DouYu International - Q4 2021

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, and welcome to DouYu International Holdings Limited fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. We will be holding a question and answer session after management's prepared remarks. I would now like to turn the call over to your first speaker today, Ms. Lingling Kong, IR Director at DouYu. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings call. Joining us today are Mr. Shaojie Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Mingming Su, Chief Strategy Officer, and Mr. Hao Cao, Vice President of Finance. You can refer to our financial results on our IR website at ir.douyu.com. You can also check a replay of this call when it becomes available in a few hours on our IR website. Before we start, please note that this call may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provision for the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and observations that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors not under the company's control, which may cause actual performance, results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the results, performance or expectations implied by these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statement, risk factors and details of the company's filings with the SEC. The company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements for selected events or circumstances after the date of this conference call. I will now speak on behalf of our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Shaojie Chen. In the fourth quarter, we made further headway on our efforts to explore new growth drivers for user traffic and revenue generation as we maintained the stable development of our core businesses.

Total net revenues were RMB 2.33 billion, and average paying user count reached 7.3 million in the fourth quarter. Mobile MAU for the fourth quarter increased by 7.2% year-over-year to RMB 62.4 million. The MAU growth was mainly driven by three factors. First, during the traditional esports tournament season, we produced and acquired a range of high quality content to capitalize on the elevated enthusiasm surrounding tournament events. We also roll out a series of promotional events in cooperation with game developers to drive MAU growth. Second, the mobile version release of the blockbuster game LOL Wild Rift helped drive additional traffic to our platform. Leveraging our industry-leading LOL streamers, extensive operational experience and comprehensive content library, we were able to successfully develop and launch a range of exclusive content and promotional campaigns in collaboration with the game developers.

By connecting our platform streamers, developers and distributors, we were able to develop a comprehensive content ecosystem to secure leading traffic inflows for LOL Wild Rift. Finally, we leveraged the advantages of our integrated content platform to further drive MAU growth through our production and promotion of high quality short videos. Turning to our content updates. During the quarter, we continued to refine our content offerings for both esports and non-esports categories. As the continued development of our integrated content ecosystem, combining live streaming, videos, graphics and interactive communities, we also refined customized operation for each game to highlight its unique features. Even as we continued to offer traditional live streaming content services, we also experimented with innovative content formats and operating methodologies to further improve our game-centric content system.

Meanwhile, we continued to collaborate closely with game developers to enrich various content formats, improve user engagement, and enhance the viewing experience by providing high-quality, large-scale esports content and fostering interactive communities. These collaborations and efforts enabled us to enhance match engagement and attract new users by establishing an integrated ecosystem, combining official tournaments, live streaming content, on-demand video playback, infographics, and real-time community discussion. With the continuing development of the gaming industry, we are seeing increasing prices on content rights for large-scale esports tournaments. Meanwhile, the growth in traffic and revenue from these events have lagged far behind the associated copyright cost increases. Following a series of data analyses and simulation studies, we find that although esports tournaments continue to be important, the value they bring has been declining. The rapid rise in copyright costs have become a burden for our platform operation.

Therefore, we decided to adopt a selective copyright procurement strategy starting in 2022. For each tournament, we will analyze and evaluate ROI based on expected traffic contribution, revenue contribution, and related costs to determine an appropriate copyright bid price, so we can ensure the best allocation of our resources. As a game-centric platform, we deliver value to our users through consistent production of high quality content and our exceptional operational capabilities. Thanks to years of accumulated experience, we have established an industry-leading gaming content management team and streamer cultivation system. Furthermore, we have amassed and matched streamer resources and game operation expertise, which are the keys to maintaining and growing our platform traffic.

Regardless of our acquisition of broadcasting rights for certain tournaments, we will continue to deepen our collaboration with game developers and distributors while increasing investment in our self-produced content to further increase our competitive advantage in the industry. During the fourth quarter, we boosted our investment in proprietary content production, self-producing over 110 esports tournaments. Notably, we hosted the DouYu LOL Wild Rift Master Series, a nationwide tournament supported by the game's developer, illustrating our ability to produce high-level tournaments in-house. We continue to recruit and cultivate a large number of potential professional gamers by hosting self-produced tournaments. Our tournaments are highly regarded by both game developers and esports teams, and are expected to be part of the official professional tournament system. We also continue to make innovative developments with our video content.

