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Welcome to AfreecaTV Live Conference a.k.a. ALCON. I'm BJ [ Yoon Mishi ], I'm so happy to join ALCON for the first time. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I do reporting and show host. I used to do that, and I just joined AfreecaTV. I'm so happy to be here today. As you know, ALCON is open to anyone who's interested in AfreecaTV. However, please understand that since it's related to our earnings, only those who signed up in advance can ask a question via chat window. Today, we're joined by Mr. Jung Chan Yong, our CEO; Ms. Kim Jiyeon, Head of IR; and Ms. Jun Kyunghee, IR Manager. Thank you very much for joining.
First off, could you say hello to those who joined us.
Good to have you. Hello. My name is Jung Chan Yong. We're joined by BJ Yoon Mishi. Welcome. So, she is going to be in charge of ALCON for the rest of this year. We came back with good news from 2023. So, the market situation is quite favorable and we have some good news to communicate with you and we'll keep you updated on what we have in store for you.
Thank you very much for that. And how about you, Jiyeon?
Good morning, everybody. Yes, this year, it's already 1 month has passed since 2024 passed and we are experiencing some really good start and we have prepared for many things, new businesses, new projects and the market situation is quite good. So, I'm very happy to report to you on those news.
All right, last but not least, how about you, Kyunghee Jun.
Thank you very much for joining the first ALCON of 2024. And I know you have a lot of questions and we'll do our best to answer all your questions. Thank you very much.
All right. So, if you have any questions, please make sure that you can use the chat box to ask a question. So, this is the earnings report and we're going to unfold the results. Oh, Ad Balloon, wow. So, many people actually have joined us. VOD, VOD Ad Balloon, oh, very nice. As soon as you mentioned it, then [Foreign Language] became 192nd fan club. And how about, let's reach 200 fan club, oh, now 197, wow, we're reaching there. Let's accomplish 200 during the opening. That will be really nice. Wow. We surpassed 200. Thank you so much, everybody. Wow, 205th, 206th and 207th and 208th, oh, my gosh. So, let's see how many fans we have at the end of ALCON. How about 300, oh, that would be really nice, amazing.
Thank you very much for joining us. So, what's the order of business this morning. First, let me briefly go over the earnings highlights of Q4 of year 2023 and then we will take the questions. Okay. Let us move on to the earnings report. It's all yours, Ms. Jun.
Here, the business performance and earnings highlights of the Q4, 2023 as well as the full year. Late last year, as Korean live streaming industry continued to grow, the market saw a seismic shift in the competitive landscape. And AfreecaTV is now the undistributed #1 live streaming platform in the country. Now more than ever, we are wasting no time to pour all our efforts to evolve into a platform empowered by diversity of content and community. In the midst of this wave of change, we continue to pursue our goal of creating an ecosystem where more people have the opportunity to participate and grow together so that we can share more growth opportunities with our partners and more benefits enjoy with our users.
At this juncture, we are gearing up to redefine our brand identity and enhance our brand value in order to expand our business and leap forward by launching the global streaming platform, SOOP and rebranding our domestic services in line with the evolving industry and competitive landscape. Preparations for the launch of the global platform, SOOP beta service are progressing step by step. And in parallel, using Thailand as our base camp for SOOP Global, we are securing content, recruiting talent and improving features to ensure that the off-line service will go without a glitch -- with our official service will go without a glitch.
At the time of the global service launch, selection and focus are paramount. So for the initial stage, we will create SOOP's unique brand identity centered on creating content that can effectively and directly target the gamer community and then gradually expand to K-content and more. AfreecaTV is committed to expanding its business for sustainable growth, growing profits and enhancing shareholder value. We are pleased to announce today the finalization of our 3-year shareholder return policy, which has been approved by the Board of Directors to provide greater predictability of dividend returns for capital market participants. The announced policy takes into account AfreecaTV's existing dividend payout ratio and the reinvestment of capital for sustainable growth going forward and will result in a transparent and consistent dividend policy.
Going forward, AfreecaTV will continue to strengthen its internal capabilities to keep pace with its external growth while considering corporate value through sustainable management such as reorganizing our governance structure and strive for balanced internal and external growth. Let me share with you our fourth quarter and full-year 2023 results. Q4 revenue was KRW 100.4 billion, up 14% Q-o-Q and 26% Y-o-Y. Platform revenue in Q4 recorded KRW 68.5 billion, up 6% Q-o-Q and 26% Y-o-Y, driven by BJ's year-end broadcast revitalization and growth in both paying users and ARPPU.
