Overseas expansion bolsters YY revenue growth

Live-streaming and digital entertainment service firm YY saw its fourth-quarter revenue jump 64 percent to 7.62 billion yuan (US$1.09 billion) with strong performance from overseas business and new functions. 

Profit lowered to 600.8 million yuan from 846.9 million yuan a year earlier after higher marketing expenditure to promote short-video formats.

Globally, average mobile monthly active users hit 485.2 million with 78.8 percent of them coming from overseas markets. 

As a platform, YY can take commission from broadcasting agencies and live-streaming providers that seek popularity among YY's 9.6 million paid users. 

Live streaming-related income jumped 62.7 percent to 7.15 billion yuan.

Chief Financial Officer Jin Bing told a conference call after the earnings release that the company expects its overseas live-streaming site Bigo to break even by the end of this year as it plans to increase content marketing and boost advertising income. 

"Based on what we've seen in China, we currently expect limited impact on our overseas live-streaming business as user engagement and interaction continued to climb higher," said Li Xueling, chairman and chief executive officer of YY. 

The company has spent heavily to promote short video to gain a strong foothold and market share as Internet users are embracing new digital entertainment formats, and said it intends to boost synergies between different sites among both domestic and overseas customer bases. 

YY estimated its revenue in the first quarter to be between 6.75 billion yuan and 6.85 billion yuan, representing 41.2 percent to 43.3 percent annual growth.