In a brief letter to Kuaishou staff from CEO Cheng Yixiao on Tuesday, the short video platform operator announced it had achieved its first yearly profitability since listing, and was offering staff vouchers of up to RMB 2,866 valid for purchases on Kuaishou as an expression of gratitude for employees’ efforts.
Why it matters: The rival to ByteDance’s Douyin (China’s TikTok sibling) accelerated its monetization efforts in real estate and short dramas after achieving its first quarterly profitability in the second quarter of 2023. Rapid growth of these sectors in turn appears to have boosted the Beijing-based company’s further attainment of quarterly profits.
Details: China’s second-largest short video platform, Kuaishou deepened its focus on the real estate industry in a recent restructuring following impressive sales results.
- The platform’s real estate operations saw housing agents and professional property influencers engage potential homebuyers via videos and livestreaming sessions, following up with on-site property viewings, and in some cases, remote contract signings resulting in the postal delivery of keys for their new house or apartment.
- According to data revealed by Kuaishou, during a one-month campaign in September, more than 5,500 properties were sold on the platform, valued at more than RMB 6.9 billion in total. In 2022, over 100 million users on Kuaishou watched real estate sales livestreams or related videos; total sales of the sector for that year surpassed RMB 10 billion.
- Mini web dramas, meanwhile, have served as another business sector with growth potential for Kuaishou. As widely popular short video platforms have reshaped user preferences for content delivering quick fire stimulation, short and cheap to make series with episodes lasting little more than five minutes, have gained favor with large Chinese audiences.
- Kuaishou said last week that daily active viewers of its short dramas reached 270 million by the end of 2023, with 94 million people watching more than 10 episodes per day.
Context: In the first nine months of 2023, Kuaishou reported a net profit of RMB 2.79 billion compared with a loss of RMB 12.15 billion in the same period of the year before.