Thank you so much. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please stand by, we'll compile the Q&A roster. This will take a few moments. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one one. Now we're going to take our first question. It comes now from Thomas Chong from Jefferies. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Thomas Chong

[Non-English content]. Hi, good evening. Thanks management for taking my questions. Based on the trend so far we see in Q1 and recent months, can management comment about Weibo advertising outlook in Q2? In addition, can management also comment about our advertising strategies, any updates for the full year?

Thomas Chong

Separate today on AI, can management share about how it benefits advertising and monetization? Thank you.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Thank you for the question. First off, let's talk about the overall recap of Q1 performance as well as the expectation of the second half of the year. First of all, we had a year-on-year growth of about 9% of the advertising revenue in Q1. If we're talking about the definition of RMB, it was about 3% of the growth. In Q1, primarily the advertising revenue growth was driven by the Internet-based software deployment and AI-related investments as well as the other local lifestyle and automotive industry related.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Okay. Next, I would like to say that in Q1, overall speaking, we had a better than expectation growth of our ad revenue in terms of the consumption area. If you are talking about the key accounts that we have, especially from different verticals, we've been seeing a stressful situation. For instance, in terms of automotive sales, they've been experiencing double digit decrease. For the handset, they had also a decrease in terms of their overall revenue because of the additional cost of the memory and most of the handset makers have to adjust their overall price. Also for e-commerce, we've been experiencing also the stressful profitability situation. Even if our ad revenue was growing, we have still a stressful operation for our customers. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Okay. Next, in terms of Q2 and also the future outlook, I think that although we've been seeing a stressful operational situation for consumption industry, we did have the different responses from different customers. First of all, in terms of automotive industry, in the current stage, they've been experiencing some of the decrease of their sales volume. However, they were not just stopping in terms of the promotion activities for the new products and new product launch as well. This year we've been seeing more new product launches than that of last year. In Q1 and Q2, as of the near future, I think that this is going to be accelerated. As you can see that we always have more and more frequent launches of new EVs.

Speaker 7

Also Weibo is a very good and natural ecosystem to generate and stimulate the discussions around the topics of technology related and new energy related. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

At the same time, for the handset industry, as you can see that it is difficult for us to have a very correct prediction of the performance in the second half of the year. The industry did experience a drop of their sales volume in the first half of this year. Of course, this year, however, still we are seeing more launches of new products and new smartphones, and especially increase in the frequency of smartphone launches for the medium to high-end segment. In summer holiday, we might have been experiencing some of the adjustments of the strategy from the handset industry. Of course, this year we've been seeing Apple practically adjusted their price, causing some of the stressful situations to some of the Chinese handset makers.

Speaker 7

As a result, our ad revenue and ad budget was primarily related to the frequency of the new product launches of the different verticals as well as the sales, but not necessarily related to the operational result of the customers in different verticals. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Of course. Also lastly, let's talk about some of the other industries like the e-commerce and local lifestyle as well as the FMCG industry. First of all, for the e-commerce, we've already had a very high base number in entering to Q2. Of course, also for the industry, some of the promotion activities and especially budget allocated to the fast food delivery was not as intense as before. This is going to be not that stressful. Also, I would like to comment on FMCG. Entering to the second half of the year, we are going to have the World Cup as activities. I believe that we are trying our best to catch the opportunity to gain that ad revenue or ad budget from that customer. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content]

Speaker 7

Also, you can see that talking about the AI topic, as we have already previously stated, that the AI was primarily very effective on the effective based or the performance based ads. You can see that AI was quite useful in terms of the ad material generation, the eCPM, and also the recommendations as well. In terms of those generated materials for the advertisements, the primary consumption rate was already reaching to about 40%. In Q1, in the information based feed, we had a double-digit growth, especially talking about the eCPM and the other relevant areas. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Of course, you know that Weibo is very good at doing the business in the advertisement industry for the brand-based advertisement and key-customer advertisement. We are very good at doing the business of the celebrity-based or the content-based marketing. At the current stage, we've been having a very good progress in terms of adoption of the AI among those KOLs and also the celebrities as well. AI is pretty much useful in generating those ad materials for those KOLs to be very much facilitative. Of course, in Q1 and Q2, we've been seeing some of the headwinds in terms of the adoption rate as well as the acceptance by the public in terms of those ad-generated by AI or those content-generated by AI.

Speaker 7

At the current stage, we are not doing a massive commercialization as for the front, but still we are going to wait. Still, we are doing some internal testing among KOLs, and the public acceptance is the criteria for us to evaluate before we go massive commercialization. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Thank you.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Operator

Thank you. We're going to take our next question. Give us a moment. The question comes in of Jenny Yuan from UBS. Your line is open. Please ask your question.

Jenny Yuan

[Non-English content]. So thanks management for taking my question.

Speaker 6

Could you please share some updates on the impact of the stated events on user growth? Last quarter we highlighted video strategy as a key focus for this year. Could you please provide an update on the progress so far as well as the key priorities and targets for the next phase? Lastly, could you please also share recent developments on the AI front in terms of user-facing products? Thank you.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Got it. OK, thank you for this question. First of all, as for the update of the information-based feed, we've been seeing that this was actually completed in the middle of Q3 of 2025, and before which we had primarily based on the recommendation-based feed. When we actually had that update and adjustments, we've been seeing a very good improvement of the user experience in the front. In Q1, we had a little bit decrease of MAU and DAU of this side, primarily due to the strategy changes of our channel placement, and also some of the low shipments of the handsets. We had a lower number of pre-installments, and also the users as well. In Q1, you can see that we've been seeing a user acquisition cost increase, because it was actually the hot season in terms of the AI application adoption and also the usage.

Speaker 7

At the same time still, we are keeping very good number in terms of the social based users and also the click-based users. In after Q2, we are going to see a very good improvement both in terms of the total time spent as well as the interactive volume.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

Got it. In the long run, our overall objective of doing the update and changes of this existing product is that we would like to, first of all, get rid of those user experience that was primarily based on the relationship-based feed. Of course, at the current stage, there are still some of the challenges from the user side in terms of the acceptance and getting used to this new version. Still, in the long run, we have two objectives by doing this kind of change. First is that we hope that we are going to fully release the value of Weibo to those consumers, and at the same time, using our algorithm to better enhance the user experience and also the depth of the user interaction on the social media.

Speaker 7

Second point is that we hope that our total video consumption in terms of the time spent and also the total video-based consumption could be further improved because of this kind of strategy. We would like to attract more bloggers to be on the Weibo, to open account, and generate more video content. This would be helping them to do more deployment and the placements as well as the generation and production of the video-related content. This would be really helpful for us to increase the time spent on video-related content on Weibo. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

In terms of the overall results of this video strategy for the video front. First of all, of course, we've been seeing actually a very good growth of the number of users consuming the video-related content on Weibo. You can see that this was pretty much forming a new mindset of the consumers on the video-related content. We had a very good double-digit growth year-on-year in terms of the time spent on the video-related content on Weibo. On the supply side of the video content, because of this recommendation-based feed, we hope that we are able to attract more creators and bloggers from outside of Weibo by providing them with more resources and also more budget.

Speaker 7

Based on this new algorithm and new incentives plan and encouragement plans, we hope that we are able to attract more and more those external bloggers and also content creators to be landing on Weibo and helping us to enrich the supply of video content. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

In terms of the AI, we had a lot of R&D and investment and tried to encourage people to actually use AI to facilitate what they do. When we launched the Zhisou in 2025, we had actually a very good boost in terms of the total volume of search. Still in Q1, we had some of the challenges because at the current stage, we've been seeing a lot of AI tools that were emerging and on the consumption side, or on consumer side, more and more consumers are now trying to use the interactive and dialogue-based search instead of just a pure search function. In Q4, we made that interactive dialogue-based search available and experiencing a 100% of the growth in terms of users and adoption in Q1.

Speaker 7

Still at the current stage, the base number of the user for this particular feature is only at a level of million. We hope that in the future we are able to further boost that and further strengthen our AI-related strategy on this front. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

[Non-English content].

Speaker 7

In Q1, especially targeting those content creators, we are now establishing an AI content creating center, facilitating those content creators to generate the text and images as well as video content as well. At the current stage, you can see that we had a lot of important key account or the key content creators that had a very good video generated in that center and those texts and images as well. We've been seeing a very good collaboration with ByteDance and Qwen to actually have the capability to help the content creators to generate a video with a length of one minute long, which primarily it's about several seconds or 10 or so seconds, but we are able to help to generate the videos of one minute long.

