Chinese location-based social app and live-streaming platform Momo reported solid revenue gains in 2018 as monetization efforts paid off. However, increasing competition in the live video landscape drove up spending during the year on increasing payouts to talent while marketing costs related to the company’s acquisition of dating app Tantan surged in the fourth quarter.
Momo released its fourth quarter and 2018 full year financial results on Tuesday with full-year net revenue of RMB 13.4 billion ($1.9 billion), up 51% from 2017 as monetization gained traction, primarily for livestreaming and value-added services (VAS) including membership subscriptions and its virtual gift business. Fourth quarter earnings per American depository share (ADS) at $0.59 easily surpassed analyst estimates of $0.52 and earnings from the same period a year ago of $0.52.
Revenues from livestreaming were RMB 2.9 billion ($430.40 million) in the fourth quarter, up 36% from the same period in 2017. VAS brought in revenues of RMB 722.4 million ($105.1 million) in the fourth quarter, an increase of 272% compared with the same period in 2017.
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