DouYu's innovative business, advertising, and other revenues reached a record high, accounting for 29.3% in the third quarter

According to Zhitong Finance, on November 20, DouYu released its unaudited financial report for the third quarter of 2024. In this quarter, DouYu relied on its rich gaming content ecosystem, fully leveraging its streamer resources and new business potential, continuously providing users with high-quality live content and gaming services, and further promoting the diversification of platform revenue.

In the third quarter, DouYu's average monthly active users (MAU) on mobile reached 42.1 million, with an average of 3.4 million paying users. Total revenue was 1.063 billion yuan, achieving a quarter-on-quarter growth for the first time in eight quarters. Live streaming revenue was 752 million yuan, with a gross profit of 60.8 million yuan, a gross profit margin of 5.7%, and a net profit of 3.4 million yuan. Among them, innovative business, advertising, and other revenues achieved steady growth, reaching 311 million yuan, a significant increase of 49.4%, with a revenue contribution ratio of 29.3%, a notable improvement from 15.3% in the same period of 2023.

DouYu's temporary management committee stated: "In the third quarter of 2024, we actively adjusted the company's operational strategy to flexibly respond to changes in the external environment, firmly implementing the long-term development strategy of 'a diversified content ecosystem platform centered on gaming.' On one hand, we focus on the company's core advantages to strengthen commercialization capabilities; on the other hand, we optimize operational methods to enhance the return on investment of our business, coordinating platform resources to improve operational efficiency. At the same time, we continue to invest in streamer resources and new businesses, continuously providing users with high-quality content and a rich array of gaming-related services through content creation and product upgrades. In the face of macroeconomic changes and industry fluctuations, our primary goal is to stabilize the business foundation, balance the development of traditional and new businesses, and orderly allocate resources to optimize the platform ecosystem, thereby achieving the company's long-term sustainable development."

Summer gaming e-sports content concentrated explosion, gaming content ecosystem continuously optimized

In this quarter, DouYu made orderly investments around streamer resources and advantageous businesses, coinciding with the summer period, resulting in a significant increase in the number of platform e-sports copyright events and self-produced events, continuously outputting high-quality content and gaming-related services, and continuously optimizing the platform's gaming content ecosystem.

In terms of copyright events, DouYu broadcasted nearly 70 official large-scale event activities, including the 2024 League of Legends World Championship (S14), League of Legends LPL playoffs, Honor of Kings KPL Summer Tournament, CrossFire CFPL Summer Tournament, Peace Elite PEL Spring Tournament, CSGO Blast Autumn Tournament, EWC E-sports World Cup, and exclusively broadcasted the CSGO XSE Asia Professional Invitational (XSE Pro League), among others. Based on this content, DouYu continued to innovate derivative content, launching operational activities covering multiple mainstream e-sports game segments during the EWC E-sports World Cup, and creating special program content around the personal characteristics of streamers, such as streamer Vlogs + live broadcasts, streamer outdoor programs + event commentary, streamers serving as competition guides, and celebration programs for winning streamers after competitions In terms of self-hosted events, DouYu has held nearly 80 platform esports events, covering multiple game categories such as League of Legends, Honor of Kings, CrossFire, Teamfight Tactics, and DNF Mobile. Among these, there are several collaborative events launched in partnership with cross-platform content co-creation partners, leveraging the platform's unique advantageous resources. For example, the League of Legends "Time Cup" gathered popular streamers and professional players from the past decade, adopting an innovative "No Ban Card" battle format that retained the unique gameplay characteristics of the streamers. The flexible event mechanism has been recognized by a wide range of users and sparked extensive discussions. This event not only continued the popularity of previous collaborative events, promoting user return, but also enhanced streamer popularity, further optimizing the ecosystem of game categories.

Combining the peak traffic of the summer season with the promotional rhythm of game products, DouYu's major game categories have successively created a variety of live streaming activities. The Honor of Kings category launched content such as the "Ten Consecutive Legendary Live Challenge" for the new 10v10 game mode, with top streamers like Mengfei and Tuomi contributing exciting live shows. During the KPL DouYu Theme Week, the platform introduced heavyweight streamer guest interactive interviews, as well as offline activities such as streamer support and team home game days. Top streamers from the gaming and entertainment categories jointly participated in the "DouYu Party Game Carnival." By combining streamer resources with category operations, a series of interactive and platform-benefit live streaming activities were created, providing users with a unique DouYu summer content experience.