Advertising revenue in Q4 was KRW 29.9 billion, growing by 39% Q-o-Q and 21% Y-o-Y. More specifically, platform advertising grew 21% Q-o-Q due to the effects of the year-end advertising peak, but declined 6% Y-o-Y, while branded content grew 53% Q-o-Q and 13% Y-o-Y, thanks to the increased demand for offline events. Increase of sales of CTTD that has been consolidated since Q3, 2023 has driven up the advertising and others revenue by 16% Q-o-Q and 99% Y-o-Y. Annual revenue in 2023 was KRW 347.6 billion, up 10% year-on-year.
Of these, platform revenue continued a solid growth with 12% rise Y-o-Y due to continued growth in paying users, ARPPU, while advertising revenue grew 3% Y-o-Y despite the downturn in the domestic advertising market, thanks to our strategy of diversifying our advertiser portfolio, expanding non-game ad revenue and the acquisition of CTTD. This year, with the favorable changes in market competition landscape, we are poised to create momentum for new business in earnest as well as continuous platform advertising growth based on such efforts as rebranding domestic service and global expansion.
Let's turn to the -- grew by 15%. And as for the operating expenses, it was due to the variable cost and also the year-end event for the ceremony. If you look at the advertising commission, which is categorized as a variable cost in nature, reached KRW 14.9 billion, an increase of 103% Y-o-Y due to the robust sales of both branded content and platform S. However, it's a 4% decrease Y-o-Y due to the one-time effect of Ad Balloon exploration. As for the paying charge, it recorded KRW 10.7 billion due to the stronger platform sales that drove it up by 10% Q-o-Q and 51% Y-o-Y.
In terms of the fixed expense, employment costs posted KRW 20.2 billion, rising 0.3% Q-o-Q and a 45% Y-o-Y increase, while other commissions for broadcasting rights and other, which is content investment-related expenses totaled KRW 7.6 billion, up 12% Q-o-Q due to the acquisition of Asian Games and eSports global broadcasting rights, but down by 12% Y-o-Y following the conclusion of the 2023 Qatar World Cup. BJ support category reached KRW 1.8 billion, up by 14% Q-o-Q and 2% Y-o-Y as content activities increased following the recovery of the BJ activity at the end of the year. Finally, event expenses were KRW 1.1 billion, up 236% Q-o-Q, down by 12% Y-o-Y, as we held the year-end BJ grand prize.
Annual operating expense for 2023 reached KRW 257.3 billion, an 11% hike Y-o-Y. The rise in the yearly operating expense was largely fueled by an increase in labor cost due to the hiring of the HQ as well as the CTTD and an increase in paying charge associated with robust growth in platform revenue. Looking specifically at variable cost first, paying charge surged 28% Y-o-Y to KRW 38.5 billion, driven by the growth in platform revenue, while commissions for advertising declined by 24% to reach KRW 35.6 billion due to limit revenue growth in both platform S and branded content. The content production expense exhibited a variable cost in nature this year as they were influenced by the increase in production of Pro eSports League, which is closely tied to revenue.
Additionally, investment in original and signature content has grown gradually expanded, pushing the content production cost up by 45% Y-o-Y to reach KRW 19.7 billion. Now for the fixed cost, labor cost saw a 23% increase to total at KRW 77.5 billion due to the rise in the total number of consolidated employee. Meanwhile, other commissions, broadcasting rights and others declined by 6% Y-o-Y to reach KRW 25.1 billion even after factoring in the acquisition of the Asian Games broadcasting rights, and that's because the fees associated with the Qatar World Cup is now removed. Lastly, for depreciation and amortization expenses, it increased 18% Y-o-Y to reach KRW 20.1 billion due to the expansion of servers and replacement old equipment and dedicated line use expense decreased by 6% Y-o-Y to KRW 13.9 billion.
And also, as you see, it's -- and for 2023, the OP was 10% up and OPM recorded 26%. Q4's net profit is KRW 16.1 billion, down by 17% Q-o-Q, but up by 412% Y-o-Y, while the annual net profit of 2023 amounted to KRW 74.6 billion, up 25% Y-o-Y. The accelerated growth in the net profit compared to the operating profit was driven by increased financial income stemming from rising market interest rates coupled with the elimination of the one-off corporate tax hike that happened in the second half of the year. For the consolidated details, please look at the next slide.
