Earnings Call Transcript - NTES Q2 2020

Operator, Operator

Good day and welcome to the NetEase 2020 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Margaret Shi, IR Director of NetEase. Please go ahead, ma’am.

Margaret Shi, IR Director

Thank you, operator. Please note the discussion today contains forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of the company and are intended to qualify for safe harbor from liability as established by the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, assumptions and other factors. Some of these risks are beyond the company’s control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those mentioned in today’s press release and its discussion. A general discussion of the risk factors that could affect NetEase’s business and financial results is included in certain filings of the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual form on Form 20-F and with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking information except as required by law. During today’s call, management will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the 2020 second quarter earnings news release issued earlier today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, an investor presentation and a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on the NetEase corporate website.

Charles Yang, CFO

Thank you, Margaret, and thank you, everyone, for participating in today’s call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that all percentages are based on renminbi. This is our very first earnings call as a public company on both NASDAQ and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With the support of our shareholders, this past June, we celebrated our 20th anniversary on NASDAQ and completed our listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This dual listing reminds us of our commitment to shareholders, both domestically and overseas, and our deep responsibility to continue creating value for our growing base of global stakeholders. I am pleased to report a solid second quarter amidst a challenging macro backdrop with healthy gains across each of our primary business lines. Once again, we saw steady performances from our flagship titles and franchises and rapid growth from Youdao and NetEase Cloud Music. In total, we grew our net revenues year-over-year by nearly 26% to RMB18.2 billion for this quarter, and our net income from continuing operations attributable to our shareholders grew year-over-year by 35% to RMB4.5 billion. Our online games were up 21% in the second quarter year-over-year, reaching net revenue of RMB13.8 billion, driven by the impressive strength of our existing titles. Our flagship, Fantasy Westward Journey series and Westward Journey series, continued their strong performance in the second quarter. As two of the largest and longest-running game IPs in China, both games consistently attract a loyal crowd. Adding to the success of our Fantasy Westward Journey franchise, we introduced Fantasy Westward Journey H5 in June, a more casual and light version of the legacy IP. This new addition has captivated an untapped audience, enlarging the user base of our Fantasy Westward Journey franchise even further. While we continue to grow and strengthen our legacy franchises, many of our titles that were launched in more recent years have also shown remarkable success and sustainability. For our PC game, Justice, celebrating its 2-year anniversary, we introduced a new character in conjunction with an expansion pack in June. We are very pleased to see its popularity, propelling strong gross billings as well as record high numbers of both new and returning players. Similarly, our SLG title, Invincible, hit another quarter of record high revenue with strong user engagement in the second quarter. The expertise we have accumulated in SLGs over the past 5 years with this popular title is invaluable. We are carrying on some of this expertise into building other highly anticipated SLG games in our pipeline for China and for the global market. These include titles such as The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, and Infinite Lagrange. Onmyoji also shows remarkable longevity as we continually introduce new characters. To further enlarge the reach of this IP, we are expanding our portfolio of offerings in the Onmyoji family. Next month, we target to launch Onmyoji: Yokai Koya, a simulation game that has been long anticipated by the Onmyoji community. Two other new spinoff games are also in the making: Onmyoji Idol Project, another simulation game; and Project: World, an Onmyoji role-playing game. With more and more experience in diverse game genres, we have also tapped into more diverse and larger user pools. Many of these games are very popular among younger generations and are showing great longevity as well includes Life-After and Identity V. Take Identity V as an example. This popular and young IP has gained strong traction with Generation Z users, and we are regularly enriching this IP through a variety of initiatives, including e-sports tournaments, IP collaboration, and offline activities that cater to this popular base of loyal users. Recently, we launched crossover characters through our collaboration