Aurora Mobile Ltd Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. And welcome to Aurora Mobile First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Rene Vanguestaine. Thank you. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Amber. 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. Shan-Nen Bong, Chief Financial Officer; and Mr. Guangyan Chen, General Manager. Following their prepared remarks, they will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements 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. Securities and Exchange Commission. 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 will turn the conference over to Mr. Bong. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Rene. Greetings to all. Welcome to Aurora's Mobile 2024 first quarter earnings call. For our callers listening today, I would like to note that our CEO, Chris, is on a business trip. Thus he is not able to attend the call today. In Chris's absence, I shall have the privilege to share with you all the great quarter we have. Before I comment on our Q1 results, I would like to remind everyone that the quarterly earnings deck is available on our website. Similar to the prior quarter on what Chris has done, based on the Q1 numbers, I shall give an appropriate description of the performance of this quarter, and it will be a great start to 2024. The reasons are as follows: firstly, as far as managing the business wins, I think we have done a great job. In this quarter, we have recorded a third consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. Secondly, developer subscription revenue recorded a 13% revenue growth year-over-year, showing great growth momentum over the years. Thirdly, our gross margin grew both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Fourthly, we are continuing to operate at a low level of OpEx, leveraging our operational efficiency improvements. Our OpEx in this quarter is at a historic low since our IPO. Last but not least, our star overseas product, EngageLab, recorded excellent customer number and contract value growth this quarter again. I believe all of you would agree that we have had a great Q1 for 2024. We are truly looking forward to building up the momentum for the next few quarters with even more exciting numbers. Next, let me share more. Total group revenue remained consistent at RMB65 million; in particular, Developer Service revenue recorded a 2% year-over-year slide and vertical application revenue decreased by 1% year-over-year. Developer Service revenue, which consisted of subscription service and value-added service, decreased by 2% year-over-year. We did see developer service subscription revenue increase by 13% year-over-year but was offset by a 70% decrease in the value-added service. Next, I shall dive deeper into each business line. Some business revenue was at RMB42.4 million, up 13% year-over-year but declined 13% quarter-over-quarter as Q4 is usually the high year-end quarter. The 13% year-over-year growth was mainly driven by a 12% increase in ARPU. For year-over-year comparison, the higher ARPU was mainly contributed by the completion of more private cloud projects in 2024. Another key factor for this 13% revenue year-over-year growth was due to the revenue originating from EngageLab. The EngageLab recognized revenue has increased 10x year-over-year. I shall elaborate more on EngageLab business later. Subscription revenue included multiple new and renewal customers in this quarter, including but not limited to Volkswagen China, Shunfeng Express, Huawei, Coticoffe, and Mihayu, just to name a few. Value-added service revenue was at $2.4 million, decreased 70% year-over-year and decreased 64% quarter-over-quarter due to the lack of a major online shopping event in Q1. This lower revenue in Q1 is within our expectation. However, we foresee this business bouncing back in Q2 in anticipation of the 618 online shopping event. Let me share some of the great numbers we recorded in our business in the first quarter of 2024. Firstly, by March 31, 2024, our EngageLab customer number has grown from 170 to more than 220. We continue to make great progress in new customer acquisition in the overseas market. More and more new customers have signed up with us as they seek a reliable push and email service provider who can help them improve their message delivery rate and user engagement. Secondly, the cumulative contract value of EngageLab saw another 60% quarter-over-quarter growth, bringing the total cumulative contract value to more than RMB24 million by Q1 of 2024, representing a RMB9 million growth quarter-over-quarter. Our EngageLab overseas customers have purchased both our public and private cloud versions of our push service. Thirdly, our EngageLab product has been sold to customers in more than 20 countries worldwide. It has proven that our EngageLab products are truly global and cater to businesses around the world. Now, I will go over the revenue for vertical applications, which consists of financial risk management and market intelligence. Vertical Applications had a stable quarter, with revenue remaining relatively consistent year-over-year but declining 9% quarter-over-quarter from the usual high Q4 quarter. For financial risk management, we saw revenue grow 14% year-over-year and 2% quarter-over-quarter. This 14% year-over-year revenue growth was positively impacted by a 41% growth in customer numbers. This follows a 26% year-over-year growth in Q4 of 2023. We did see an uptick in demand for our financial risk management products year-over-year as lending activities in China have been on the rise. Looking back, quarterly revenue has been growing consecutively in each quarter since Q1 of 2023 to the current quarter. The Q1 customers that we signed up or renewed include, but are not limited to, Kundu Minhang, Suzhou Minhang, Mai Jingrong, and many Maisons credit and financial institutions throughout China. Market Intelligence revenue decreased by 21% year-over-year and decreased 9% quarter-over-quarter due to the continued weak market demand for Chinese APP data. In Q1 of 2024, we signed up some well-known and large customers, such as many top-tier global hedge funds and investment funds. Now let's move on to some key expenses and balance sheet items. Our Q1 operating expenses were at $53 million, representing an 18% decrease year-over-year and a 13% decrease quarter-over-quarter. This $53 million OpEx was the lowest quarterly OpEx we have recorded since our IPO in July 2018. As shown in the financial statements, we have been taking all necessary steps to maintain an optimal level of operating expenses, and we are very pleased with the current OpEx level. Now, I will discuss the individual OpEx categories. R&D expenses decreased by 28% year-over-year to RMB32.7 million, mainly due to lower headcount, reduced salary costs, associated share-based compensation, and a decrease in expenses due to the growing cloud initiatives we have undertaken. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 8% year-over-year to CNY17.4 million, mainly due to a decrease in salary costs resulting from headcount reduction, as we made appropriate adjustments to operate at the optimal level. G&A expenses decreased by 9% year-over-year to RMB12.9 million, mainly due to the lower headcount that reduced salary costs and associated share-based compensation. For the quarter ended March 31, 2024, we recorded yet another positive adjusted EBITDA. This is a historic event where we have had three consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. As mentioned earlier, we have tightly managed and controlled our OpEx over the years. We believe as long as we continue to grow our top line in the future, you will see more good quarterly results sooner rather than later. On to the balance sheet. We monitor two very important KPIs. We continue to maintain a healthy AR turnover days level at 47 days, which is still low and leading in this market space. We are working hard to ensure we actively collect cash from customers and maintain low turnover days while mitigating the risk of bad and doubtful debts. Secondly, one key financial KPI for tracking the performance of SaaS companies is the total deferred revenue, representing cash collected in advance from customers for future contract performance, which continues to have a high balance of RMB135.2 million. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter that we have had a deferred revenue balance above RMB130 million. Total assets were RMB334 million as of March 31, 2024, which includes cash and cash equivalents of RMB99 million, accounts receivable of RMB33 million, prepayments and other current assets at RMB23 million, fixed assets at RMB1.4 million, long-term investments of RMB113 million, goodwill at RMB37.8 million, and intangible assets at RMB16.9 million resulting from the SendCloud acquisition in March 2022. Total liabilities were RMB227 million as of March 31, 2024, which includes accounts payable of RMB22 million, current operating lease liability of RMB3 million, deferred revenue of RMB125 million, and accrued liabilities of RMB64 million. At this juncture, let me recap the great start to 2024 that I mentioned at the beginning of this call. Our developer service revenue grew by 13% year-over-year. Our gross margin is at the highest level since Q4 of 2021. For the first time in history, we have recorded three consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. Our quarterly OpEx is at RMB53 million, the lowest level since our IPO. Our EngageLab product recorded customer number growth of over 30% quarter-over-quarter and cumulative contract value increased more than 60% between the quarters. With the above, I believe the management team has done a great job delivering another quarter of good financial results. This set of numbers does not come easy. We have done a lot of work since two years ago during the pandemic. Let me spend a few minutes to recap on the work we have done to get to where we are now. We refocused our strategy, challenged product heads to maintain and sell each product in view of market potential. The end result was streamlining our product offerings, cutting down those that do not contribute positively and reallocating resources to key profitable products with high domestic and overseas demand. We also restructured our teams and reduced headcount by nearly 40% from the peak, helping us lower fixed costs significantly. We reviewed all service contracts with external vendors and managed to lower fixed operating expenses to an optimal level. Importantly, we chose the right direction by expanding overseas through our EngageLab suite of products. With these combined efforts, we are witnessing positive impacts, most notably the three consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA. As we continue to scale our business, I believe more good results will come. I would like to thank the shareholders, the team, and all group employees for their support and patience throughout these past few years. Lastly, before I conclude, I'll provide a quick update on the share repurchase plan. In the quarter ended March 31, 2024, we repurchased 17,000 ADS. Cumulatively, we have repurchased a total of 205,000 ADS since the start of our repurchase program. This concludes the management's prepared remarks, and we are happy to take your calls now. Operator, please proceed.