Speaker 7

This, of course, is the feature that is not accessible by all the users. By the current stage we're only providing this to some of the new certified users. In the future we hope that we are able to have a rollout. Before that, we are going to have further consolidation internally. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

Okay. Thank you.

Jenny Yuan

Thank you.

Operator

Dear participants, due to time constraints of today's call, we will not be addressing any further questions. Thank you very much for taking participation. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-27

Weibo Announces Results of 2026 Annual General Meeting

PR Newswire

BEIJING, May 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Weibo Corporation ("Weibo" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: WB and HKEX: 9898), a leading social media in China, today announced that the following proposed resolutions submitted for shareholder approval as set forth in the notice of annual general meeting dated April 13, 2026 have been adopted at its 2026 annual general meeting of shareholders held today: as an ordinary resolution, THAT Mr. Charles Guowei Chao shall be re-elected as a director of the Company at this annual general meeting and retain office until his retirement pursuant to the Company's memorandum and articles of association; as an ordinary resolution, THAT Mr. Gaofei Wang shall be re-elected as a director of the Company at this annual general meeting and retain office until his retirement pursuant to the Company's memorandum and articles of association; and as an ordinary resolution, THAT Mr. Pochin Christopher Lu shall be re-elected as a director of the Company at this annual general meeting and retain office until his retirement pursuant to the Company's memorandum and articles of association. About Weibo Weibo is a leading social media for people to create, share and discover content online. Weibo combines the means of public self-expression in real time with a powerful platform for social interaction, content aggregation and content distribution. Any user can create and post a feed and attach multi-media and long-form content. User relationships on Weibo may be asymmetric; any user can follow any other user and add comments to a feed while reposting. This simple, asymmetric and distributed nature of Weibo allows an original feed to become a live viral conversation stream. Weibo enables its advertising and marketing customers to promote their brands, products and services to users. Weibo offers a wide range of advertising and marketing solutions to companies of all sizes. Weibo generates a substantial majority of its revenues from the sale of advertising and marketing services, including the sale of social display advertisement and promoted marketing offerings. Weibo displays content in a simple information feed format and offers native advertisement that conforms to the information feed on our platform. We are continuously refining our social interest graph recommendation engine, which enables our customers to perform people marketing and target audiences...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-27

Weibo Corporation to Report First Quarter 2026 Financial Results on May 28, 2026

PR Newswire

BEIJING, April 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Weibo Corporation (NASDAQ: WB and HKEX: 9898), a leading social media for people to create, share and discover content, will announce its unaudited financial results for the first quarter 2026 before the U.S. market opens on Thursday, May 28, 2026. Following the announcement, Weibo's management team will host a conference call from 7 AM – 8 AM Eastern Time on May 28, 2026 (or 7 PM – 8 PM Beijing Time on May 28, 2026) to present an overview of the Company's financial performance and business operations. Participants who wish to dial in to the teleconference must register through the below public participant link. Dial in and instruction will be in the confirmation email upon registering. Participants Registration Link: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BIb549b1f6935046d98b52a0fe61be918e Additionally, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available at http://ir.weibo.com. About Weibo Corporation Weibo is a leading social media for people to create, share and discover content online. Weibo combines the means of public self-expression in real time with a powerful platform for social interaction, content aggregation and content distribution. Any user can create and post a feed and attach multi-media and long-form content. User relationships on Weibo may be asymmetric; any user can follow any other user and add comments to a feed while reposting. This simple, asymmetric and distributed nature of Weibo allows an original feed to become a live viral conversation stream. Weibo enables its advertising and marketing customers to promote their brands, products and services to users. Weibo offers a wide range of advertising and marketing solutions to companies of all sizes. The Company generates a substantial majority of its revenues from the sale of advertising and marketing services, including the sale of social display advertisement and promoted marketing offerings. Designed with a "mobile first" philosophy, Weibo displays content in a simple information feed format and offers native advertisement that conform to the information feed on our platform. To support the mobile format, we have developed and continuously refining our social interest graph recommendation engine, which enables our customers to perform people marketing and target audiences based on user demographics, social relationship...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-03-21

Weibo (WB) Valuation Check After Mixed Q4 Earnings And New US$150 Million Dividend

Simply Wall St.

Get insights on thousands of stocks from the global community of over 7 million individual investors at Simply Wall St. Weibo (WB) shares came under pressure after the company paired fourth quarter results with a fresh annual dividend announcement, combining modest revenue gains with weaker non GAAP earnings and a planned US$150 million cash payout. See our latest analysis for Weibo. Those mixed earnings and dividend headlines land against a weak recent tape, with the share price at US$8.66 and a 1 month share price return of 13.49% decline, adding to a 1 year total shareholder return of 4.72% decline. This suggests momentum has been fading even as the business highlights AI and video initiatives. If Weibo’s recent swings have you reassessing exposure to single names, this can be a good moment to widen your watchlist with 20 top founder-led companies With the share price under pressure, an annual dividend of US$150 million on the table, and earnings moving in different directions from quarter to year, should you see Weibo as undervalued today, or is the market already pricing in its future growth potential? The most followed narrative pegs Weibo’s fair value at $8.50, just below the last close of $8.66, suggesting the current price is slightly ahead of that model. Read the complete narrative. Curious what sits behind this almost flat fair value call? The narrative leans on modest revenue changes, steady margins, and a compressed future earnings multiple that contrasts sharply with the broader industry. Result: Fair Value of $8.50 (OVERVALUED) Have a read of the narrative in full and understand what's behind the forecasts. However, analysts also point to faster traction in AI powered search and interest based content, plus resilient ad demand from sectors like e commerce and autos, as potential upside catalysts. Find out about the key risks to this Weibo narrative. That 1.9% overvaluation call sits awkwardly next to how the market is actually pricing Weibo today. The shares trade on a P/E of 4.7x versus 14.7x for the US Interactive Media and Services industry and 15x for peers, while the fair ratio comes in at 13.2x. Such a wide gap can signal either a real risk premium or a potential mispricing. Which side of that line do you think the stock belongs on? See what the numbers say about this price — find out in our valuation breakdown. With sentiment in this ar...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-03-19

Weibo Corp (WB) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Revenue Growth and AI Integration Drive ...

GuruFocus.com

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Total Revenue (Q4 2025): USD473.3 million, an increase of 4% year-over-year. Total Revenue (Full-Year 2025): USD1.76 billion, relatively flat year-over-year. Advertising Revenue (Q4 2025): USD403.8 million, an increase of 5% year-over-year. Value-Added Service Revenue (Q4 2025): USD69.5 million, a decrease of 2% year-over-year. Non-GAAP Operating Income (Q4 2025): USD100.4 million, with an operating margin of 21%. Non-GAAP Operating Income (Full-Year 2025): USD523.6 million, with an operating margin of 30%. Net Income (Q4 2025): USD66.4 million, with a net margin of 14%. Net Income (Full-Year 2025): USD439.8 million, with a net margin of 25%. Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Short-Term Investments: USD2.41 billion as of December 24, 2025. Cash Provided by Operating Activities (Q4 2025): USD181.4 million. Capital Expenditures (Q4 2025): USD10.4 million. Depreciation and Amortization (Q4 2025): USD15.3 million. Annual Cash Dividend: USD0.61 per ordinary share, totaling approximately USD150 million. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with WB. Is WB fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: March 18, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Weibo Corp (NASDAQ:WB) reported a 4% year-over-year increase in total revenues for the fourth quarter, reaching USD473.3 million. The company's non-GAAP operating income for the fourth quarter was USD100.4 million, with an operating margin of 21%. Weibo's MAUs reached 567 million and average DAUs reached 252 million in December 2025, indicating strong user engagement. The company saw a 5% year-over-year growth in advertising revenues for the fourth quarter, driven by sectors like e-commerce, automobile, and local services. Weibo's AI integration in advertising has improved ad targeting and creative solutions, contributing to a 40% consumption in promoted fee ad offerings. Value-added service revenues decreased by 2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, indicating challenges in this segment. The online game sector continued to face pressure due to a lack of blockbuster game releases, impacting revenue growth. Operating margin decreased from 30% in the same period last year to 21% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Net income margin for the fourth quarter was 14%, down from 23% last y...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-03-19

Update: Weibo Shares Fall Following Q4 Non-GAAP Earnings Miss

MT Newswires

(Updates with latest share price movement in the headline and first paragraph.) Weibo (WB) shares

TranscriptFY2025 Q42026-03-18

FY2025 Q4 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 100 paragraphs
Operator

Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weibo's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sandra Zhang, IR Representative. Please go ahead.