with Detective Conan, a Japanese anime series, which quickly started trending on social media outlets sparking enthusiastic discussions amongst young generations, highlighting the dynamic nature of our games. Moving on to licensed games, the strong performance of Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft carried on well, achieving a record number of peak concurrent users in the first half of this year. Beyond our progress in the domestic market, we have also made multiple headway with our international initiatives. Our overseas online game net revenues hit a new record high in the second quarter, propelled by robust performances from Knives Out and Life-After in Japan. For example, our collaboration with the Tokyo Ghoul anime series for Knives Out was a huge success with the game topping the iOS grossing chart for nearly a whole week. Earlier today, we launched EVE Echoes, a next-gen sandbox MMO mobile game that has been long awaited by the user community. In addition to the success of our existing games, we have many exciting games in our pipeline with upcoming titles that include Onmyoji: Yokai Koya, The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, For All Time, Revelation mobile game, Ghost World Chronicle, Nightmare Breaker, Infinite Lagrange, Diablo® Immortal™, and Pokémon Quest. As for our education business, Youdao continues to scale at a rapid pace. Total net revenue rose 93% year-over-year to RMB623 million with positive operating cash flow again in this quarter. Gross billings for Youdao’s online classes tripled year-over-year to RMB542 million driven by strong retention and larger-scale marketing in the K-12 segment, which increased its gross billings by 229% year-over-year. In addition to strong contributions from junior high school math and physics, we saw more courses growing popular in the second quarter, including high school Chinese and primary school math. To better prepare for the new enrollment during the summer months, Youdao has significantly built up its servicing capabilities, increasing its total number of instructors and tutors to 179 and 2,699, respectively. As we frequently upgrade our course development system, we are building more personalized and stratified services for students with different grades, increasing their in-class interactions. During the quarter, net revenues of Youdao’s learning devices reached RMB86 million, up 250% year-over-year. Through continued investment in product and technology innovation, we released Dictionary Pen 2.0 Pro version with more functionality as well as Japanese and Korean languages in the past June. The product became the top-selling product of its category on e-commerce platforms during the June 18 event. Looking ahead, we are well poised to continue Youdao’s growth trajectory, supported by our strong technology and teaching capabilities. And thus, we further amplify our marketing efforts to bolster our student base for the second half of this year. For NetEase Cloud Music, we continued to see triple-digit revenue growth in the second quarter year-over-year, with both membership and live streaming striking new highs. We are very pleased to have secured a multiyear licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. This direct partnership further strengthens NetEase Cloud Music as a go-to platform for high-quality international music and marks a great step forward for China’s music industry as a whole. We are very committed to bringing the richest content to Chinese users by introducing exciting global music and incubating independent musicians. In the second quarter, we launched numerous paid live shows for independent bands, giving them more options to stream online during this uncertain time. Also in this quarter, we launched Yinjie, our karaoke app, which allows one-click remix capability for limitless creative possibilities when singing on our app. Our users can connect through songs and common music interests and share their mood when recording. These fun and easy, customizable features greatly appeal to our younger users. Additionally, our annual subscription service is now available for members of Alibaba’s customer loyalty 88 VIP program, one of the major collaborations after Alibaba’s investment in NetEase Cloud Music last year. And we are working together to explore more possibilities for future synergies. Turning to Yanxuan, we continued to optimize our operating efficiency in the second quarter in terms of product development, supply chain, and user experience. During this quarter, we introduced several popular products, significantly reduced inventory turnover days, and further expanded our Pro members, who typically represent the most core and sticky users of our Yanxuan brand. As a private label, one of our key strategic goals is to increase brand awareness and marketing appeal to a broader audience in China. During the second quarter, NetEase and Yanxuan executives hosted two live broadcasting shows in which we introduced the Yanxuan products, and they were all sold out instantaneously. We also entered into new partnerships with top live streamers and KOLs, which led to rapid growth in sales through live streaming platforms. NetEase is best known for our content creation capabilities. This