Earnings Call Transcript - BW Q4 2025

Operator, Operator

Thank you for being here. Welcome to the Aurora Mobile Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that today’s call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Christian Arnell. Please proceed.

Christian Arnell, Host

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Aurora Mobile's earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on the IR website at ir.jiguang.cn. On the call today are Mr. Weidong Luo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Shan-Nen Bong, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Guangyan Chen, General Manager. Following their prepared remarks, they will be available to take your questions and give you answers during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements made within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, which are difficult to predict and may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties and/or factors are included in the company's filings with the U.S. SEC. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. With that, I'd now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Luo. Please go ahead.

Weidong Luo, CEO

Thanks, Christian. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Aurora Mobile's 2025 Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. Before I comment on our Q4 results, I would like to remind everyone that we have uploaded the quarterly earnings deck on our IR website. You may reference the deck as we proceed with the call today. I'm truly excited about the various things that are going on here at Aurora Mobile. Revenue is surging and our financials are as strong as ever. By the end of this call, I trust you will agree with me, our 2025 and Q4 numbers are truly exceptional. As we have done in the past, when looking at the fourth quarter and the year as a whole, a single phrase comes to mind: a year of pure brilliance. Why? Because we recorded our first-ever full year net GAAP profit in our history. Not only that, but we achieved three consecutive quarters of non-GAAP profit leading to this quarter, which, just as importantly, achieved quarterly revenue exceeding the RMB 100 million mark. It has been a truly historic year. Let me now dive deeper into the outstanding work and numbers that made this success possible. Firstly, the group's revenue this quarter surged to RMB 105.2 million, representing a remarkable double-digit 13% year-over-year and 16% sequential growth. This performance surpassed the guidance we shared in our Q3 earnings call. Secondly, our global flagship product, EngageLab, continued to fire on all cylinders, winning new customers across the globe. This momentum drove EngageLab's ARR for December 2025 to a record high of USD 10 million, representing 186% year-over-year growth. Further, gross profit grew by 23% year-over-year and by 9% quarter-over-quarter. This is the highest gross profit we have seen over the past 16 quarters. Last but not least, we delivered another standout quarter on cash management. Net operating cash inflow hit RMB 35.1 million, the highest we have seen since Q4 of 2020. With so many record highs this quarter, I am incredibly proud of what our team has managed to accomplish. It's truly gratifying to share these results with you today, and it was driven by our strategy, hard work, and passion, not by luck. Everyone in Aurora Mobile deserves recognition for their effort and energy toward our collective growth day in and day out. 2025 stands as one of our most successful years to date; the result of true commitment and strong execution. With that said, the work is not done. The solid foundation we have built over the past few years positions us to achieve even greater things. I sincerely believe we are ready to seize the next wave of global opportunities, and our track record proves we can. As we move into 2026, we will continue on our expansion path with the same discipline and focus we have shown in the past years, enhancing our products and services, accelerating growth, and maintaining strong financial management. I am optimistic about what 2026 will bring. The path ahead is rich with opportunities, and our brightest moments are still to come. After a year of pure brilliance, I think the outlook for 2026 is clear: growth acceleration. Now let me share more on the individual business performance. Our total Q4 group revenue has exceeded the RMB 100 million mark for the first time in history since the transition to a pure SaaS business