Sandra Zhang

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Weibo's fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Gaofei Wang; and our Chief Financial Officer, Fei Cao. The conference call is also being broadcast on the internet and is available on the IR website. Before the management remarks, I would like to read you the safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. During today's conference call, we may make forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including statements of our beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements involving inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors would cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Weibo assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in this conference call and elsewhere. Further information on risks and other risks is included in Weibo's annual report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC.

Sandra Zhang

All the information provided in this press release is accurate as of the date hereof. Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Additionally, I have to remind you that our discussion today includes certain non-GAAP measures, which excludes stock-based compensation and certain other expenses. We use non-GAAP financial measures to gain a better understanding of Weibo's comparative operating performance and the future prospects. Our non-GAAP financials excludes certain expenses, gains or other items that are not expected to result in future cash payments, were non-recurring in nature, or are not indicative of our core operating results and outlook. Please refer to our press release for more information about our non-GAAP measures. Following management's prepared remarks, we'll open the lines for a brief Q&A session. With this, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Gaofei Wang.

Speaker 6

Thank you. Hello, everyone.

Speaker 6

Welcome to Weibo's fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. On today's call, I will share with you highlights on Weibo's product and monetization, review the progress made in 2025, elaborate our strategies for 2026. Starting from our financial performance in the fourth quarter, our total revenues in the fourth quarter reached $473.3 million, an increase of 4% year-over-year. Our total reached $403.8 million, an increase of 5% year-over-year. Our Value-Added Service revenues reached $69.5 million, a decrease of 2% year-over-year. Our non-GAAP operating income in the fourth quarter reached $100.4 million, representing operating margin of 21%. For full year 2025, our total revenues reached $1.76 billion, relatively flat year-over-year.

Speaker 6

Our total ad revenues reached $1.5 billion, relatively flat year-over-year. Our Value-Added Service revenues reached $255.6 million, relatively flat year-over-year. For full year 2025, our non-GAAP operating income reached $503.6 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 30%. On the user front, in December 2025, Weibo's MAUs reached $567 million, and average DAUs reached $252 million. Throughout 2025, we focused on enhancing user value, solidifying Weibo's leading position in hot topics and entertainment content ecosystems, and strengthening the competitiveness of our social products. At the same time, we leveraged to improve our recommendation and search systems, driving both user base and engagement. Next, I will highlight key development in Weibo's product operation and monetization in the fourth quarter.

Gaofei Wang

在用户增长与活跃层面,我们于25年7月下旬完成首页产品核心产品架构切换,正式上线以推荐流为主的全新首页。本次调整的核心目标是在发挥微博社交优势的基础上,突破传统仅依赖关注关系的分发瓶颈,让用户更高效地获取优质内容,同时为平台垂直领域内容提供了更大的曝光空间。

Speaker 6

On user growth and engagement. In late July, we completed a structural upgrade of our core homepage info, and officially rolled out the new homepage with interest-based feed as the primary interface. Our key objective of this upgrade was to leverage in social products, while expanding from only relying on relationship-based mechanism to distribute content. Enable user to discover high quality content more efficiently and providing greater visibility for vertical content across the platform.

Gaofei Wang

从执行上看,三季度我们重点保证用户使用习惯的平稳过渡,整体切换顺利。四季度工作聚焦两大方向,一是持续迭代算法,提升效率,借用户在平台的点击、停留、互动等实际行为数据,强化即时推荐能力,提升内容的消费深度。四季度,用户每次打开APP推荐首页双轴的内容消费量与使用时长均实现环比增长。二是基于算法导向的人群精细化策略,针对平台社交互动型用户,保持稳定的社交关系内容分发,并融合社交推荐与兴趣推荐,在满足用户社交内容消费需求的同时,提升兴趣匹配的精准性。此类用户四季度首页信息流的次均阅读量、日常及互动效率均环比提升。同时,新首页降低了新用户的使用门槛。随着算法的持续投入,新用户的次均阅读量与使用时长也呈现明显提升的良好趋势。

Speaker 6

In terms of execution, in the third quarter, we focused on ensuring smooth transition of the product and minimize the impact on user behaviors. In the fourth quarter, we prioritize two key initiatives. First, we continue to refine our recommendation algorithm to improve recommendation efficiency. By leveraging real-time user behavior, including clicks, timespan, and engagement, we strengthen our instant recommendation capabilities and facilitated more in-depth content consumption. As a result, in the fourth quarter, both the average information feed viewership and timespan per user increased quarter-over-quarter. Second, we rolled out an algorithm-driven audience segmentation strategy to deliver more granular, targeted content recommendation. For users who engage on the platform, we maintain the stable distribution of relationship-based content within their interest-based feed. Keeping a balance between relationship-based content and interest-based content, satisfying users' demand for social content consumption, while improving the precision of interest-based content delivery.

Speaker 6

Among these social users, the average information viewership and timespan per refresh and engagement per thousand viewership all increased quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter. We also revamped the new homepage with easier onboarding experience for new users. With continuing recommendation algorithms, new users average information feed consumption per refresh and timespan has exhibited upward trends.

Gaofei Wang

当然我们也认识到,当前推荐型的信息流产品和关系流产品相比竞争激烈,转型期部分用户的指标仍存在波动,这属于迭代过程中的挑战。但社交互动型用户、新用户积极的内容消费表现,我们也充分验证了方向的正确性。下一步,我们将继续发挥微博在社交热点讨论优势,强化微博特色内容的分发能力,建立更稳定和预期的内容消费感知。同时重点优化用户的体验,提升用户对首页信息流产品的信任,为平台长期用户增长及活跃和商业价值的增长打下坚实的基础。

Speaker 6

In the meantime, we also recognize that compared with the relationship-based feed, the market for the interest-based recommendation feed is highly competitive. In its transitional period, some user metrics remain volatile, which is within our expectation. Nevertheless, the strong content consumption by social users and new users has fully validated our current direction. Going forward, we will continue to leverage Weibo social product and hot topics, further enhance the distribution of Weibo's unique content. Meanwhile, we will focus on establishing a more stable and predictable content consumption experience and enhancing user trust and stickiness with the homepage information feed, which laid a solid foundation for long-term user growth, engagement and monetization.

Gaofei Wang

随着推荐流成为核心的分发场景,视频业务可以突破原有关注关系限制,在触达效率和消费成绩上实现了更大的提升空间。25年的下半年,我们重点推进了两项核心工作。一是通过深化内容与场景协同,提升视频的推荐效率。二是加强视频内容的质量建设。在刺激头部KOL生产方面,巩固平台竞争优势的内容,同时系统性治理低质视频内容,优化供给结构。从结果看,效果显著。25年下半年,视频播放业日均播放时长、人均播放时长较25年上半年均实现了双位数的增长。

Speaker 6

As an interest-based feed becomes the core scenario for distribution, this will facilitate the distribution of our video content, which were previously mainly through relationship-based feed. For video strategy, in the second half, we focused on two key initiatives. First, enhancing video efficiency by strengthening the synergy between content and scenarios. Second, improve the quality of video content. This involves incentivizing top-tier KOLs to produce more competitive content for the platform, while systematically managing low-quality video content to optimize the supply structure. In the second half of 2025, both the average daily video view time and the producer video view time on the video playback page achieved double-digit growth compared with half of 2025.

Gaofei Wang

此外,春节期间,随着AI视频模型的发布和普及,大幅降低了视频的创作门槛。春节期间,新成为博主的原创视频人数以及发布量较去年同期均实现了明显的增长,视频人数和原创视频量均提升了40%以上。未来,随着AI技术升级,视频生产效率和质量会直线地提升。我们将发挥平台热点和垂直的IP优势,向博主开放AI创作工具,支持博主围绕IP进行二次的创作与内容延伸,进一步强化我们视频内容生产的差异化竞争力。例如,这次春节电影档,微博联合哪吒电影发起二创大赛,通过AI工具基于剧情和角色的IP进行创意改编。百余位创作者参与,官方账号和主创团队与微博进行互动,带来了多元的讨论和破圈关注,为偏方的行业提供可复用的宣传模式。目前在热播剧《逐玉》中,也复用了AI的二创模式,助力了剧集传播。

Speaker 6

Furthermore, during the Spring Festival, the release and widespread adoption of AI video technology and tools significantly lowered the barrier for video creation. During the period, both the number of original videos and the number of original video content creators among KOLs and grew over 40% year-over-year. Looking ahead, as AI technologies continue to evolve and advance, video production efficiency and quality are expected to improve further. In response, we will leverage the progress in hot topics and vertical IPs, providing content creators with AI creation tools to support secondary content production and the content expansion of vertical IPs. This will further strengthen the competitiveness of Weibo video content ecosystem.