rings true across our different business segments. As we look to the second half of this year, we are more confident and committed than ever to further expanding our reach and bringing relevant, exciting, new products and services to NetEase players, fans, and followers around the world. Games, in particular, with the introduction of exciting new titles and our global initiatives, are expected to lead our next wave of expansion as we continue to build value for all of our stakeholders. This concludes William’s remarks. I will now provide a brief overview of our 2020 second quarter financial results. Given the limited time on today’s call, I will be presenting some abbreviated financial highlights. We encourage you to read through our press release issued earlier today for further details. Total net revenues for the second quarter were RMB18.2 billion or $2.6 billion, representing a 26% increase year-over-year. Net revenues from online game services were RMB13.8 billion, up 21% year-over-year. The increase was primarily driven by our flagship titles, including Fantasy Westward Journey 3D, Invincible, and the Fantasy Westward Journey Mobile game as well as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. Mobile games accounted for approximately 72% of net revenues from our online games services in the second quarter. Net revenues from Youdao also increased 93% year-over-year in the second quarter, reaching RMB623 million primarily due to the increased net revenues from online courses and the record increase in K-12 paid student enrollment and increased sales of intelligent learning devices. Net revenues from innovative businesses and others were RMB3.7 billion for the quarter, up 39% year-over-year mainly due to the increased contribution from the NetEase Cloud Music platform. Overall, gross margin was 53.8% in the second quarter. Gross margin for our online game services for the second quarter was 63.8%. Our gross margin for online games is generally stable, fluctuating quarter-to-quarter within a narrow band based on the revenue mix of mobile and PC as well as self-developed and licensed games. Gross margin for Youdao for the second quarter of 2020 was 45.2% compared to 32.9% for the second quarter of 2019. The margin improvement trend was primarily attributable to greater economies of scale and continued optimization over the cost structure. Gross margin for innovative businesses and others was 18.5%, compared to 15.8% and 15.5% for the preceding quarter and the second quarter of last year. The increase was primarily due to increased revenues from NetEase Cloud Music. For the second quarter, total operating expenses were RMB5.6 billion. Our selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of net revenue were 12.8%. This quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to increased marketing related to new games as well as Youdao’s summer promotion spending, which is typical in the online education space. R&D expenses were RMB2.4 billion. We remain committed to investing in innovative content creation and product development. This is what defines us as a technology company. As a percentage of net revenue, R&D expenses represent 13.2% of the total revenue compared to 13.5% for the same quarter last year. We have increased absolute dollar spend in the operating expenses. We are prudently maintaining a disciplined level of total operating expenses to the overall top-line revenue. We are very confident to spend these dollars wisely to further grow the sustainable revenue growth into the near future. Other income was RMB1.5 billion for the second quarter of 2020. Year-over-year increase was mainly due to gains from fair value changes of our investment holdings and government incentives recognized in this quarter. Effective tax rate was 18.6% for the second quarter. Non-GAAP net income from continuing operations attributable to our shareholders for the second quarter of the year totaled RMB5.2 billion or $739.7 million, representing an increase of 24% quarter-over-quarter and nearly 33% year-over-year. Our non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS from continuing operations were RMB39.82 or $5.64 for the second quarter of 2020. Our cash position remains strong. As of June 30, our total cash and cash equivalents, current and non-current time deposits, and short-term investment balance totaled RMB103 billion compared with RMB74.4 billion as of the end of last year. In conjunction with our listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we completed a global offering of 197,202,000 new ordinary shares, which comprise an international offering and a Hong Kong public offering and the full exercise of the over-allotment options. Growth proceeds from the global offering before underwriting fees and offering expenses were approximately HKD24.3 billion or $3.1 billion. In accordance with our dividend policy, we are pleased to report that our Board has approved a dividend of $1.485 per ADS. Under the share repurchase program approved by our Board, as of June 30, approximately 2.3 million ADS have been repurchased for a total cost of $755.7 million. Thank you for your attention. We would like now to open the call to your questions. Operator, let’s go to Q&A, please.