Thank you very much, Ms. Jun. I believe you covered many of the questions that our audience has. And thanks for all the details in the slides and also your explanation.
There is one question from Citi, Mr. Yu Incheol. Let me read out loud. And then somebody will take the question. It depends on what the question, but usually for Mr. Yu's question, Ms. Kim likes to give an answer. Okay, let me read out this. Hello. My name is Yu Incheol from Citi. What's the PU trend for Q4 and the Star Balloon and MUV trend for January to February?
For the paying user of the 4Q compared to the previous quarter, it was a 1% increase. And the paying user is not decreasing anymore and you can see it's rebounding. And paying user is very significant because if you look at the effect from the -- those coming from the Twitch, it's not actually factored in, in this quarter as you see. And despite that, the paying user number is going up and there's activity index going up. So, I believe it's very significant. And second part of the question, which was from January, February Star Balloon and MUV trend, I would like to be pretty cautious around this question, but I can tell you that we're seeing the favorable signals here and there. And I will get into the details later, but just looking at the January only, we had our ambitions and compared to the guidance, we're outperforming very much. So that's all I can tell you at this point.
Okay. Next question. This is from Daiwa Securities, Mr. Hyok Joong. I see there's a trend. There is an improving trend in terms of the portion of commission charges and advertising portion in the advertising revenue. Could you elaborate on the cause? And secondly, can you tell us more about the rebranding -- SOOP Korea rebranding and a platform improvement direction for 2024?
I think Jiyeon can elaborate on that. I'll take on the second question.
Okay. So for the first question, you said there is an improving trend in terms of the portion of the commission charge than advertising portion. Yes, there is an improvement. But in terms of the advertising, the cost for advertising, there is also the commission charges, but also the content production cost is there. For 2023, eSports League production-related branded content advertisement went up. So, taken into consideration of these 2 aspects, to be more specifically, I can say that for the branded content, the margin rate for branded content is improving every year. It's a fact.
For the second question, well, before that, oh, yes, we got Star Balloon. 50. Wow, that's -- it's almost 100. Yes, there are 2 people giving us 50. Thank you so much for the Star Balloons. I think we are recording the highest number of attendance for ALCON. There are about 900 people who have joined us. No, over 1,200, wow. I think this is all caused by Mr. Choi, who is in charge of eSports because it's all about communication. And he is all about communication and he is quite an energetic guy. And these guys are really high tension people. Very dynamic. And then right now, we only have analysts, but we -- I mean -- I mean all the things that we're discussing today will be quite informative and helpful for the regular users, too. So, thank you for your question.
So in the -- we said we are going to -- we have a plan to change our name end of the first quarter. There's a highly -- it's highly possible that we're going to change to SOOP Incorporated. For the second quarter around May, the global platform SOOP is going to be launched globally. And then in the Q3, the name of AfreecaTV service will change to SOOP. So Global SOOP and Korea AfreecaTV SOOP, these 2 will be different on the back-end. These 2 will be separated in the beginning. We're not going to change our name to SOOP Korea. So both will be called SOOP, but there is a difference in service. It could be the color pallet that could change, they could give a little bit of a differentiating look to it, but that's about it. So that's our plan for this year.
Platform improvement efforts for 2024. Recently, for the last 2 to 3 years, we have been improving our platform like personalization and extension programs. That will continue in 2024 in terms of the features and making everything going smoothly and efficiently and the back-end restructuring will happen and the UI/UX will change because the service name will change. Internally, we are saying that the -- our platform will move towards virtual. [Foreign Language] came to us and it has a quite big impact. So, we will do our best to support them as much as possible. And also we have free blocks. And since we have these virtual BJs coming in, free blocks definitely got some positive drive. And also, there's another content called the Beat the BJs. So, we're going to do our best. Okay. So, SOOP is going to stay the same, but the global and -- but the domestic platforms will be operated separately, right? Yes, operated separately, but these 2 can be kind of connected. So I mean, it will be a good news for those who are streaming outside Korea. Yes.
Yes. From [Foreign Language] we have a question from there as well. Well, 2 questions here. The first question is what's the Ad Balloon exploration? And you said there is a one-off effect that has been removed. Tell me more in detail. And second is, what is the ad landscape like in January and also February, as well as your guidance for the next year? Who would like to give an answer to that? Yes, for the Ad Balloon, I think Mr. Chan can cover.