Speaker 6

For example, among those movies released during the Spring Festival, we will partner with the film, The Blade, launch a fan creation contest, where content creators use AI tools to produce creative adaptation based on the plots and characters. Over 100 creators participated through the contest, and the main production team interacted actively on the platform. The campaign sparked a diverse discussion and engaged audience from all verticals, providing a replicable marketing model. Subsequently, this AI-powered model is also being reused for the current hit drama, 《逐玉》, helping to boost the show's visibility.

Gaofei Wang

搜索产品方面,四季度整体延续三季度的方向,围绕提供智能便捷的搜索服务。一是持续深化AI能力,提升用户对需求和内容理解的精准性,并且在热点、人物的高频搜索场景中,优化搜索效果和用户体验,强化微博的搜索新智。二是升级产品形态,从单轮问答升级为支持连续交互的多轮问答助手,满足用户更连贯、更深入的信息获取和探索需求。三是在微博问消费试水功能场景,让自投功能触及更多的用户。这一项工作的推进,自投产品的用户规模及活跃度在四季度保持提升。十二月,自投MAU突破8,000万,DAU和活跃量环比均提升双位数,带动平台的搜索活跃量的进一步提升。

Speaker 6

Turning to search products. In the fourth quarter, we continued to focus on providing users with more intelligent and convenient search experience. First, we continued our AI capabilities to improve the accuracy of understanding users' needs and content. In high-frequency search scenarios such as hot topics and public figure search, we leverage intelligent search to optimize search effectiveness and user experience, strengthening the mind share of search among Weibo users. Second, we upgraded the product form, evolving Weibo intelligent search from a single round Q&A model to a multi-round conversational system, which better meets users' needs for more coherent and in-depth information discovery and exploration. Third, expanded implementation of intelligent search to more key scenarios, including content consumption and social interactions, reaching a broader user base. These initiatives lead to continued growth in intelligent search user scale and engagement in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 6

In December, Weibo's intelligent search MAU surpassed 18 million, with average DAUs and search queries both double-digit growth quarter-over-quarter, driving overall platform search query volume further to improve.

Gaofei Wang

商业化方面,25年广告产品和销售团队始终坚持两驱三,推动微博独有的内容营销新智向全行业的渗透,并结合AI能力,系统性提升我们效果、效果的转化能力。四季度,微博广告收入同比增长5%。

Speaker 6

Moving on to monetization. In 2025, our ad product and sales team consistently focus on two strategic. First, continuing to promote Weibo's unique content marketing positioning across all industries. Second, systematically improving ad performance and conversion capabilities by leveraging AI technologies. In the fourth quarter, Weibo's ad revenues grew by 5% year-over-year.

Gaofei Wang

分行业来看,四季度重点把握确定性较强的营销预算机会。电商、汽车、生活服务成为增长的主要支撑。微博的社交加热点的传播优势,在关键的电商节点和高价值用户获取方面,得到了更多品牌的认可。微博电商行业的广告收入同比也增长显著。同时,我们将此模式复制到本地生活领域,助力外卖服务类客户在激烈竞争中实现更高效的获客,带动微博生活服务行业收入同比提升。汽车行业实现稳健增长,但手机行业受新品节奏和补贴政策波动影响,预算有所收缩。旅游行业缺乏爆款的新品带动,收入仍面临一定的压力。四季度以来,随着国内AI大模型的密集发布,微博平台在数码科技领域长期积累KOL生态和专业讨论氛围,成为AI厂商发布新品、技术科普和用户口碑建设的平台。近期,阿里通义千问、字节Seedance、豆包等大模型的迭代,微博相关话题讨论量较去年同期DeepSeek发布期间提升近5%。这波技术升级带来的破圈效应,也带来了厂商在热点领域的营销投放,成为广告收入的新的增长点。

Speaker 6

By industry, in the fourth quarter, we focused on capturing marketing opportunities, backed with high budget visibility, with E-commerce, Automobile, and Local Service serving as the primary driver of top-line growth. Leveraging Weibo's strength in social product and hot trends, Weibo gained stronger recognition from e-commerce clients in delivering key and acquiring high-value users. As a result, the e-commerce sector booked notable year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, we successfully replicate this model to local service sectors, helping service-oriented advertisers such as food delivery platforms to achieve effective user acquisition in a highly competitive environment. We are pleased to see solid ad growth from local service sector. The automobile sector also sustained steady growth, underpinned by Weibo's vertical ecosystem advantages. On the flip side, the FMCG industry experienced factors factoring into product launch schedules and subsidy policy fluctuations.

Speaker 6

The online game sector continued to face pressure, mainly due to the lack of blockbuster game releases. Since the fourth quarter, with the tailwind from intensive release of advanced large language models, Weibo has become the go-to platform by companies to launch new products, promote AI technologies, and build brand awareness, leveraging Weibo's long-established KOL ecosystem and professional discussion environment in the digital and technology sectors. Recent integration of major AI models, such as Qwen by Alibaba and Doubao by ByteDance, showed nearly 50% increase in related discussion on Weibo, compared with that around DeepSeek rollout last year. This technological upwave went viral on our platform, which also attracted hot trends related ad budgets. The AI sector is becoming a clear growth driver for our platforms.

Gaofei Wang

全年来看,虽然部分行业预算受宏观和行业因素实现了阶段性的波动,但我们收入结构韧性持续增强,内容营销的占比稳定在50%左右。微博持续优化KOL、UGC原生内容生产加信息流精准投放的营销链路,让我们在品牌声量和商业转化上的综合竞争力不断提升。以新品微发布模式为例,全年已累计服务二十二个行业的上百家品牌,通过明星、KOL、UGC内容和信息流投放的高效协同,形成从声量扩散到转化、转化放大的完整闭环,显著提升了客户热点营销的效果,展现商业生态和内容生态的良性互促。同时,小红书的AI应用也取得进展。十二月,AI生成素材在信息流竞价广告中的消耗已经达到40%。在大幅降低客户创意成本的同时,通过算法也持续优化竞价模型和转化路径,进一步提升了流量变现效率。总体而言,我们通过高效的组织执行和AI技术的赋能,顺利完成了全年的广告收入目标。商业生态的竞争力也得到了进一步巩固和提升。

Speaker 6

For the full year, despite temporary fluctuation in ad budget due to macroeconomic and industry-specific factors, our revenue structure demonstrates stronger resilience, with content marketing consistently contributing 50% of total ad revenues. Throughout 2025, we continuously optimize the marketing combo of high-quality native content production by KOLs and precise information feed targeting, thereby enhancing Weibo's overall competitiveness in brand awareness and conversion. Taking the new product launch programs as an example. In 2025, we serve brand clients across 22 industries, leveraging synergy between high-quality celebrity and KOL content and feed ad placements. We established a full funnel campaign model from brand awareness to drive conversion. This campaign model significantly improved clients' marketing effectiveness on all fronts, creating a positive synergy between our monetization and in performance-based advertising, our AI application made notable progress.

Speaker 6

In December, AI-generated ad creatives already accounted for 40% of consumption in promoted feed ad offerings and the real-time bidding system. AI integration has not only enabled us to greatly reduce advertisers creative cost, but also improve traffic monetization efficiency through ongoing optimization of bidding models and conversion paths. Overall, Weibo has achieved its annual ad revenue target as we beef up organizational execution, AI-empowered capability in 2025. We are pleased to further solidify and enhance competitiveness of Weibo's monetization ecosystem.

Gaofei Wang

进入2026年,我们将继续以用户价值为核心,聚焦用户体验与长期留存的增长,坚持流量运营效率和质量并重的原则,提升平台生命健康与长期竞争力,实现用户规模和活跃的增长。以下从用户增长及活跃、内容生态竞争力、商业化增长三个维度阐述微博2026年的核心策略规划。

Speaker 6

Entering 2026, we will continue to create value for users. We focus on optimizing user experience and driving long-term retention. By balancing traffic operation efficiency with quality, we are committed to strengthening Weibo's ecosystem and reinforcing its long-term competitiveness, while further growing our user community and engagement. Next, let me share some color on our key strategies for 2026 on three key fronts, user growth and engagement, content ecosystem, and monetization.