Operator, Operator

We will now take our first questions from Alex Poon from Morgan Stanley.

Alex Poon, Analyst

I’ll translate my question. My first question is related to your progress in Japan. In the last couple of years, the progress has been very great. The grossing ranking has done very well. Can you share with us what’s your next milestone? What’s your next goal in the Japan mobile game market? And my second question is related to the Harry Potter launch. What’s the launch strategy for the game? Is it a global launch together with China and overseas? And if we have to think about the potential of the grossing of overseas versus China, which side would be stronger?

William Ding, CEO

Progress in Japan has been substantial over the past couple of years, especially in terms of grossing rankings. Could you elaborate on your next milestone and goal in the mobile game market in Japan? Additionally, regarding the Harry Potter launch, what is the strategy for launching the game? Will it be a global launch alongside China and other markets? If we consider the potential for grossing internationally versus in China, which market do you believe has greater potential?

Charles Yang, CFO

Okay. Alex, for everyone’s convenience, I’ll quickly translate William’s remarks and apologize for the technical glitch earlier. Firstly, regarding our objective for the Japanese market, it’s a very important market for our global initiatives, and we’ve achieved a small milestone there over the last couple of years. However, we still think there’s huge upside potential for us to further cultivate the Japanese market. For instance, we are committed to diversifying our offerings and introducing more genres of games into that important market. With regards to Harry Potter, this is a highly anticipated game. We focus a lot more on the product itself, on the possible user reactions and feedback, and the suitability of this product. Whether it’s a simultaneous launch for China and the global market or at a different pace, we don’t think that’s the top priority for us. The good thing is that we’ve already secured approval. So, we have the flexibility. But for us, the focus is really on the product and making sure users are happy with the product when we are fully prepared. So far, the progress has been very well on track.

Operator, Operator

Okay. We will take our next question. Alicia Yap. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Alicia Yap, Analyst

Hello, thank you. My first question is regarding the margins. With the newly signed contract with UMG, how will that impact the gross margin and cost profile for the new innovative business, considering there may be an upfront fee involved? Additionally, with more contracts, how should this affect potential monetization? My second question is about sales and marketing. It appears that spending this quarter is higher than in the previous quarter. Is this an isolated incident, or should we expect it to be the new standard for the second half?

Charles Yang, CFO

Alicia, and for a quick translation of William’s remarks, we’ve added comments from my side. So first of all, William commented that the multi-year contracts change the sublicensing aspect for direct partnerships. So in essence, it’s not really changing the margin trend or the business side. The big positive impact from direct partnerships is that beyond music content subscription revenues, we are now in a direct partnership to possibly explore other formats of monetization with a record label provider, and that gives us more confidence that NetEase Cloud Music could explore and try out more interesting and innovative monetization methods, which, in the longer term, will lead to a healthier user experience on the platform, which then naturally would result in a much healthier financial profile of NetEase Cloud Music. Regarding your second question, specifically on selling and marketing expenses, yes, like in my earlier comments, this represents the increased absolute dollars primarily for two reasons. First is the selling and marketing efforts for new game launches, particularly the Fantasy Westward Journey H5 game, and also partly due to the summer promotion initiative of Youdao spending, which is a typical seasonality for the overall online education industry. However, from a broader perspective, this quarter's selling and marketing activities represented about 12.8% of my overall top-line revenue. Of course, there are gaps in spending that feed into sustainable revenue growth in the coming quarters. Overall, this percentage level represents a very prudent and disciplined measure compared to our historical levels on an annualized basis in the last 3 years. Hopefully, that answers your question, Alicia.

Operator, Operator

We will take our next questions from the line of Alex Yao from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Alex Yao, Analyst

I have two questions. The first one is to follow up on Alicia’s question on music monetization. William, you mentioned that you are considering diversifying the music monetization. So in addition to the current subscription-based monetization model, what are the monetization models that you are trying or contemplating? That’s the first question. The second question is regarding the international gaming expansion strategy. You have quite a number of gaming titles with very famous Western IP. Those games are very suitable for both domestic and international publishing. Given the current geopolitical tension between China and the U.S., especially what’s happening between the U.S. government and some of the China Internet companies, would you reconsider your international gaming strategy? Let me stop here.

Charles Yang, CFO

So Alex, I will provide a brief translation of William’s remarks. For the first question on the possible monetization formats around NetEase Cloud Music, obviously that would require some innovation. There are certain monetization formats that have been proven, but what’s more interesting are the other innovative ways that the online music streaming industry can explore further. We are very confident on that front because that’s our core strength, content development innovation. The commitment that remains unchanged is that we are dedicated to invest more resources and capabilities into native content, supporting independent musicians to create a healthier and sustainable industry trend for China’s music industry overall. For your second question, we recognize the complexity surrounding the current background of geopolitical uncertainty. However, as content developers, we believe that high-quality game content is universally appealing. We remain committed to being highly selective and serious in developing good game content for not just Chinese users but a global audience. As long as we focus on content development, universally appealing content can transcend geopolitical complexities. Operator, next question please.

Operator, Operator

Okay. We will take our next question from the line of Eddie Leung from Merrill Lynch. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Eddie Leung, Analyst

So I have two questions. The first one is about the cloud music pieces. How do you think about the positioning of the social media companies in the online music market in the long term? It seems like some of these social media companies have been adding music-related video content to their platforms. I just wonder whether they might become competitors in the long term. And then, secondly, is about the performance of your legacy hit games. Some of them are still generating pretty good revenue and even seeing some growth. So in general, I would like to know whether it’s more driven by paying user growth or ARPU growth. Thank you.