For instance, we produced a number of PGC-related offerings, such as variety shows featuring player preparations for the KPL tournament as a warm-up for the KPL finals. In addition, we invited all Dota 2's top tier streamers to participate in our self-produced outdoor show, Go Fishing, held in conjunction with the International Dota 2 Championships. The show proved to be very popular and boosted community engagement within this game segment. Meanwhile, we produced exclusive content for mega hit games such as Naraka: Bladepoint, further improving user engagement and stickiness. We invited game producers, gaming media editors, and streamers to participate in an online talk show, which further boosted user participation and enhanced community experience. Along with the continued improvement of our game-centric content ecosystem, we also deepened our cooperation with game developers, especially for newly launched games.

For example, we worked closely with the developers of the blockbuster mobile game LOL Wild Rift. Our participation in the game's launch, including the initial stream by the official spokesperson and the various task-based incentive user campaigns, raised the profile of both the game and our platform. In addition to official collaborations, we also offered various feature content, such as guides teaching streamers how to host game-related QA sessions to create a supportive and engaging gaming environment for the community. As a result of this effort, our platform's LOL Wild Rift viewing traffic has maintained a leading position in the industry. Going forward, we will continue to deliver and integrate a variety of game content and enhance operations to create a game-oriented community to provide a better user experience and to maintain our industry leading position.

Furthermore, we will analyze the ROI for each game segment, evaluate optimization opportunities, and improve our platform's overall operating efficiency by enhancing ROI for each game. Now turning to monetization. Total number of paying users in the fourth quarter was 7.3 million, with an average quarterly ARPU of RMB 305. We continue to enhance engagement and consumption levels from our core users through sustainable operating strategies and promotional campaigns, enabling us to sustain a healthy range for our ARPU. While maintaining the stability of revenue from virtual gifting, we will continuously endeavor to explore new revenue streams. In terms of products and technology, as we build our game-centric comprehensive content ecosystem, we added additional innovative features to existing functions and continue to upgrade our streaming platform's products.

For example, the variety and interactivity of the live bullet chat commentary are highly valued by our users. However, an inherent limitation of live bullet chat is the difficulty in retaining the content that it generates. To resolve this, we launched the live streaming hot chat channel. This feature is either manually analyzed or uses AI to process trending discussion topics generated during a game stream from resources including live bullet chat commentary and non-real-time content within the community. Trending topics are then aggregated and delivered to users through this channel, thereby increasing time spent on viewing video content and community engagement. Successful rollout of these features further enhanced user experience and bolstered the sense of community on our platform. To summarize, we have been ever more innovative on both the content and operations front.

Even as we executed our strategy upgrade that has maintained our leading position in the traditional live streaming industry. As a result of our multidimensional collaboration with ever more game developers, we have developed customized features for different game segments and provided users with content that integrates live streaming, video, graphics, and interactive communities. We have continued to explore commercialization initiatives, leveraging our competitive strengths in user engagement and paying behavior. Going forward, we will continue to execute our product, streamer, and content strategy to further explore and strengthen our monetization capabilities and optimize our financial performance. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Vice President of Finance, Mr. Hao Cao, to go through the details of our financial performance in the quarter.

Hao Cao (VP of Finance)

Thank you, Lingling. Hello, everyone. Total net revenues in the first quarter of 2021 increased by 2.6% to RMB 2.33 billion. Live streaming revenues were RMB 2.21 billion, an increase of 6.7% from RMB 2.07 billion in the same period of 2020. While the size of our core paying users largely remained stable, our effective operational strategies helped to improve our monetization efficiency, resulting in an 11.7% increase in ARPU to RMB 305 in the first quarter, from RMB 273 in the same period last year. Advertising and other revenues were RMB 118.5 million, compared with RMB 198.5 million in the same period of 2020.

The year-over-year decrease was primarily attributable to the continued exploration of new commercialization models by using a portion of advertised traffic that could have been directly monetized. Simultaneously, we were also partially impacted by soft demand for advertising caused by a challenging microenvironment and regulations related to the gaming industry. Cost of revenues in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 2.08 billion, remaining relatively flat compared with RMB 2.09 billion in the same period of 2020. Revenue share fees and content costs were RMB 1.85 billion, unchanged from RMB 1.85 billion in the same period of 2020. More specifically, there was an increase in revenue share fees, which is in accordance with increased live streaming revenues. Such increase was offset by the decrease in the cost of broadcasting rights.