You're right. As you know, our service has the many ways to support the Star Balloon -- Start the BJs and there's an Ad Balloon and Star Balloon. And Ad Balloon has an exploration. If you don't use it, when the day reaches, the expected cost associated with the Ad Balloons are removed from our accounting book and that's what happened. In the fourth quarter, there were one-off removal of those Ad Balloon. And I would say that's about KRW 1.4 billion reduction in terms of our expenses. And that's why you can see from the commissions for this, the cost has been reflected in that reduction of the cost. And I said it's a one-off because after -- if you look at long term, it doesn't always happen every single quarter. So that only happened in the fourth quarter, fourth quarter of last year and changes every time. I think that needs further explanation.
So, let's say you are doing a broadcasting and there's about 100 people viewing it. And there's a quick view item that is required if you want to skip the intro ads, right? But in the past, that as revenue will go right into the BJ's account. But what we did is that we wanted to expand the Ad Balloon as a gifting and have more engagement from the viewers. So, we gifted the Ad Balloon to the users. And when the user has an Ad Balloon, they can gift it to the BJs and they also can get the Ad Balloons by watching VOD and then they can gift it to the BJs of their choice. But we've changed the policy. Because there were many negative issues that come out of it. The first one is the exploration. But they are basically dwelling in their account, not doing anything. And this inactive Ad Balloons, that's not what we wanted. Of course, it's a reduction in terms of our expenses, which could sound like a plus-plus factor. But we don't want that. We need to be -- that to be circulated.
So, what we do now is that the users can give all that Ad Balloons to you if they're watching it, getting the Ad Balloons from watching your shows. So that's why you will not have the same removal effect in the accounting book from now on. Of course, there is other Ad Balloons gifting from participating in the coupon purchase and et cetera, but Ad Balloons coming from the ads is not going to happen anymore because 30% of them isn't now being used at all. And in fact, for the coupon or the purchase type of the Ad Balloons, 98% are being used actively, and that's why we wouldn't have this kind of one-time effect any further.
Second part of the question, maybe Ms. Kim can answer. Right, it was up on the ads.
Yes. Compared to the Q4, the January and February is usually a slow season, as you know. So, we are starting quite slow because of the seasonality. But for the guidance of the 2024 ads, last year was very sluggish in fact, for the overall, especially for companies that have a high portion of the game companies. Despite the sluggish economy, in terms of the ads, we did pretty well. And even if we lost a few advertisers, we got to the point where we wanted it, like we reached our ambitions. And if you look at the details of it, in our advertisers, non-game advertisers portion is growing in our overall mix. So that's a good sign.
In 2024, big game advertisers portion is likely to go up in our mix. And our target has always been KRW 100 billion for ads revenue and I think that's very doable and feasible and we are working towards reaching that goal. In 2022, I told you about our ambition to reach KRW 100 billion for the ads revenue. It hasn't reached that point yet, but this year, I'm hopeful that it's going to be delivered. And if you look at last year, there have been many ads-related business stuff that have been there doing a great job. Until Q3, the ads revenue were pretty slow actually from -- compared to the last year. But in the Q4, it was all brought up to the point that we wanted it.
So, I think this year, we are going -- I think last year, actually, if you look at the overall year of 2023, we did pretty well, better than the guidance or at least to the point where it was on par. But last year, overall, the advertising market was pretty bad and you will know what I mean if you look at the landscape of that ads market. So overall, ads market isn't going to be any better this year. Despite that, I would say that for us, AfreecaTV, it's actually going to be a favorable year. And looking at January and February, we are seeing great signals. And for this year of 2024, I do our best to make it to be historic high.
Thank you very much for that answer. I know you got 33 -- 428, oh, 424 Star Balloons. Thank you very much for the Star Balloons. [Foreign Language] That's means you have to buy our stocks now. Oh, thank you so much, guys. That's wonderful. You can see how much they love us, wow. [Foreign Language] SOOP, we see they changed their name to SOOP, very nice. Thank you very much for your Star Balloons, 500, wow. [Foreign Language] I saw that id. Perhaps at [Foreign Language] I remember that id. Oh, thank you so much for your 100 Star Balloons.
Okay. Moving on to the next question. [Foreign Language] will give us the question. After the announcement of Twitch pulling out of Korea, what's been like with traffic change and streamers transferring to us. Who can answer this question?
