Bilibili sales, losses up in Q1

Shangha’s video and gaming site Bilibili has announced increased losses in the first quarter but its sales also increased, boosted by advertising and gaming income.

The adjusted net loss was 145 million yuan (US$21 million) compared to 3.2 million yuan the same period a year ago, due to increasing expenditure on sales, marketing and content production.

The user-generated video site and game operator reported a 58-percent increase in first-quarter revenue to 1.4 billion yuan, helped by 27-percent growth in mobile game income. The cost of revenue jumped 81 percent after revenue-sharing with game developers and vloggers climbed. Revenue from advertising was 112 million yuan, an increase of 60 percent.

Bilibili is working with Tencent to distribute mobile games, and on other projects in animation and gaming. A tie-up with Alibaba allows content producers easy access to retail platforms to benefit from spending on their branded products.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chen Rui said, "We will continue to focus on user growth and enhancing commercialization including initiatives on new games, live broadcasts and value-added service streams."

E-commerce income rose more than six times to 96 million yuan following better sales of derivative products through e-commerce sites and increased brand recognition.

The number of monthly paying users more than doubled to 5.7 million and average monthly active users reached 101 million.

Bilibili estimates revenue will be between 1.45 billion yuan and 1.49 billion yuan in the second quarter.