Other content costs remained stable on a year-over-year basis as we continued to optimize in-house production efficiency. Bandwidth costs in the first quarter of 2021 decreased by 1.6% to RMB 167.9 million, from RMB 170.7 million in the same period of 2020. This decrease was mainly due to lower per unit bandwidth costs, which benefited from our improved procurement efficiency with major suppliers. Gross profit in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 245.7 million, an increase of 34.3% from RMB 182.2 million in the same period of 2020. Gross margin in the first quarter of 2021 was 10.5% compared with 8% in the same period of 2020.

This increase was primarily due to higher revenues generated during the quarter, while cost of revenues remained flat. Sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 229.2 million. An increase of 34.3% from RMB 170.7 million in the same period of 2020. This increase was mainly attributable to the increased costs from utilizing additional promotional channels for user acquisition. Research and development expenses in the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 132.6 million, representing an increase of 11.5% from RMB 118.9 million in the same period of 2020. This increase was primarily due to increased technical staff costs as we continue to invest in product upgrade to support our game-centric content strategy.

General and administrative expenses in the first quarter of 2021 were RMB 98.8 million, decreased by 16.1% from RMB 117.7 million in the same period of 2020, primarily due to decreased professional service fees. Adjusted operating loss in the first quarter of 2021, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, was RMB 168.7 million, compared with RMB 199.1 million in the same period of 2020. Net loss in the first quarter of 2021 was RMB 193.2 million, compared with RMB 228.7 million in the same period of 2020.

Adjusted net loss in the first quarter of 2021, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, share of income in equity method investments, impairment loss of investments, and settlement of class action lawsuits, was RMB 112 million, compared with RMB 176.9 million in the same period of 2020. For the fourth quarter of 2021, basic and diluted net loss per ADS were RMB 0.53 and RMB 0.53 respectively. While adjusted basic and diluted net loss per ADS were RMB 0.29 and RMB 0.29, respectively. As of December 31st, 2021, the company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, short-term and long-term bank deposits of RMB 6,643 million, compared with RMB 7,622 million as of December 31, 2020.

We would also like to provide an update on execution of our share repurchase program announced on August 30th, 2021, in which the company may repurchase up to $100 million of its shares until August 2022. As of December 31st, 2021, the company had repurchased an aggregate of $16.7 million worth of its ADS under this program. Going forward, we will continue enhancing our monetization capability while further improving our monetization efficiency. Additionally, as we continue to grow, we will focus on further utilizing our operating leverage to support the sustainable development of our platform. Operators, we are now ready to take questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star and then two. Our first question today will come from Lei Zhang from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.

Lei Zhang (Analyst)

Hi,[Non-English content]

Management. Thanks, management, for taking my question. Two questions here. First, can you share with us some updates on the regulatory change recently and the impact to our business? Secondly, I noticed that we have adjusted our content investments in esports licensing content, and can you share with us the logic behind this? Thank you.

Mingming Su (Chief Strategy Officer)

Let me answer your first question. There have been continued advance in regulatory guidelines for the live streaming industry, encouraging industry players to promptly implement measures and refine operations to comply with regulatory requirements. No new rules were introduced recently. We have made internal operational adjustments, feature updates, adopted a more prudent operational strategy.

Implemented a stricter internal review to improve the platform's community building and to promote the long-term development of our platform. For example, for unlicensed games, we have been gradually redirecting traffic and streamers to licensed games of similar genres since the third quarter of 2021 to ensure proper traffic allocation between different game segments, maintain streamer income levels and their willingness to stream. The initial impact of these adjustments was reflected in our first quarter performance. We will also pay close attention to any regulatory changes and adjust our operational strategies in a timely manner. Thank you.

Shaojie Chen (Chairman and CEO)

[Non-English content]

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

Okay, I will translate Mr. Chen's answers. As we previously mentioned in the prepared remarks, we have conducted extensive data analysis and calculations in the context of the increasing tournament content license fees. We concluded that the growth in game traffic or revenue generated by these large tournaments has been outpaced significantly by the growth in copyright costs. Our analysis of user behavior data found that a majority of our users primarily watch games live streamed by individual streamers. In comparison, the proportion of users who mainly watch the tournaments is relatively low. Meanwhile, the return rate of inactive users through tournaments content has been declining. In addition, historical data always shows that large-scale esports tournaments do not drive revenue growth. They can even have a negative impact on our platform's revenue.