All right. I'll take that. So, Twitch streamers and the users coming in, we did our analysis. There's a program called the Twitch Streamer Verification. There are tens of thousands of streamers who verify their information. And we have to verify whether or not they are actually doing their show on AfreecaTV. But since the 6th of December to the 31st of January, we looked at the data, and we verified that almost 3,000 former Twitch streamers actually did the show more than 1 hour, and they're very active. And as you can see, as the -- there are also the large-sized streamers who have joined us after February. So, the results will come in with that. And we looked at the data of those 3,000 former Twitch streamers and they received a lot of Star Balloons.
This is quite positive to us because these Twitch streamers who transferred to us, they actually settle down quite well and they're very active. And not just our users but also the former Twitch users come together. And the gifting activities and the subscription and broadcasting activities are doing quite well. And we see -- we expect the trend will continue. Not just the Twitch streamers but also the newly added users, those people who use their Twitch IDs to log into our platform, their paying ratio of Star Balloons and the subscription rate are higher than regular AfreecaTV users. So, they are quite active and they're very loyal. And you can definitely see that trend from external information too, but the traffic and the trends are quite favorable.
Yes. Totally, when I do the AfreecaTV show, I become curious about what others do. And I look at other shows and virtual BJs who used to do stream Twitch before and a lot of people had welcome batches. And each viewership was quite big. And in combination, I would say, 100,000 at least. So, not just Twitch streamers, but also their fans have come joined us. So that's very positive.
Let's now move on to the next question from CLSA, Mr. Kim Dohyoung. First of all, congratulations. Wow, we have the simul viewers of 1,000, 1,300 for this ALCON, the performance. The question is, given the increased traffic due to Twitch's departure, how does the PU share and the ARPPU look compared to the existing Afreeca index numbers.
Right? So PU is higher than what we used to see. As for ARPPU, of course, not there yet because AfreecaTV's ARPPU is very, very high.
I get it. I think the related question is, any plan to make an app specific for Apple's Vision Pro? Or actually, before that, I think he's asking if that effect is likely to be diluted. I think the question is the ARPPU and the PU share likely to go down. I think that's a question.
Yes, it's -- there is that potential. I think paying share is going to go up, but ARPPU is going to go down. That's kind of the picture that we're looking at. I see -- and I think the Star Balloon business model needs to become even more sound and healthy. And I think it's going to be backed up by the future that I mentioned, the strong PU share and slower ARPPU. And as for the Vision Pro, as of now, our CTO has that, but it's not our top priority. But definitely, I understand that the Apple's Vision Pro is pretty hot and trendy and we are looking into it and we'll have more solid plans down the road, but not the top priority at this moment.
So just to add to that, Vision Pro is not only -- it's not unique, but when it comes to VR, we are testing on the content for this purpose. And specifically, the virtual streamers that you mentioned and also for free blocks, we are doing our research on what to do with the development. And I would think that the VR gears when they are launched in the market, the platform that can do the best in terms of testing is probably like us, where the BJs are showing the regular BJs as well as the virtual BJs. So, I think as the test bed, we are one of the most suitable platforms. And we do have plans to expand on the area. And as Mr. Chang just mentioned, our CTO has his ambitions regarding this.
Next up there's questions from Goldman Sachs. Is there any particular behavior you've observed with former Twitch users who joined us? And also, if you look at the streamers who transfer to us, most of them look like they're virtual streamers. What is -- the biggest strength of virtual streamer is that they -- the streamers themselves can become IP. So, what opportunities do you see in terms of the business?
In the behavior observed with former Twitch users, we can compare it to our regular AfreecaTV users, right? And there's the shows that are popular among existing users. And we see that also there are other people who are looking at both AfreecaTV and also other shows. For Twitch users, I mean the period that we have observed is quite short. But they still look at the Twitch show, but more and more, they look at AfreecaTV shows a little by little. But I would say, give us 6 months in time, and I'm sure the former Twitch users will be able to demonstrate whether or not they're going to stick with only Twitch or they're going to also look at AfreecaTV or even become a fan of AfreecaTV shows.
Streamers and the users. These 2 are the big categories that we looked at until 31st of January. We have a lot of people who have registered. But we want to know whether or not these people -- the new accounts are actually Twitch users, former users. So, we looked at these people who logged in with former Twitch IDs. I mean we have to see their behavior -- we need more time to decide on the behavior. But subscription rate is 18% among these people. So, the subscription rate is very high in comparison to the existing AfreecaTV. And the Star Balloon paying rate is also 8% and that is very high in comparison to existing AfreecaTV users.