Our first question comes from the line of Calvin Wong from Spica Capital.

And congratulations again for another quarter of great results. I would like to have two questions, if I may. Firstly, as we understand, Q1 is a relatively quiet quarter, but you still managed to deliver another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. So I would like to hear from the management how this was possible. Are we now expecting another positive adjusted EBITDA in Q2? That's my first question. Secondly, I would like to circle back on the EngageLab business again. Based on the Q1 deck, you have uploaded in the earlier management call that EngageLab had another great growth quarter. I would appreciate if management could shed more light on this business segment. So again, two questions: one, on the adjusted EBITDA outlook, and two about the outlook of the EngageLab business.

Sure, Calvin. Let me summarize. One is the question about the adjusted EBITDA number and the second is EngageLab. Honestly, we are very pleased to have achieved another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA in Q1. As you mentioned, Q1 is usually a slow quarter due to the Chinese New Year and February being shorter. However, this positive adjusted EBITDA did not come easily. We have made many adjustments and numerous tweaks to be flexible and quick in response to the market over the past two years. Currently, we are in a strong position with the right product that has significant potential, especially as we execute our overseas expansion plans while keeping operating expenses low. To recap, we recorded a 13% growth in subscription revenue. Additionally, our EngageLab business revenue has grown tenfold year-over-year, and we achieved the highest gross margin, increasing both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Our operating expenses have also reached a record low since our IPO. Importantly, many investors are looking for three consecutive quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA, which suggests that things are aligning well. As for anticipating another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, we should remain cautious. We need to focus on scaling our business both domestically and internationally while closely monitoring our operating expenses. If we manage this correctly, I believe the results will show our efforts. Regarding EngageLab, the best word to describe it would be growth. Since we began sharing quarterly numbers for EngageLab in Q3 of 2023, we have consistently seen impressive growth in customer numbers and cumulative contract value increasing each quarter. We are very pleased with the performance of this business so far. Recently, we participated in an event in Singapore for Asia tech export, where Chris and I attended. Over three days, we received over 100 sales leads and spoke with potential customers from Singapore, Malaysia, my hometown in Indonesia, the Philippines, and even Romania. I am genuinely impressed by the interest shown in our EngageLab product in Asia during this visit. Technically, we have integrated our notification channel across various mobile operating systems, allowing customers to send notifications regardless of the devices used. That concludes the business update on EngageLab. I hope this answers your question, Calvin.

Very clear. Thanks.

I'm showing no further questions. I'll now turn the conference back to Rene for closing comments. Rene, you may wish to do the closing comments?

Thank you, everyone, for joining our call tonight. If you have any further questions or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to the IR team. This concludes the call. Have a good night. Thank you, all.

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.