Bigo Live remains bright spot for Joyy even as net losses widen

China’s Joyy reported deepening losses for the second quarter of 2021, but Bigo Live remains a beacon for the company as the livestreaming platform turns a profit.

Photo credit: Joyy

Joyy logged US$109.3 million in net losses from continuing operations during the report quarter, going up almost 4x from the US$28.5 million hit it took during the same period in 2020. Meanwhile, net loss margin was at 16.5% compared to 6.0% in Q2 last year.

On a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) basis, Joyy almost hit break-even, posting a net loss of US$0.5 million compared to US$50.5 million during the same period in the previous year.

Bigo was a major factor in this growth, as it was able to generate US$29.1 million in operating income for the quarter, offsetting the US$130.1 million in operating losses that Joyy incurred for its other segments. Aside from Bigo, the company also operates Likee, an app that allows users to create and share short videos, and Hago, a gaming-focused social media platform, among others.

Joyy was able to achieve this even though global average mobile monthly active users (MAUs) decreased by 26.0% to 307.5 million from 415.8 million in the corresponding period of 2020. The company mainly attributes the drop to measures by the Indian government to pull Chinese-owned apps from local app stores, affecting Bigo Live, Likee and Hago.

The company said that Likee’s MAUs fell by 38.6% to 92.3 million while Hago’s plunged by 62.9% to 11.8 million.

Average mobile MAUs of Bigo Live, on the other hand, jumped by 0.3% to 29.5 million due to an increase in users outside of India. The total number of paying users for Bigo Live, Likee, and instant messaging app Imo surged by 12.0% to 1.58 million from 1.41 million in the corresponding period of 2020.

“With the enhancement in our product monetization, improvement in our operating leverage, and execution of a more prudent marketing strategy, we almost reached break-even on a non-GAAP basis at the group level for the first time after we deconsolidated YY Live,” said David Xueling Li, CEO and chairman of Joyy.

The firm’s net revenue for the quarter also rose by 39.7% to US$661.7 million from US$473.5 million in the same year-ago quarter. Livestreaming accounte for most of this growth, bringing in US$629.6 million for Joyy.