This looked at -- once again, we looked at these people who logged in with Twitch IDs. So these people are very loyal users. When the Twitch users come to us you could expect -- you could think that they may not -- they may not spend much time more money on our platform, but these people turned out to be very loyal. And after the Twitch officially ends then the light users from Twitch will transfer to us, and they could bring down the traffic and the paying rate a little bit. But all in all, Twitch users are very loyal to their streamers and they purchase more. ARPPU too, we can't really specify now, but the ARPPU will be very high too.
The Twitch streamers, I said a lot of users are gifting a lot of Star Balloons to the former Twitch streamers, right. So, our AfreecaTV BJ's Star Balloons and compare that to former Twitch streamers Star Balloons, the former Twitch streamers are gaining more Star Balloons. So that's amazing. But then these are some of the behaviors that we have observed even though we will have to have more time to observe more. So, I'm sure we will able to update on more of these information and data in the upcoming ALCON 2.
The second question. As Jiyeon said, recently, last 2 to 3 months, we did this year's BJ award. I thought we have to drive up the virtual BJs even more. This is the earnings report, but our users, more than 1,000 users logged in. Usually, we have analysts -- how many analysts have registered with us. Less than 100. Yes. So the rest is of regular users, right, I mean our users are the key. They are the ones who helped us reach where we are. They show us their love and support through Star Balloons and they're the real basis of our success. So once again, I'd like to say thank you to our users.
And doing the BJ award, I'm going to increase the price for our regular users too. For the virtual BJ, in terms of the service and the business, we have to push this from service and business. So, the virtual has 2 significances to us. So like you, we have a BJ who, who broadcast with their face -- so they expose their face. And that's kind of entry barrier for regular BJs because if you want to start your show, you'd be a little bit worried about exposing your identity, right? But say, Yoon Mishi, if you use your virtual character, then you'll be more at ease. So virtual BJ program is really bringing down that barrier.
And secondly, when you look at someone there can be preconception or biased about the person, like the person's appearance because there's emotions that you feel after seeing someone by their parents. But if you go virtual, the talent and the content can be communicated with no such bias. So if you're talented, if you're capable of doing some amazing things, then you can do all these things without such bias and connected with appearance. And if you see those shows the common strength of those BJs is that the way they communicate is superb. They're great communicators. I don't know what but they're talented communicators. So, the virtual BJs will definitely drive our business forward. And I believe that our business is moving towards virtual.
In the past, we kind of -- there was a boom because of the metaverse and whatnot. So, I kind of try not to mention about that too much. And at the time, it was connected with cryptocurrency and coins and all that. But now -- but at the time also, I thought the virtual programs, virtual shows value is still there. And you're right. I mean IP is very important and it's easier to create IP with virtual BJs. And we can do the merchandising and we can connect that to commerce. And that has already been verified effective outside Korea, the markets outside Korea too, and that's the same trend that we're seeing in Korea too. So, we have plans to drive that.
Well, I have a question then. The virtual streamers, they are already selling their own merchandises. Do you have any content that can support such activity?
Yes, we have something called Shopfreeca that sells our merchandises. So that can be used by virtual streamers and virtual BJs. And of course, it's our responsibility to make sure that the Shopfreeca becomes influential and effective for those BJs. But once they find out, they're going to use that. So that's definitely that we can leverage.
That's very nice. There's no virtual badge. Do you think you're going to create one?
Oh, I haven't thought about that. Let me think about that virtual badge. That would be nice. I'll think about that.
Thank you very much. 7 shorter and many others have sent us Star Balloons and Ad Balloons. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. So, not the 200, 32nd fan club. And I believe we can maybe go up to 300. So next question, again from Mr. Kim Dohyoung from CLSA. How is going to -- how is the traffic, added traffic from the Twitch partner going to influence the ads platform, AfreecaTV? How is it going to impact the margin of the ads and as well as the unit price? And maybe more bargaining power on your part.
Now, ALCON concurrent viewer. 2,300. Congratulations. That's amazing. That's unbelievable. 2,300, Well, that is -- I mean, that's something we have never seen, so amazing. We're very happy to have so many people because previously there was a communication channel that reached about 10,000, but we may go up to that level. Who knows? Well, thank you so much for all that interest and support.