This is due to different user experience delivered by these two content segments. While watching tournaments is a complete immersive experience, virtual gifting revenues is generated by interactions between users and streamers. During the tournaments, users are immersed in watching the game and therefore tend to spend less time interacting with streamers, which negatively impacts their willingness to pay. Based on this, we have adopted a selective copyright procurement strategy. We conduct comprehensive evaluation on the deliverable value of each tournament, both in terms of traffic and monetization, to determine our appropriate copyright bid price. We will continue ongoing dialogue with copyright owners regarding copyright prices and explore more rational and long-term models for cooperation.

For those purchased content license, we aim to improve the return on investment through innovative operational methods. We would like to emphasize that our selective purchase of tournament copyright does not mean that we will reduce our investment in content. Based on our in-depth understanding of the gaming industry, years of operational experience, we will deepen our cooperation with game developers and increase our investment in original content, operations and community building in order to keep our competitive advantage in the premium content and game operation. Thank you. Operator next please.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Our next question today will come from Yiwen Zhang of China Renaissance. Please go ahead.

Yiwen Zhang (VP and Research Analyst)

[Non-English content]. Thanks management for taking my question, so three questions.

First time in prepared remarks, you mentioned some adjustments to our licensed content procurement, which I think generates a lot of discussion. I want to check how we see the game live streaming competition landscape now? Secondly, recently there were some streamers who were reported to be fined for tax evasion, and many more paying for back taxes and late fees. Just wondering if this has any impact on the new streaming policy. Lastly, we know that we have a game content-centric strategy. What are the implications for our marketing strategy and also expenses? Thank you.

Shaojie Chen (Chairman and CEO)

[Non-English content]

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

As I mentioned earlier, we adjust our copyright procurement strategy because we believe the value delivered to us by copyright is not in line with their increasing costs. Another factor behind this strategic adjustment is the evolving environment of the live streaming industry. As previously mentioned, the growth rate of new user acquisition through game live streaming is decreasing. Take large-scale esports tournaments as an example. They delivered a substantial amount of new traffic in early stages of game live streaming, especially high-quality users in the esports segment. With the development of gaming live streaming, high-quality users have become regular users of live streaming platforms. These users have certain preferences for the platform's regular streaming content, so that their viewing hours and stickiness to the platform are relatively stable. Therefore, it is very difficult to drive additional traffic growth by only broadcasting esports tournaments.

However, we have seen that the continued expansion of short video platforms have attracted more diverse user groups to consume gaming content, while enlarging the potential user base for the entire gaming content industry. That is to say, our industry has already transitioned from a competition in gaming live streaming to gaming content. At the same time, our user acquisition strategy has also transitioned from a stage of capturing hardcore gamers to stabilizing our hardcore gamer base while attracting new casual and mid-core gamers. Our platform primarily consists of hardcore gamers whose live streaming service penetration rate is high. They have high expectations for the quality of our content and our streamers. These users are our core users and exhibit high level of stickiness. When contracted streamers cannot frequently switch between different platforms, the overall competitive environment is relatively stable.

This user group is very stable and provides steady traffic to our platform. The live streaming penetration rate for casual and mid-core users is relatively low, as they have more diversified needs for game genres and game content. We believe that short video, graphics, and other comprehensive game content and, community-centric features can attract casual and mid-core gamers. This is the reason why we expand our content offerings and build our community. As viewing options for users consistently grow, we believe that differentiated content, refined operations, and improved profitability are the keys to stable and healthy growth for the platform. Therefore, starting last year, we have been implementing platform strategy upgrades to continuously refine our live streaming video and graphic content, so as to we can enlarge our user base to more casual and mid-core gamers. Thank you.

Hao Cao (VP of Finance)

Regarding the second question about the taxation. First of all, we have strictly and continuously adhered to all relevant laws and regulations regarding taxation. As a result, investigations into tax irregularities of individual streamers do not negatively impact our platform. For streamers who are directly contracted with us, we withhold their income taxes to ensure their tax obligations are fulfilled. Separately, there are a large number of streamers who signed their contracts with third parties. As the obligation to pay income taxes lies with these third parties, we strongly advise those partners to comply with the taxation laws. At present, our streamer engagement models have not changed. As I just mentioned, because we consistently uphold these strict tax compliance requirements, investigations into tax irregularities of individual streamers have not negatively impacted our platform.