Innovative business, advertising, and other income grow steadily, with good progress in revenue diversification

In the third quarter, DouYu focused on leveraging the platform's core advantages, gradually adjusting its business model and optimizing resource allocation to promote revenue diversification. Innovative business, advertising, and other income achieved steady growth, reaching 311 million yuan, with a revenue contribution ratio of 29.3%, significantly up from 15.3% in the same period of 2023.

Based on the platform's strong event content matrix, DouYu strengthened the commercialization of event content this quarter. The game membership business promoted during the Peace Elite PEL official event and the prop promotion activities conducted in the CrossFire official event live broadcast room both achieved good results. Additionally, the commercialization activities of game props promoted in self-hosted events such as the CrossFire DouYu Commentary Cup and the collaborative event Gun King Cup also effectively improved the commercial monetization efficiency of game content.

Beyond event commercialization content, DouYu continues to leverage platform resources to assist in game promotion. Surrounding the launch of the heavyweight game "Black Myth: Wukong" in August, DouYu fully utilized its rich resources of PC game streamers to produce high-quality live content at the first opportunity. On the first day of the game's launch, the number of streamers broadcasting in the DouYu Black Myth category accounted for 23% of the entire site within two hours. Platform benefits, game strategies, interactive challenges, and more greatly enriched the content supply in the early stages of the game, effectively driving the addition and return of DouYu users while heating up the game's launch buzz. On that day, nearly half of DouYu's daily active users watched game-related content. DouYu also tailored rich platform promotional content for various game products such as "Naraka: Bladepoint Mobile," "Need for Speed," "Limitless Machine," and the return of "Hearthstone" to the Chinese server, helping products directly reach player communities In terms of the commercialization of game items, DouYu continues to explore game item sales activities, including annual promotional joint marketing models, game membership services, and multi-platform marketing campaigns. The annual promotional joint marketing model involves participation from major streamers on the platform, focusing on the fun of marketing activities and platform welfare subsidies, and utilizing cross-platform promotional channels for extensive publicity; the game membership service combines game items and platform benefits, forming a robust business model across multiple segments; multi-platform marketing activities embed game manufacturers' item malls into DouYu's live streaming rooms, promoting through platform content publicity and streamer marketing. This quarter, the Ping An Store, Wu Wei Store, and Yun Ding Store have successively opened, attracting players to continue spending. By meeting the promotional needs of manufacturers and the consumption needs of players through various marketing activities, DouYu has become an important platform for players to consume game items.

Platform supervision further strengthened, actively practicing corporate social responsibility

This quarter, DouYu continued its "four-in-one" (business compliance, content compliance, process compliance, and data compliance) compliance system, further improving the platform's compliance system and strengthening self-inspection and standardized management in compliance. DouYu has launched a streamer learning center, added a learning feedback mechanism, and encouraged streamers to actively learn the platform's live streaming regulations, further increasing compliance training for streamers. The platform also continues ecological governance, regularly carrying out "Clear Action" to crack down on online fraud, online gambling, private transactions, vulgar pornography, illegal external links, and other illegal and non-compliant content.

DouYu has also fully mobilized corporate resources, actively taking on social responsibilities, and collaborated with streamers to carry out multiple social welfare activities. In July, DouYu, together with streamer Yu Shen, went to Taijiang County, Guizhou Province, for a four-day "2024 Yu Family 6512 Charity Education Activity," donating supplies to local mountain primary schools. In September, DouYu invited DYG esports team player Qian Cheng to participate in the "Embrace Rural Aesthetic Education Program" in Yuzhong County, Gansu Province, creating paintings with children and calling on the public to pay attention to rural aesthetic education. DouYu also participated as a caring enterprise in the 2024 "Sui Ai Tongxing · Mid-Autumn Dream Action," where streamer Xiao Shujie went to Guangzhou to become a volunteer, sending Mid-Autumn blessings to disadvantaged children, migrant children, left-behind children, and their families. DouYu was also awarded the "Excellent Case of the Youth Protection Mechanism Linkage" by China Business News in September, gaining external recognition in the field of social welfare.

Looking back at the third quarter, DouYu actively responded to the challenges faced by the company, steadily advancing the strategy of revenue diversification to improve the revenue structure on one hand, and reducing costs through operational strategy adjustments and resource optimization on the other. While maintaining the strategic direction of being a "diversified content ecological platform centered on games," it balances the development of traditional and new businesses, coordinates and matches company resources, stabilizes the business foundation, and continues to invest in new businesses with growth potential. We believe that these measures can lay a solid foundation for the company's long-term sustainable development, thereby creating long-term value for shareholders