model. It has grown both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. In particular, the lion's share of year-over-year revenue was contributed by strong numbers from developer subscription services. Our solid execution in 2025 across different markets provided an excellent platform to drive our top line performance. In this quarter, both developer subscription services and vertical applications recorded solid acceleration with double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Developer Services revenue, which consists of subscription services and Value-Added Services, delivered strong performance with 7% growth year-over-year and 18% growth quarter-over-quarter. Subscription revenue performed well, increasing by 13% year-over-year and 7% quarter-over-quarter. Value-Added Services revenue grew by an impressive 101% quarter-over-quarter, although it decreased 13% year-over-year. Our core business, developer subscription services, generated revenue of RMB 61.9 million, representing growth of 13% year-over-year and 8% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year revenue growth was mainly driven by increases in both customer number and ARPU. This quarter, subscription revenue crossed the RMB 60 million mark and reached its highest level in history. Now it's time for what many of you have been waiting for: an update on our global flagship product, EngageLab, which has continued its remarkable growth trajectory quarter after quarter since it was launched. First, EngageLab's ARR has achieved a new and important milestone of USD 10 million as of December 2025. Following triple-digit growth in Q3, we recorded 186% year-over-year ARR growth this quarter. Secondly, we delivered another strong quarter for EngageLab. Cumulative signed contract value amounted to RMB 157 million by the end of Q4 of 2025. In Q4 alone, we signed up more than RMB 29 million worth of new contracts. This, in our view, is simply outstanding. We expect this revenue growth momentum to continue for the next 24 months. Thirdly, we secured new wins from global customers across all corners of the world. Our number of customers increased by 142% year-over-year, reaching 1,641. Our global go-to-market initiatives are proving highly effective in driving this growth. Fourthly, our EngageLab products and services are now sold to customers in more than 70 different countries and regions globally. We expanded our footprint into 18 new countries in Q4 alone. Ultimately, the rollout of EngageLab into global markets has been a resounding success. Looking back at 2025, we are immensely pleased with the expansion of our global flagship product. We have come a long way since we launched EngageLab in Q4 of 2022. In a nutshell, EngageLab provides a suite of products and services for omnichannel infrastructure, helping our customers to strengthen engagement with their users in an efficient and effective manner. The customers of EngageLab represent various industry verticals, with no specific industry concentration risk. The very strong numbers we have recorded in 2025 have given us great confidence in the accelerating profit of this business. Historical 2025 numbers aside, at the beginning of 2026, we have seen healthy signs from overseas markets in terms of potential needs and customers. Let me also touch on the excellent partners we have globally. As of December 2025, within our EngageLab ecosystem, we have 17 partners in different countries and regions. These partners were selected through a rigorous and often multistage process. We think that our representation in different markets means we have high expectations for the contribution from these partners in overseas markets in the future. They are another important driver of our sustainable long-term growth. We will continue to work and engage with more local partners to better utilize their resources and local networks. Within subscription revenue, some notable wins this quarter include, but are not limited to, Kimi large language model, J&T Express, Citibank, and China Unicom. Value-Added Services revenue was RMB 14.2 million, up 101% quarter-over-quarter. The solid quarter-over-quarter revenue growth was mainly due to the significant increase in spend by advertisers. The traditional quarterly online shopping festival in Q4 also contributed to significant revenue growth sequentially. Now let me pass the call over to Shan-Nen, who will take you through the metrics of vertical applications and financial performance for this quarter. Take it away.

Shan-Nen Bong, CFO

Thanks, Chris. Next, I'll go over the revenue for vertical applications, including financial risk management and market intelligence. Overall, vertical applications had a strong quarter, with revenue growing both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Within vertical applications, financial risk management recorded a strong 43% growth in revenue year-over-year and 12% quarter-over-quarter. Financial risk management delivered another excellent performance; we recorded robust revenue growth of 43% year-over-year and 11% quarter-over-quarter. Notably, this segment achieved revenue of more than RMB 22 million in each of the four quarters in 2025. The strong year-over-year performance was driven by impressive 20% customer number growth and a 20% increase in ARPU. The customers that we signed up or renewed in Q4 include, but are not limited to, Chongqing, Xiao, Chengdu, and many more licensed credit or financial institutions throughout China. Market intelligence revenue, on the other hand, decreased by 24% year-over-year and 3% quarter-over-quarter due to continued weak market demand for Chinese app data. This result is in line with our expectations. Next, I'll go over some profit and loss items. Our gross profit delivered another exceptional quarter, growing 23% year-over-year and 9% quarter-over-quarter. The RMB 69.7 million gross profit we achieved was also the highest recorded among any of the past 16 quarters. In this quarter, our revenue grew 13% year-over-year, yet our gross profit grew by 23% year-over-year. Notably, we saw this trend in Q3 as well. This tells a clear story: we are strengthening our ability to generate high-quality revenue with higher margins. Our strong gross profit number has proven instrumental in bringing us to a full year of profitability in 2025. Regarding net profit, after three consecutive profitable quarters, we have reached a new territory: our first-ever full year GAAP net profit for 2025. This is a great way for us to conclude our brilliant Q4 and full year 2025 story on a high note. On to operating expenses. Q4 operating expenses were at RMB 68.2 million, up 13% year-over-year and 6% quarter-over-quarter. Overall, we are pleased with the trending of OpEx to support revenue and profitability growth. I'll now dive deeper into the individual OpEx categories. R&D expenses increased 16% year-over-year to RMB 28.3 million, mainly due to higher staff costs and associated expenses. Technical service fees also contributed to the year-over-year increase in R&D expenses. Selling and marketing expenses increased by 16% year-over-year to RMB 28.4 million, mainly due to higher sales commissions in line with the revenue growth and cash collection recorded in this quarter. Marketing expenses for investment in global business expansion also contributed to the year-over-year increase in selling and marketing expenses. G&A expenses remained flat at RMB 11.4 million, representing no change from the same quarter of last year. Next, I will share three very important KPIs that we closely monitor. Our net dollar retention rate, NDR, a commonly used KPI for SaaS companies, stood at 103% for our core developer subscription business for the trailing 12-month period ended December 31, 2025. This is the second consecutive quarter where the NDR number has exceeded the 100% threshold. We are proud of this number, as it demonstrates how our SaaS business model is widely accepted in the market. Customers have increased their spending on our platform over time. Secondly, another financial KPI for tracking the performance of SaaS companies is total deferred revenue. This represents cash collected in advance from customers for future contract performance, which exceeded the historical high we had last quarter and stood at RMB 178.7 million in Q4 of 2025. This historical high deferred revenue balance is a hallmark of a high-quality, scalable business. It signifies strong customer loyalty, predictable future revenues, healthy cash flow, and effective sales strategies. Thirdly, we continue to maintain a healthy level of AR turnover days at 37 days. This number is simply fantastic. It shows we are collecting cash quickly and effectively. This has significantly improved our financial liquidity while mitigating the risk of bad debts. There was no shortcut to achieving this; it was simply due to the result of our team's diligence, hard work, and timely efforts to engage with customers. Regarding the cash flow, we recorded another impressive number this quarter. For the quarter ended December 31, we recorded net operating cash inflow of RMB 35.1 million. This exceeds last quarter and is now our best quarterly cash flow result since Q4 of 2020. Another metric to share with you: between the years, our cash and cash equivalent balance has increased by RMB 53.8 million, reflecting a whopping 45% increase to RMB 173 million as of December 31, 2025. This illustrates not only the significant improvement in our financial results but also a meaningful enhancement in the overall quality of our operations. Now let me take a few minutes to recap. As you have heard Chris mention, a year of pure brilliance at the beginning of this call. Throughout the entire 12 months of 2025, we have been operating with a high level of focus, rigor, and financial discipline. Our financial profile has fundamentally improved and is moving in the right direction, as we closed a very strong and exceptional fiscal 2025. The numbers we presented today speak for themselves. In this quarter, we achieved many historical milestones, each a strong statement about the exceptional 2025 we have had and building momentum as we look forward to the next 12 months ahead in 2026. First, we achieved our first full year GAAP net profit in history. Second, the group quarterly revenue exceeded the RMB 100 million mark, a historical first since we transitioned to the pure SaaS business model. Third, our core developer subscription business achieved a record of RMB 61.9 million in revenue this quarter, breaking through the RMB 60 million threshold for the first time. Our flagship product, EngageLab, continues to shine. Our EngageLab business reached another very important key milestone: ARR of USD 10 million in December 2025, representing stunning 186% year-over-year growth. Gross profit grew significantly at 23% year-over-year, the highest it has been in the past 16 quarters. Operating activities brought in a net cash flow of RMB 35.1 million. Our net dollar retention, NDR, for core developer service surpassed 100%, reaching 103%. The 2025 numbers demonstrate our excellent execution. We have exceeded most, if not all, of our targets. With this in mind, Chris and I believe we are exceptionally well-positioned to continue this momentum into 2026. Now let's turn to the business outlook. Based on the current available information, the company sees the 2026 full year revenue guidance to be in the range of RMB 450 million to RMB 480 million, representing a very solid and strong growth of 20% to 28% year-over-year compared to 2025. The above outlook is based on current market conditions and reflects the company's current and preliminary estimate of market conditions and customer demand, which are all subject to change. Lastly, before I conclude, I'll give a quick update on the share repurchase plan. In this quarter ended December 31, 2025, we repurchased 73,000 ADSs. Cumulatively, we have repurchased a total of 400,000 ADS since the start of our repurchase program. This concludes our prepared remarks. We're happy to take your questions now. Operator, please proceed.

Operator, Operator

And our first question is going to come from Calvin Wong with Spica Capital.

Calvin Wong, Analyst

First of all, congrats to you guys for delivering a year of pure brilliant financials today. Both the Q4 and the full year 2025 numbers have been very, very impressive. One question for me, if I may. Can the management shed some light on the top 3 things that you have done well to deliver this set of such good financials.

Shan-Nen Bong, CFO

Calvin, good to hear from you, and thanks for the kind words. Let me take this question. Yes, we are very proud of ourselves for being able to share such a wonderful set of financials earlier on during the call. To get to where we are is, by no means, easy; we work very hard and smart to navigate the volatile business environment globally. Regarding the three things that we have done well, let me discuss those. First, it has to be the courage to venture outside our comfort zone. Looking back to 2022, when the idea of going overseas was first brought up by Chris as the next important strategic initiative for Aurora Mobile, we did not have any overseas employees nor partners outside of China at that time. But that forward-looking vision was a brief one. Making the right decision to go overseas would be my number one factor in our success. Without that bold decision, we wouldn't have this conversation today. Second, making the monumental shift of the product service offering outside of China has been another game changer. We would not be as successful if we were merely providing surface-level overseas offerings. We made considerable investments and resources in creating a brand-new EngageLab product, specifically designed for our overseas market. This includes distinct specifications and features for global customers, along with overseas data centers catered to their needs. If we had simply used our previous Chinese offerings overseas, it would not have worked. The third factor is the commitment to excel throughout the organization to support this overseas initiative that Chris initiated. Starting out, we lacked guidance or a road map for venturing overseas. We took the hard route by figuring everything out ourselves. I remember Chris and I standing at our booth in the Singapore Tech Expo to introduce EngageLab and answering questions from potential customers. We have come a long way. To recap: one, we made the right decision to venture overseas; two, we made serious commitments to invest in the right product offerings; and three, the entire organization was in sync and aligned with this strategic initiative. I hope this answers your question, Calvin.

Operator, Operator

And our next question will come from Jack Sun with Gelonghui Research.

Jack Sun, Analyst

I'm Jack Sun from Gelonghui Research. Congratulations to the management team on another quarter with good numbers. In particular, a full year GAAP net profit is a really great turning point. My question for the management is, how should we look at Aurora's financials for the first quarter of 2026 and beyond?

Shan-Nen Bong, CFO

Jack, thanks for the question. You're right; we had a great 2025 when we achieved our very first GAAP profit for the year. Equally as important were the spectacular Q4 numbers presented earlier. In Q4, our total revenue exceeded RMB 100 million and surpassed the guidance we provided in Q3, marking the best quarterly revenue in our history. As you heard, our global flagship product, EngageLab, continues its growth trajectory. All the KPIs we achieved showed meaningful and significant growth year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter: whether it's ARR, customer numbers, total contract values or recognized revenues, we exceeded all our internal targets. Results like this do not happen overnight or over one quarter. We have sowed the seeds of EngageLab growth since we committed to venturing overseas in late 2022. We invested the appropriate resources in terms of capital and infrastructure while balancing growth with prudent spending strategies. Given the solid foundation we have laid for EngageLab, the growth prospect is quite certain. To summarize on how you should view Aurora Mobile: one, we have proven our capability of achieving a full year net profit with positive cash inflow; two, our domestic business continues its solid and relatively stable growth; three, our flagship product, EngageLab, will provide the lion's share of the growth momentum for the next three years; and four, our AI strategy will provide the next phase of growth momentum. Therefore, management as a whole is confident about the business prospects in 2026 and beyond. I hope this answers your question, Jack.

Operator, Operator

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back over to Christian for closing remarks.

Christian Arnell, Host

Thank you, everyone, for joining the call tonight. If you have any further questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to the Jiguang IR team. This concludes the call. Have a great evening or morning. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

This does conclude the conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.