Therefore, we will not adjust our revenue share fee structure as a result of the recent investigations into tax evasion. About the last question on the sales and marketing strategy. As mentioned previously, our high-quality traffic generation has been slowed down by pure gaming live streaming. Competition within the industry has switched from gaming live streaming to gaming content. Our user acquisition strategy has also changed from hardcore gamers to stabilizing hardcore gamers while attracting new casual and mid-core gamers. Hardcore gamers are our core user group. For a long time, this user group has preferred specific game genres and live streaming with higher stickiness to our platform. Based on our long-term operating experience and accumulated user behavior data, we will maintain stable streamer resources to ensure a continuous supply of high-quality content.

We will also produce more exclusive self-produced content and launch additional marketing campaigns to increase user activity and build a healthy game-centric community. Casual and mid-core gamers are user groups that we are increasingly targeting. This group is relatively large and has more diverse needs in terms of gaming content and categories. By targeting this user group, we enhanced our cooperation with game developers to attract new users through our innovative operations and traffic acquisitions. Meanwhile, we leveraged our high-quality content to produce short videos to promote our platform and acquire users while improving user stickiness, utilizing our active community.

Both approaches delivered encouraging results, demonstrating our platform's competitive advantages in our rich content library and a vibrant game-centric community. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question today will come from Thomas Chong of Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thomas Chong (Managing Director)

Thanks, management, for taking my questions. My first question is about the gaming approval. Does the slowdown in gaming approval affect our operations? My second question is about our share repurchase plan. Can management comment our thoughts and the progress that we should anticipate in coming quarters? Thank you.

Mingming Su (Chief Strategy Officer)

Let me answer your first question. We have not seen any significant impact on our existing users from the slowdown of approvals for new games as our business is based around the conversion of gamers into viewers of game-centric content. There are a large number of players of many high quality games who are our existing or potential users. Following successful conversion of gamers into viewers of our game-centric content, operational metrics such as user stickiness, time spent per user and user engagement have remained very stable. The primary impact from the slowdown in approval for new games has been on new user growth, which is reflected in our recent momentum. The approval of new games is not on hold.

Rather, the slowdown has been caused by stricter standards for approval of new games, which we believe will be advantageous for the gaming industry in the long run. As for game-centric content platforms such as DouYu, we will also benefit from these stricter standards, since high quality games and their users are the most important resources for our content generation and user growth. Recently, the quality of the games launched on our platform has been very high. Through the integration of live streaming video content, graphic content, community discussion, and our customized operations for each game segment, we have been able to successfully promote these premium games and attract new users. This has further demonstrated the effectiveness of our operational strategy of cultivating a diversified game-centric content community. Hao Cao, answer the second question.

Hao Cao (VP of Finance)

Okay. About the second question.

By the end of August, we had announced share repurchase program for total amount of $100 million. As of December 31st, 2021, we had repurchased an aggregate of $16.7 million worth of ADSs. Due to the impacts of certain SEC rules and restrictions, a large portion of the repurchase funds has been set aside for further repurchase, but has not been settled yet. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Our next question today will come from Alex Poon of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Alex Poon (Asia TMT Specialist Sales)

Hello. I have two questions. My first question is related to our performance after our strategic change. Is there any performance data that we can share? My second question is related to for new games launch. What is our operating policy for new games launch? Is there any data that you can share with us at this stage? Thank you very much.

Shaojie Chen (Chairman and CEO)

[Non-English content]

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

During the past year, we have upgraded our content product offerings centered around our game-centric content platform. On the content side, we expanded our content to include video and community segments, while integrating live streaming video and graphic content, communities, and other content forms. We have also cooperated with game developers to carry out multifaceted promotions and content offerings to meet the diversified needs of our users. On the product side, we made multiple upgrades to our mobile interface. On one hand, we highlighted our video content, graphic content, and community functions. On the other hand, we refined our customized operations to highlight each game's features. We were able to increase community interactivity and user engagement through our customized content layout and promotional activities for different game segments.

For our market-leading traditional esports, we continue to foster our close relationship with game developers to jointly host tournaments and launch self-held promotion activities. Furthermore, we are refining our content offerings and operations to improve retention rate, user activity, and user stickiness. Building on our advantages in the traditional esports games, we expanded our gaming coverage into nine esports games. Nine esports games additions mainly came from newly released games, to which we have applied our upgraded content system and game segment-based operating strategy. We have achieved promising results and devised an operating mechanism that is both effective and efficient. We have achieved encouraging results for new games launched in 2021, including Naraka: Bladepoint, LOL Mobile, and the recently launched Tower of Fantasy, by successfully executing our upgraded operating strategy.