Now for the traffic to the question, that's great. We're seeing great signals. More traffic means more value for us as an ad platform. But not only that, the market dynamics has changed. In the past, that was an American company with American-owned Twitch, which was particularly taking the other half of the market with us. But now its neighbor with the [indiscernible] is now going to share the market with us. Now, when it comes to competition, in some cases, it will put us on a disadvantageous position, but sometimes in advantaged positions. And I think it's the latter at this time. When it comes to Zooming service, if you look at it from the global perspective, I mean, Amazon owns Twitch, but in 2014 and '15, it acquired it. But the beginning of it, AfreecaTV, in America and China, if you look at any cases, it started as a simple start up.
In fact, it's not something that conglomerates can do with a heavy investment just by the nature of it. Now, it's -- if you look at the market now and of the future, it's very likely there is a lot of growth, further growth. And for -- it's because it's a video streaming platform, not just a display ads, but also there's the branded content type of ads and that's the area where we see more opportunities. If you look at Naver, I'm sure they will do also divest for the ads market and the market -- overall market is going to grow. And I think that is going to give us a very positive signal.
Now as of now, live streaming market, we're #1 in terms of market share. So that means bargaining power is going to be on our side. So, when it comes to ads business, like I keep saying the overall ads market isn't going to be rosy, but even within that situation, I believe us at the AfreecaTV has some really great potential, right? Shopfreeca, I actually did the commerce Shopfreeca, but not just -- we don't just use the Star Balloons, but I see that the users can get the rewards point by watching the VODs, which they could use to buy their merchandises. So, I think there's a great opportunity for further ads revenue growth.
Now thank you very much, everyone, for sending all those great giftings and Stephanie, thank you very much. We're seeing so many of them sending us the Star Balloons. So, thank you. Thank you very much. And [indiscernible], one more for you from you? And there's another sticker. I'm calling out all these people here sending us the gift of the various forums. Thank you so much, everyone. It's just like I'm -- tongue twister or it's like testing. Thank you. Next question, please. This is Mr. Cha Minuh from Goldman Sachs. Could you elaborate on the annual guidance?
In terms of the internal business plan, we're going to wrap it up quite soon. Internally speaking, we don't -- and I give directives that are very aggressive regardless of the expectation from the market. We have to focus on our business, what we can do and really we have to really push ourselves. That's how I do business. But then here, I mean, I can't really say things like that, but it's right, it's only appropriate that I give you some guidance. But this is being adjusted as of now, and I can't really give you the exact number, but what is the market consensus.
Yes, it will be about 15% Yes, we have to do better than that. In the capital market, there's some data in the performance prospect. That's the market expectation, then we're going to do that minimum.
And there's another question from Cha Minuh. In terms of the AI technology usage and do you have any expectation with AI and global expansion.
With AI is for our viewers, right? So AI is there so that it can provide some useful features to our viewers. In terms of the number of shows on our platform and the active BJs, if you see the amount of content, it's immense. And if you look at the past, I mean, it's just -- you can't touch that. Even if we try to do any analytics on that, the individual patterns influence that. So, our -- so that's limited. So, in terms of the user supporting program, it has to be driven by AI. It's like a helper for the users. So, AI could do that. So that's where we are preparing -- where we're looking at. Yes. And ALCON #2 and #3, if you join us, you can get some more details.
In terms of the expansion. On the global side, second quarter, so likely to be made, actually, the global platform, the new platform SOOP is going to be launched in May. We had one built AfreecaTV already, and we want to be able to migrate as much, not just technically, but in terms of the service. So, the global streamers that were on the one build and the users, they need to migrate, right, even if it's the same service. And in that process of migration, I know there will be some loss inevitably, but we want to minimize that figures for the loss. That's our target for the second quarter. After that, it will be really eSports focused. Thailand has the production is basically production camp for the eSports content. And for the Southeast Asian leagues and eSports contents will likely to be produced in Thailand.
And as for Thailand, there are major partners, which we will be collaborating with. And just this year, I can tell you that with -- in terms of [indiscernible], a global content production deal was already signed and more to come up in the next few months. And in Korea, we've already done and made great experiences for the eSports. That could be our basis asset to be applied and expanded in the global. And we can use that as a benchmark and we can also collaborate with other eSports Leagues or make our own original leagues for the global platform.
Great. So global platform launch is to be slated. Now for the BJs, what do they get out of this? Because if you reach the best BJ, in Korea, there's a car service, you can apply for those kind of like benefits? