By Kosaku Narioka


Kuaishou Technology reported its first-ever annual net profit since its multi-billion dollar initial public offering three years ago, as its marketing and e-commerce businesses helped boost earnings for the final quarter of last year.

The Chinese short-video app operator said Wednesday that it booked a net profit of 3.61 billion yuan ($501.4 million) for the fourth quarter, compared with net loss of CNY1.55 billion a year earlier. That beat the estimated net profit of CNY2.14 billion in a poll of analysts by FactSet.

Net profit for 2023 was CNY6.40 billion, compared with a net loss of CNY13.69 billion in 2022.

Kuaishou, which competes with TikTok parent ByteDance, said fourth-quarter revenue rose 15% from a year earlier to CNY32.56 billion, helped by growth in its marketing and e-commerce businesses.

The number of average daily active users on the Kuaishou apps increased 4.5% from a year earlier to 382.5 million in the fourth quarter, though it declined from a record high of 386.6 million in the third quarter.

Fourth-quarter revenue from advertising and other online marketing services rose 21% from a year earlier to CNY18.20 billion, thanks partly to growth in the number of clients.

Revenue from e-commerce and other services climbed 36% to CNY4.31 billion, driven by increases in the number of active paying users and merchants. Total e-commerce gross merchandise value grew 29% to CNY403.91 billion.

Meanwhile, revenue from its live streaming business -- which sells virtual gifts that viewers give to streamers -- was virtually flat, posting a 0.1% rise to CNY10.05 billion.

Shortly after its multi-billion-dollar initial public offering in early 2021, Kuaishou's stock fell sharply amid China's regulatory crackdown on the tech industry, and has trended lower in recent months.


Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-20-24 0606ET