As a content platform, the evolution of our content ecosystem and changing user perceptions of our platform are both cumulative processes. We are confident that we will continue to implement our operating strategy. The viewing time for non-traditional gaming content will increase as a proportion of overall viewing time. Our platform content will become more diversified and will cover more user groups. Thank you.

Mingming Su (Chief Strategy Officer)

Let me answer your second question. Following a year of implementing our game-centric operations, we have produced a major system with established procedures for new game segments and their respective operating strategies. For a new game, we attract the top streamers to stream and promote the game during the launch stage. We also recruit and cultivate a large number of new streamers to ensure content supply. In terms of videos and graphics, we collaborate with game developers and streamers to produce content such as multiple PGC videos and graphics-centric guides to actively promote games. This means we increase user viewing time and enhance user engagement. For our gaming communities, we invite influencers such as KOL to create hot topics and bolster the interaction between streamers, game developers, and users.

At the initial stages of our games launch, we establish an integrated gaming segment that combines live streaming, promotional events, and gaming strategy discussions to provide a comprehensive game content to our users. For newly released games, you gamers, you already have many questions. We summarize and analyze these questions and assign solutions and content creation tasks to streamers. By doing this, we gradually form our game centric, helpful, and a friendly discussion-based environment. Take Tower of Fantasy as an example. Each day, over 50% of its players on our platform not only view live streams, they also participate in our gaming activities and game related discussions. During our game's growth stage, we collaborate intensely with the game's developers. Take LOL Mobile as an example. We encourage users to complete certain tasks for offering virtual rewards such as in-game items.

Both user growth and viewing time increased impressively. Meanwhile, we produced a variety of game-centric PGC content, such as a chat-based talk show that was tailor-made for Naraka: Bladepoint to effectively enhance user engagement and community experience. In addition, based on each game's features, we improved our production and the marketing of in-house tournaments. The DouYu LOL Wild Rift Master Series mentioned in the prepared remarks is a great example. Among the new games released in 2021, Naraka: Bladepoint was launched in July. LOL Mobile was launched in November, and Tower of Fantasy was launched in December. The performance of these three games demonstrates our platform's sound operating strategy. Both live streaming volume and user activity during the month after each game's launch at least doubled. Operating data shows solid momentum and the ranking for these games on our platform steadily increased.

Total viewing time for Naraka: Bladepoint was ranked within the top ten games on our platform for two quarters. Total viewing time for LOL Mobile also ranked within the top ten during the quarter of its launch. We are leading the market in terms of the proportion of self-cultivated streamer, live streaming volume, and user engagement for these new games. Overall, we see pleasing results for our full life cycle operation for new games. We have attracted additional users to our platform, demonstrating that we are on the right track with implement our diversified game content ecosystem. Furthermore, the systematic establishment of game segments has enabled us to build a solid foundation for improving our operating efficiency. Thank Miss Tao.

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you. That's all.

Operator (participant)

Our next question today will come from Richie Sun of HSBC. Please go ahead.

Richie Sun (Director of Internet research)

I will translate it myself. I noticed that the sales and marketing expenses growth is faster, much faster than the top line growth. Can management comment on why is that, and how do we assess the effectiveness of traffic acquisition? How will this sales and marketing expense trend in the next few quarters? Thank you.

Mingming Su (Chief Strategy Officer)

Okay. Sales and marketing expenses mainly consisted of staffing costs, channel promotion costs, expenses for online and offline events, and sponsorships fees for esports teams. The year-over-year growth was mainly due to increased promotions for our new product features and increased costs from utilizing additional promotional channels for user acquisition, along with the upgrade of our content offerings. As previously mentioned in our discussion regarding our platform strategy, we need to expand our promotional efforts to increase our coverage and influence to attract more casual and mid-core gamers. We will carefully select appropriate marketing channels based on continued data analytics to increase our marketing efficiency on dynamic evaluation basis. We will continue to increase spending on the channels delivering high quality users and cut back or stop spending on those channels whose acquisition efficiency or user quality does not meet our standards. Thank you.

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our question and answer session. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference back over to management for any closing remarks.

Lingling Kong (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you for joining our call. We look forward to speaking with every one of you next quarter. Bye.

Operator (participant)

Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and we thank you for attending today's presentation.