William Ding, CEO

In the long term, do you see social media companies that are adding music-related video content becoming competitors in the online music market? Additionally, regarding your legacy hit games, some continue to generate significant revenue and even experience growth. I would like to understand if this growth is primarily driven by an increase in paying users or by growth in ARPU. Thank you.

Charles Yang, CFO

Eddie, I will provide a brief translation of William’s remarks. Firstly, on your question, we believe short-format video and music actually are very synergistic verticals. However, they are fundamentally different because usually, for short-format video, it is chopped. It’s usually less than a minute, whereby a full complete song typically requires 3 to 4 minutes of listening. Furthermore, short-format video usually takes a highlight part which is particularly strong. As a predominantly UGC content platform, it’s highly dependent on the music or the background music, whereas the product itself doesn’t require as much of a professional touch. On the other hand, the music platform is mostly PGC or professional content creation, and it’s a much longer format. Therefore, short-format video is a very conducive channel to promote high-quality music content. However, if you are a user and a true music enthusiast who wants to enjoy the full length of a song or have a music-oriented experience, then short-format video cannot replace the importance and relevance of the music platform. That’s how we view the relationship of the two. We do not consider it as a replacement. Secondly, regarding game growth, William's remark suggests that it seems more users are now willing to pay for high-quality content and better game experiences, leading to an increase in the overall number of paying users. At the same time, you may also note a polarization in spending patterns for certain game genres. Some users are akin to subscribers, spending consistently but not in large amounts, while others spend significantly on certain games. Typically, these types of games tend to focus on the highest quality of gaming experience. On a whole, we believe our user base is on an upward trend. However, ARPU may not necessarily rise at the same pace. Still, if our content remains relevant and represents the highest quality in its respective genre, we have the potential to grow both ARPU and the user base for our products.

Operator, Operator

Okay. We will take our next questions from the line of Thomas Chong from Jefferies. The line is open. Please go ahead.

Thomas Chong, Analyst

Thanks, management, for taking my questions and congratulations on a very strong set of results. I have a question about our overseas game strategies. Given that we have IP licensing, we have our strong in-house development as well as we get the cash proceeds coming from our Hong Kong listing, how should we consider our overseas strategies in terms of M&A, IP licensing as well as in-house development? Thank you.

Charles Yang, CFO

Thomas, I will provide a brief translation. So actually, with the Hong Kong IPO, it doesn’t really change our mentality or approach to a content-focused global initiative. We are always very active and open-minded regarding all the strategies you mentioned. In fact, there is no forced ranking in terms of priorities. IP licensing remains a critical element of our global initiative because it showcases our content creation capabilities, operations, and publishing expertise. Meanwhile, self-development remains the core of our competence. M&A is something we are very optimistic about, but we are also highly open-minded and active, particularly in genres that are supplementary to our core in-house R&D capability.

Thomas Chong, Analyst

Thanks, William and Charles. I have a follow-up question. It’s about the paying ratio and ARPU. If we try to compare Japan versus China, should we expect China to head towards the Japan level in the long run? Thank you.

Charles Yang, CFO

Okay. Thomas, I will provide again a translation of William’s remarks. So first of all, it is very common that different geographies and economies demonstrate different types of consumer behavior. However, over the longer term, we do think that the willingness and ability of Chinese consumers to spend is on the rise. For instance, if you look at today, the cost of a movie ticket in China is already comparable to cinema movie ticket spending in the United States. Just a decade ago, there was a huge gap in pricing. For those of us who can recall, that gap was significant, which means Chinese consumers are becoming more willing to pay for entertainment. As the Chinese economy advances, people are increasingly willing to invest in diverse entertainment to enrich their lifestyles. We believe this trend will only continue to grow.

Operator, Operator

Okay. Due to time limits, that concludes today’s questions and answers session. At this time, I will turn the conference back to Margaret Shi for any additional closing remarks.

Margaret Shi, IR Director

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact directly our TPG Investor Relations. Have a great day.

Charles Yang, CFO

Thank you, everyone.

Operator, Operator

That concludes today’s conference. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. You may now disconnect.