Gaofei Wang

在用户增长及活跃方面,我们将重点提升用户的留存质量,构建高质量、高粘性且持续的增长体系。渠道获客层面,将全面优化新用户从激活、成长到稳定使用的完整路径,提升渠道用户向核心活跃用户的转化效率。第二,信息流产品在25年完成结构切换和能力搭建的基础上,26年全面进入体验提升和精细化运营的阶段,将持续优化算法,加强首页信息流用户信任感和使用粘性,强化用户的使用心智,带动活跃度和时长的稳步提升。第三,视频业务将作为26年用户留存和时长增长的核心策略。25年我们已经在视频内容体质和分发、新使用建设上取得了良好的成效。26年我们将加大资源投入,依赖AI技术,提升视频理解和推荐效率,拓展原创、新知视频、短剧等多元的视频内容,通过内容、算法和产品体验的全面提升,强化视频对用户时长留存的拉动作用,为用户规模增长提供支撑。

Speaker 6

On user growth and engagement, we will prioritize retention of quality users in the hope of building a sustainable growth path featuring high value and deeply engaged user community. First, on the channel strategy, we will upgrade our full life cycle operation framework to optimize the entire new user journey from activation and onboarding to stable usage, and thus enhancing the conversion of acquired users into core active users. Second, for the information feed product, built upon the homepage revamp and capability building in 2025. 2026 will mark a new phase of user experience improvement and refined operation. We will continue to optimize Weibo's algorithm and strengthen engagement with the homepage information feed so as to drive steady growth in both user engagement and time spent. Third, video will become our key strategic driver of user retention and time spent in 2026.

Speaker 6

The homepage revamp in 2025 had paved the way for more efficient video distribution across the platforms. We have already achieved solid progress in improving content quality and fostering user mindset of video consumption on Weibo. In 2026, we will step up investment and leverage AI technologies to enhance video understanding and recommendation efficiency. Meanwhile, we will work to diversify our video content offerings, including original videos, mindshare focused videos, and short dramas. Through comprehensive upgrade across content, algorithms, and product experience, expect video to play an increasingly important role in driving user time spent and retention, supporting continued growth of our user base.

Gaofei Wang

内容生态竞争力方面,2026年我们将持续围绕热点、社交、搜索三大核心业务,持续提升内容生态的健康度和竞争能力。第一,热点层面,我们将重点推进推荐流和榜单场景的高效协同。在强化搜索中心的基础上,提升热点内容在信息流场景的推荐效率,扩大热点用户的规模和讨论,巩固微博在热点消费与讨论的核心优势。第二,社交层面,我们将持续加大对超话社区的投入,重点聚焦年轻用户的兴趣圈层需求,深化兴趣社群的运营和互动体验,强化平台社交关系沉淀和互动心智,提升用户的归属感和参与。第三,搜索层面,2025年智搜领域全面建设。2026年,我们就重点打造差异化搜索用户的心智,强化搜人、搜IP、搜热点的平台特色能力,结合智能问答和对话式的搜索体验,为用户提供更高效、更精准、更差异化的搜索服务。

Speaker 6

On the content in 2026, we will continue to focus on three core pillars: hot trends, social product, and search product to further our content ecosystem and strengthen our core competitiveness. First, on hot trends, we will explore the synchronization of feed distribution and hot trend charts. On top of reinforcing the credibility of the hot search product, we aim to enhance recommendation efficiency of hot topics within the information feed and expand the scale of users engaging, which will enable us to reinforce core advantages in hot topic consumption. Second, on social product, we will continue to beef up investment in super topic product. We will focus specifically on the interest-based needs of young users, deepen the operation of interest-based communities, and enhance their experience.

Speaker 6

By cultivating social relationship and interactive mindset on the platform, we aim to further boost user sense of belonging and engagement on Weibo. Third, on search product. Building on the full rollout of Weibo intelligent search capability in 2025, we will focus on cultivating a differentiation of our search product in 2026. To elaborate, we seek to highlight in our search features, including searching people, IPs, and hot trends. By integrating intelligent Q&A and conversational search experience, we aim to provide users with more accurate, efficient, and differentiated search services.

Gaofei Wang

商业化增长方面,二六年我们将通过战略性资源配置获取品牌市场份额。依托平台的IP、热点与明星生态方面的长期积累,越来越多品牌客户有意加强在明星和品牌营销方面的投入,这一趋势在多个行业中都在逐步显现。这一趋势下,我们将持续升级平台的IP营销服务体系,通过增加定制化的服务能力及完善的明星营销产品矩阵,进一步提升平台在品牌营销领域的竞争力,并逐步嵌入客户营销决策链的更上游的环节,从而提升平台在品牌战略营销预算中的份额。同时,公司会围绕部分核心营销场景进行适度的资源配置,以打造更具竞争壁垒的产品组合。这些资源配置更多地围绕现在的营销生态的结构进行,短期内可能对利润率带来一定的季节性波动,但整体的节奏将严谨到投入产出比进行管理,并保持在可控的预算范围之内。随着产品体系和客户服务能力的持续完善,我们预计相关举措将在二六年下半年以后逐步体现出商业回报。从中长期来看,这将有助于进一步提升平台在客户营销决策链中的位置,推动更加可持续的收入增长。效果广告方面,我们将继续在核心行业稳健经营,并在AI技术驱动下,聚焦广告精准度和用户体验的进一步提升。增值服务方面,我们将以稳健增长为目标,重点完善会员付费体系的权益体系,以加强V+在重点投入领域、重点领域投入模组的覆盖,推动V+生态成熟与收入突破。

Speaker 6

Moving on to monetization. In 2026, our key initiative is to capture ad wallet share in the brand and marketing market through resource investment. Leveraging Weibo's cumulative strength in IP, hot trends, and celebrity ecosystem, we are pleased to see a broad-based trend with more and more brands starting to step up ad budgets in our celebrity and brand marketing. In light of this trend, we upgrade our full-service IP marketing framework to enhance Weibo's competitive edge in brand and marketing. Leveraging service and a comprehensive set of celebrity ad playbooks, we will strive to deepen partnership with clients and participate in their decision-making process, thereby wallet share in the brand and content marketing ad budget. Meanwhile, we will make the prudent resource allocation around selective core marketing scenarios to build a moat with stronger competitive moats.

Speaker 6

This resource deployment will largely be structured around our existing marketing ecosystem. While the fluctuation in profit margin in the short term, the overall pacing will be strictly managed based on the ROI and kept within a controllable budget caps. As we continue to refine product ecosystem and client service capabilities, we expect this initiative to gradually yield returns from the second half of 2026 onwards. In the mid-term, this initiative will help further elevate Weibo's position within client marketing decision-making chains, driving more sustainable revenue growth. In terms of performance-based advertising, we will maintain steady operations across core industries. Furthermore, empowered by AI technology, we'll focus on further enhancing both ad targeting precision, the overall user experience.

Speaker 6

Finally, our Value-Added Service will aim for steady growth by refining the privilege system for paid users and expanding the coverage of V+ membership among top-tier content creators in the hope of promoting the V+ ecosystem to achieve significant revenue breakthroughs.

Gaofei Wang

效率方面,2026年我们利用AI在赋能前端业务增长的同时,重点推进AI在内部组织的普及,推动产品研发、运营、商业化等各环节借助AI工具提升运营效率,以技术与组织效率双提升,作为全年战略目标达成提供坚实的保障。

Speaker 6

On organizational efficiency in 2026. AI to drive front-end business growth. We are focused on expanding AI adoption across internal operation, enabling teams in product development, operations, and monetization to drive AI tools to enhance execution efficiency. We believe enhanced technological capabilities and organizational efficiency will be the cornerstone for achieving our strategic goals for 2026.

Gaofei Wang

接下来让我转给曹飞,介绍四季度和全年的财务业绩。

Speaker 6

With that, let me turn the call over to Fei to review the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025.

Fei Cao

Thank you, Gaofei, and hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 conference call. Let's start with user metrics. In December 2025, Weibo's MAUs and average DAUs reached $767 million and $252 million, respectively, in 2025. Thanks to the tailwinds of our evolving AI technology, we are highly focused on exploring AI features to transform the whole user experience. AI is now safely integrated into Weibo's recommendation engine, content generation, and search functions, et cetera. User searches and search queries from Weibo intelligent search feature grew robustly this year. Heading into 2026, we will continue to invest in AI as the cornerstone and growth multiplier for our business, driving a more engaging experience for Weibo's user community. As a reminder, my prepared remarks focus on non-GAAP results.

Fei Cao

Monetary amounts in U.S. dollar terms, and all comparisons are on a year-on-year basis, unless otherwise noted. Now, let me walk you through our financial highlights for fiscal year 2025. Weibo's fourth quarter 2025 net revenues were $473 million, an increase of 4% or 1% on a constant currency basis. Operating income was $104 million, representing operating margin of 21%. Net income attributable to Weibo reached $66.4 million, and the diluted EPS was $0.25. For full year 2025, total revenue reached $1.76 billion, relatively flat year-over-year. Operating income was $523.6 million, representing operating margin of 30%.

Fei Cao

Net income attributable to Weibo reached $439.8 million, and the diluted EPS was $1.65. Let me give you more color on both quarter and full year 2025 revenue performance. First, our advertising business. Weibo's advertising and marketing revenues for the fourth quarter 2025 were $403.8 million, an increase of 5% or 2%. Mobile ad revenues were $379.2 million, contributing approximately 94% of total ad revenues. We ended 2025 on a solid note. Advertising business for fourth quarter trended better than our expectations despite weak consumption data by industry. Our largest of three verticals were E-commerce, 3C products, and FMCG. In terms of growth, e-commerce, local services, internet services, and automobile were the key contributors.

Fei Cao

We are pleased to see strong momentum of the e-commerce and local service sectors. Weibo has not only demonstrated its value proposition in driving brand exposure during mega shopping festivals, but also fulfilled the platform's user acquisition needs amid intensified market share competition. The automobile sector sustained solid growth this quarter, benefiting from Weibo's robust auto-related content ecosystem and ad spend from EV vehicle brands. On the flip side, the FMCG sector. We saw pullback from the 3C product sector. We faced tough comparison with handset manufacturers for fourth quarter last year when the trade-in subsidies took effect. The online game sector continued to underperform, mainly due to budget contraction from game developers. Full year 2025 advertising and marketing revenues reached $1.5 billion, largely flat compared to 2024, reflecting diverging performance across our key verticals.

Fei Cao

Mobile ad revenues contributed 95% of total ad revenue. Our largest three verticals were FMCG, E-commerce, and 3C products. E-commerce, internet services, and automobiles did grow. Leveraging closer partnership and similar policies, we captured higher market share from both the e-commerce and automobile sectors. However, our pillar industries, FMCG, fresh food products, and online games were on a descending trend, partially due to tough comparison, resulting from incremental ad budget from the Paris Olympics and blockbuster game releases in 2024. The ad product, promoted feed ad, was the largest, followed by social display on the topic and the search. In 2025, we further amplified the synergy between content and the monetization ecosystem, reinforcing Weibo's market differentiation around celebrities, IP, and content marketing. On top of these initiatives, we focus on AI-powered ad technology upgrade to revamp Weibo's ad infrastructure.

Fei Cao

Our real-time bidding feed ad was the clear beneficiary of AI integration, which could facilitate smarter ad targeting and generative AI ad creative solutions. Ad revenues from Alibaba for the fourth quarter were $50 million, up 24%. Heading into the year 2025 with sustained robust growth. We are encouraged to see Weibo's content and the celebrity ad playbook regain traction with Alibaba amid the current competition and budget allocation dynamics. Full year ad revenues from Alibaba were $173.8 million, an increase of 49%, driven by a deeper collaboration during key e-commerce marketing windows and Alibaba's increased ad spend on its local services initiative. Moving on to Value-Added Service, VAS. VAS revenues was $69.5 million in the fourth quarter, amounting to a decrease of 2%.

Fei Cao

For full year 2025, VAS revenues recorded a flattish trend, reaching $255.6 million, which reflected a small increase in membership revenues, offset by decrease in game-related revenues. Turning to costs and expenses. Total costs and expenses for the fourth quarter was $372.8 million, an increase of 16%, mainly attributable to higher ad production costs and a step up in marketing expenses. Full year costs and expenses reached $1.23 billion, an increase of 5%. Operating income in the fourth quarter was $100.4 million, representing operating margin of 21% compared to 30% in the same period last year.

Fei Cao

Operating income for full year 2025 was $523.6 million, representing operating margin of 30% compared to 33% in 2024. Turning to income tax. Under GAAP measure, income tax expenses for the fourth quarter was $31.3 million compared to $20 million last year. The increase of income tax expenses was primarily due to withholding tax accrued related to all the company's wholly foreign-owned enterprises, WFOE earnings, to be remitted to Weibo Hong Kong Limited in the foreseeable future to fund its demand for U.S. dollars in business operations and potential investments, et cetera. Full year income tax expenses were $144.5 million compared to $110.6 million in 2024.

Fei Cao

The increase was primarily due to withholding tax accrued related to all of the company's WFOE entity earnings to be remitted to Weibo Hong Kong Limited in the foreseeable future to fund its demand for U.S. dollars in business and potential investment, et cetera. As well as the recognition of deferred tax liability related to equity pickup gains in 2025. Net income attributable to Weibo in the fourth quarter was $66.4 million, representing a net margin of 14% compared to 23% last year, primarily due to above-mentioned impact from operating margin and income tax. Net income for full year 2025 was $439.8 million, representing a net margin of 25% compared to 27% in 2024. Turning to our balance sheet and the cash flow item as of December 31st, 2025.

Fei Cao

Weibo's cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $2.41 billion. Fourth quarter cash provided by operating activities was $181.4 million. Capital expenditures totaled $10.4 million, and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $15.3 million. On full year basis, cash provided by operating activities was $519.5 million. Capital expenditures totaled $42.4 million. Depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $59.1 million. In light of Weibo solid profitability and healthy cash flow, we are pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has approved an annual cash dividend of $0.61 per ordinary share or ADS for the fiscal year 2025 and the Weibo annual dividend policy.

Fei Cao

The total dividend payout will be approximately $150 million, with payment expected to be made in May 2026. Looking ahead, we are committed to capitalizing on the transformative AI opportunities and unlocking the potentials of our social media platform while maintaining robust financial health. Despite uncertainties with consumption sentiment and competition landscape, our disciplined capital allocation supports our long-term strategies and ensures financial stability, enabling us to deliver sustainable returns to our shareholders. With that, let me now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Our first question comes from the line of Alicia Yap from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open. Alicia Yap from Citigroup, you may go ahead with your question. Your line is open.

Alicia Yap

Hello?

Operator

Due to no response, we'll move on to the next question.

Sandra Zhang

Hello? Hello? Alicia?

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Xueqing Zhang from CICC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Xueqing Zhang

感谢管理层接受我提问。我的问题是关于AI战略的。因为刚刚有提到,就是进入2026年以来,AI行业的整体发展是非常快的,包括像视频生成大模型的能力有快速提升,以及AI agent在应用侧其实是不断落地的。那对内容生产的方式和用户交互的形态都会带来比较深远的影响。那想请教管理层在这样的背景下,如何看待微博在AI时代的一个战略定位?那我们在2026年AI应用方向的重点投入,主要有哪些?也想请教公司,就是,我们会具体地怎么将AI技术和平台的一些运营策略相结合,包括说,内容分发、用户互动,以及我们视频化的策略,还有像商业化方面的一个具体应用。那最后也想了解一下,就是,智搜这一块,目前的进展和定位是怎么样的,那在整个AI布局中承担着怎么样的一个角色?谢谢。

Speaker 6

My question about AI strategy. As you mentioned in the prepared remarks, since the beginning of 2026, we have seen rapid development across AI landscape, including significant improvements in AI video generation models, as well as the increasing adoption of AI agents on the application side. We think this trend could fundamentally reshape both content creation and user interaction. Could management share what's your strategy in the AI era and what's our key focus for AI application in 2026? In addition, what's planned to integrate the latest AI technologies into platform operations, for example, in content distribution, user engagement, video strategy, and monetization. Lastly, could management give us an update on Zhisou, including its current progress, positioning, and the role in your AI strategy? Thank you.

Gaofei Wang

你问的是一个挺好的问题,谢谢。其实我觉得刚才问的问题其实是两个层面的。第一个呢,就是微博作为产品本身这样一个产品而言,它本身在AI方面我们的一些规划。另外一个就是微博本身作为平台而言,我们在目前这样一个各个AI都在竞争的一个环境里面,我们该如何去定位?我先回答第一个问题,就是AI产品方面。其实去年就是我们真正在二五年推出的AI产品,其实核心就只有一个,智搜。但是其实大家在背后里面其实做了比较多的产品的规划,可能确实也是因为在去年AI模型本身能力更多是集中在非多模态上的能力提升,所以说我们真正推出来面向用户的产品就主要就只有智搜,C端产品就只有智搜一个,那我指的是可能是千万规模以上的。但是公司在储备里面也在不断地去尝试的一些产品还有比较多。那我们觉得今年特别是去年四季度十二月份和今年一季度,我觉得两个AI领域里面比较大的进步,第一个就是AI agent跟skill这个说白了组合能力的提出,以及今年春节的时候,C端对视频能力的,包括之前的可灵的能力的提出,其实对我们很多目前已经去年二五年在内部测试这些产品的前端化已经提出了一个比较好的一个时机点。Gordon,要不要你先翻译一下。

Speaker 6

Okay, thank you very much. This is actually a very good question. I would like to answer this from two points. The first one is that what is the AI role and also what is the AI planning on Weibo as a product and also what is our competitive positioning of AI if we regard Weibo as a platform.

Speaker 6

First part is about Weibo as a product. Last year in 2025, I think that the only product that we have launched targeting the consumer side was Zhisou intelligent search. Of course, on back of that, we had a lot of other plans and strategic plans related to the launch of AI capabilities. Of course, you know, in the past, in terms of the capabilities of the large language models, most of them were focusing on the improvement of the capabilities that are non-multimodal related. If you're talking about the only product that we have launched in 2025 targeting the user side, this will be Zhisou with the tens of millions of users, as a scale. Of course, we have been doing a lot of, you know, tries and experiments on the other related model capabilities. You know, in 2025 Q4, especially in December and in Q1 of 2026, we have been doing a lot of, you know, researches and also focus on the improvement of the capabilities. The first one is that I think that it's a very good timing, in terms of the front end use, by having a very good improvement of the capabilities by combining agents with skills altogether. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

具体来讲的话,在AI产品上,毫无疑问,第一个肯定是AI智搜的改进,其实智搜今年主要的方向就是通过一些agent和多模型的能力,去让智搜从原来的一个简单的微博的文本的总结,向多模态,包括多问题,包括对话方式去演进。现在已经有一些测试,如果你在微博里面可以看到,这是一个方向。另外来讲,毫无疑问,就是刚才我们提到的,就是在其他的产品化方面,大家都知道微博的主要的核心竞争力还是在我们过去积累这么多年的图文类的博主,我们在视频上其实一直跟随着策略,但是这些图文类博主在过去几年里面去转型视频化,初期顺利,但是后期还是遇到了一定的瓶颈。但是我们会看到今年春节这样一些AI视频模型能力的催熟,让我们很多的这种图文类的博主去在视频的创作上,他们的一些创意和他们的一些故事的这种表达能力,其实可以得到一个非常大幅的提升。这也是我们今年在AI视频的投入和这种AI本身算力方面的投入上面,我们会增加比较多的一个核心原因。我们相信这部分来讲的话,这部分当然增速以目前来讲也是从一季度看,视频的同比跟环比的增速都是比较快的,我们在今年会投入一部分比较多的预算,就是收入增长带来的利润的相当大的一部分,我们投入在这种视频方面,这一方面是一些跟AI相关的视频博主的引入和内容的采购,另外一方面也是我们本身很多图文博主通过AI工具的视频化。所以我相信可能很快大家会看到微博的发布器也会有一些比较大的改版,也是往这方面去进行改变。好,谢谢Gordon。

Speaker 6

Of course, second point I would like to say is that in terms of the AI product, of course, you could see that, we've been seeing a very good improvement of the capability of Zhisou, and especially this year, combining the capability of agent and multimodal based. For instance, in the past, this particular, you know, Zhisou as a product was pretty much focusing on the summary based on text, but now it is able to have the dialogue generation and also multi question and query answering capability. If you're interested, you can actually test this feature of Zhisou on the website of Weibo or on the app of Weibo. Second part is about the productization of other ends. In the past, you know that our Weibo's core capability was still based on a text and image.

Speaker 6

Of course, we try to make some of the core content creators of those texts and images to, you know, convert them or I mean to shift them to become the video creators. Of course, in the past, that kind of a transformation was quite successful, but later on, we have been seeing some of the constraints and limitations. Now with the improvement of the capabilities of AI, those content creators are going to be more creative and also increasing the capabilities of the storytelling and expressions as well. That is exactly the reason that we've been investing a lot on this particular, you know, technology related to video generation, and also we've been investing heavily into the computational power improvement and increasing.

Speaker 6

Also in Q1 of this year, you've been seeing a very good, you know, growth of our video generation and video content on Weibo platform quarter by quarter or year by year. Also we've been seeing a very good profitability against this. I believe that this is gonna be the major source of our revenue growth as well as the profit growth. The AI enhanced, you know, content creation, all those content creators are now gonna be having more capabilities with the empowerment of AI to actually, you know, generate more videos directly or, you know, using the AI or AI agent capability to actually convert the text images into videos.

Gaofei Wang

另外一个就是微博作为平台本身的一个定位。当然首先第一个,其实刚才在script里我已经讲了,就是微博作为AI模型的使用传播和这种宣传的一个平台,这个是我们必须要去做好的。其实也因为微博庞大的这样一个用户基数,以及这种科技和数码博主以往在微博上面的强势,其实本身AI模型,平台不去推,平台里面就会有越来越多的这种AI的内容在生产,也给我们带来了在春节期间更高的一个流量。非常不一样的是,去年DeepSeek还是以媒体报道为主,但是今年的Seedance,包括千问这些模型的推出,用户基本上都是以讨论如何使用为主的,包括最近的Claude,其实主要还是用户在平台上讨论如何使用。那这个其实对我们本身的这样一个生态会更有帮助。这是作为一个内容传播平台。另外一个就是基于我们刚来的这个开放平台,大家会看到最近我们跟主要的一些大的模型,包括千问,包括Kimi,包括这种Zhipu,以及我们跟主要的一些这个Claude,这个OpenCloud,加最近的龙虾比较火嘛,当然接口的平台我们都迅速地进行了打通。也就是说原来这个平台的一些在技术方面的一些积累,其实在今天来讲的话,我们可以快速切换到一个我们为AI模型服务的这样一个信息内容分发平台。那这么讲,千问目前,举个例子,我们跟千问开放了评论接口的情况下,千问目前在微博平台里面每天的评论量已经基本上接近了智搜本身的使用量了。我们其实在这方面一直是一个比较开放的一个模式,我们也希望更多的这种AI模型可以在平台里面获取用户和用户进行互动,同时也对它的模型进行传播。这是我们这个定位也会做好。Gordon,谢谢。

Speaker 6

The second big part of the answer would be that we regard Weibo as a platform and how we are facilitating this particular AI notion. First of all, you know that now on Weibo platform, we were actively disseminating the knowledge related to the AI and AI application and also promoting the AI related contents. Because of our large user base and especially you know those active content creators on the science and technology realm, or on a digital and a product realm, are still quite active in generating content and helping disseminate knowledge about AI on Weibo platform and using Weibo platform. As a platform you know we are going to keep continuously doing that, and also this help us to generate a lot of traffic and attract the users, especially during the Chinese New Year period, for instance.

Speaker 6

Last year, you know it was pretty much about DeepSeek and the connectivity with that. Still, you know, this year we've been seeing more AI models than getting connected on Weibo platform like the Qwen or Claude, which is getting very, very popular recently.

Speaker 6

Still relating to those new models, I think that the major content on our platform will be the discussions that we hope to generate in terms of how to use and how to apply those new model or new AI or agent AI. You know, in the past, we always regarded ourselves as the open platform and of course provide our capability to connect with the large language models like Kimi, Qwen, or Zhipu recently, which are all doing their own version of the Claude-related agent AI. We are now getting a very good connectivity with those Claude-like agent AI capabilities.

Speaker 6

Of course now Weibo as a platform has already been successfully switched to a platform that is servicing the need of an AI application and also the dissemination of AI related contents. For instance, with the Qwen, we have been successfully, you know, getting API connection in terms of the commenting features. The volume of the comment through Qwen has already been reached to the same level as for that of the Zhisou feature or commenting feature. In total, I believe that all those AI models or agent AIs were actively using the large base, large user base of Weibo and also, you know, on our platform, doing a lot of more interactions with the users about AI related contents. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

谢谢。

Operator

Thank you.

Speaker 6

Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. We'll now move to our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Alicia Yap from Citigroup. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Alicia Yap

Oh hi, management, can you hear me?

Operator

Yes.

Alicia Yap

Hello?

Operator

Clearly.

Alicia Yap

Oh okay, yeah, thanks for taking my question.

Alicia Yap

管理层晚上好。我有一个问题是关于我们广告业务的,就是在现在的这个宏观经济的形势,还有这个AI相关产品竞争激烈的情况下,管理层如何看待我们广告主对于广告预算的一个态度。还有就是管理层对微博26年的一个增长预期是什么?广告的战略有什么?然后微博是如何拥抱这些AI应用来帮助我们的广告增长。还有就是内部你这个也其实也在用AI来提高这个运营效率嘛,然后就在这个成本跟这个盈利这边有哪一些是可以分享的?我自己翻译一下。 Can management share with us, in light of the current macro situations and also the intensified competitions of the AI product, how is management see the advertiser budget sentiment and their ad spend?

Alicia Yap

What is the growth expectation that management has set for Weibo for 2026? What is the overall advertising strategy and how Weibo can leverage and embrace you know the AI applications to enhance the ad growth? And also how Weibo has been using the AI to improve the operating efficiency. Thank you.

Gaofei Wang

对,那四季度大家看到了,就是基本上我们大概人民币增长2%、3%左右,跟之前的预期差不多吧。那具体到Q1来看的话,整体的增速跟去年同期来讲的话,大概有一个个位数的增长吧。对,然后呢,主要我们还是说看到就是这一波流量本身的,特别是跟AI相关的流量提升,其实带动了一些新的客户的加入。那这另外来讲,二月份的这个米兰冬奥会虽然有时差的问题,但是也带来了一定的收入增长。那这具体的行业来看的话呢,我觉得因为整体其实消费还是有一些,这个特别是Q4比Q3还是整体的消费有一些放缓的一个迹象。当然我们也会看到,目前今年整体还是定了一个,回家定了一个比较,相对来讲消费上有一个4.5%、4%左右的一个增速吧。那从我们自己的客户行业来看,电商、汽车,这些行业我们预期应该在2026年都有一个保持一个增长。手机跟游戏是有一定的不确定性。手机我觉得核心还是这个阶段性的,因为当然这个阶段有可能,有个人说是一年多,因为毕竟内存涨价会导致很多原来的中低端品牌它的价格往上去提升。但是大家也知道,在手机行业,我们的客户在微博上投放广告主要还是以中高端的机型为主要投放,我们现在还不好说客户会减少,从客户沟通的框架来看的话,目前看是基本上持平的。对,但是这个执行我们还要再看。Gordon,要不你先翻译一下。

Speaker 6

OK. Thank you for this question. First of all, we had about the ad revenue growth of about 2%-3% in Q4. In Q1, you know, in terms of the growth rate itself, we're gonna have a single-digit growth versus the same period of last year. Second point I would like to say is that because of the traffic growth, especially the AI-related traffic growth, we have been bringing in a lot of new customers onto our platform. Of course, in February, we had the Winter Olympics took place in Milan, and that helped us to also, you know, generate a little bit on the revenue as well.

Speaker 6

In terms of consumption, we had a slowdown in Q4 versus the Q3 era in terms of the ad revenue from a consumption area. Still, you know, this year the national government has made a plan of having around 4% of the growth in the total consumption area. Talking about these verticals. First of all, e-commerce and alternatives, we believe that there will be a very good growth happening to these two verticals in 2026. As well as for the handsets and the gaming industries, there are some of the uncertainties. For the handset, I would like to say that probably the growth is happening on a periodic basis.

Speaker 6

Now because of the memory price is increasing, we've been seeing a lot of the selling price increase for some low to medium end models of the handset. Still, you know, on our platform, for most of the advertisers of the mobile phone makers, most of them are actually spending money to do advertisements on their medium to high-end models. Still there are some of the uncertainties. Approximately, the handset industry is going to be experiencing a flat performance of this year. Okay.

Gaofei Wang

整体来看,刚才其实在script里面讲了,我们的2026年,从全行业来看,随着效果广告其实已经是一个激烈竞争,效果广告的边际效应在客户层面反馈还是有边际效应递减。我们看到我们的一些客户有逐步在回归明星跟品牌的,特别是明星营销和这种事件营销的诉求是比较强的。那当然我们从二五年来看,其实已经看到了这样的一个趋势,就是举例子,跟明星相关的客户的销售的单量在上升,虽然它UP值还没有上升很快。那二六年其实我刚才在script里面讲了,我们会升级整个微博我们营销的一个服务体系,更多地通过更多的服务和我们的合作,嵌入客户营销决策链的上游。那就具体来讲,我们二六年我们希望进入一个收入增长的通道,那预期的增长主要还是来自于第一个可能是明星营销,就是二五年我们已经看到非常明显的明星营销的客户需求趋势性的回归,那客户数跟项目数基本上都是实现年对年的增长,但是UP值没有增长。比如说客户在微博里面投放明星的资源的组合其实还不够丰富,那这次我们今年在重点要去做的,我们一方面来讲,更多地会把我们的产品进行一些打包跟营销,另外我们也会投入一些相应的成本去给客户提供一些更加明确的官宣的场景和我们的各产品的组合。另外一个在内容营销上,虽然部分行业受宏观跟行业因素出现了波动,但我们内容营销的收入占比一直在稳步上升,现在内容营销的占比已经在全平台的占比已经在50%左右了。二六年我们会进一步加大对KOL的成本投入,提升内容营销的预算份额。那第三个可能就是效果广告。效果广告其实也是二五年保持一个增长通道,现在占我们整体的收入的比例大概在17%左右,比大概一年前增长了大概三到四个百分点。那这方面我们一方面还是算法优化,另外一方面来讲,结合AI,我们去提升客户的CPM的效果。主要就这三个方面。

Speaker 6

The next point I'd like to answer is for the point about different kind of advertisements. According to what we have mentioned in the prepared script, in 2026, you know, we've been seeing a kind of very good improvement of that, but still we experienced a very tense competition in terms of the performance based ad, and something like that. Of course, in 2025, we have been observing that some of the advertisers were coming back to the original, you know, marketing magazines, for instance, the KOL celebrity based or the event driven. In 2025, we've been seeing a very good increase in terms of the celebrity based advertisements in terms of the sales volume, but not necessarily the improvement of the ARPU itself.

Speaker 6

In 2026, we have certain strategies to deal with that situation. First of all, as we have already mentioned that the service provision system is gonna be totally updated. Now we focus more on the quality of service provision and helping us to actually embed into the upstream of the decision making chain of our customers, i.e. advertisers. In 2026, we're very confident to generate a lot of ad revenue growth from this area. Also, the second point is for those return trends, which is the KOL based marketing or the celebrity based marketing, and we've been seeing a very positive trend of some of the advertisers coming back to this notion of doing marketings.

Speaker 6

Of course, at the current stage, as I have already said that the ARPU wasn't that much, you know, improved, because of less diversification of the choices of the KOLs. I think that, you know, we will, first of all, put several products into one as a package and deliver to our customers. Second, we provide a very, you know, good cost based advantage to our customers in order to deal with the situation, helping to actually improve and increase the ARPU at the same time. The third one will be the content based marketing. For different, you know, verticals, we had been experiencing some volatility there.

Speaker 6

But still, overall speaking, the content based marketing had been seeing a very good growth. At the current stage, of course, we've been seeing that it is contributing to about 50% of our total ad revenue. In 2026, we will be focusing more on the investment onto those KOLs and trying to actually achieve a very good momentum carrying on effect. Next point I would like to say is the performance based ad, of course. We had a very good growth in 2025. This, you know, the performance based ad is contributing or is accounting for about 17% of our total ad revenues, which increased by about 3-4 percentage points versus the year before. Now, what we have as strategies are first of all optimizing the algorithms and second of all, helping to actually, you know, improve and increase the CPM based effects.

Gaofei Wang

好,谢谢。

Speaker 6

All right. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time, so I'll hand the conference back to Sandra for closing remarks.

Sandra Zhang

Thank you, operator. This wraps up our conference call today. We'll see you next quarter.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by

As of 2026-05-30 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook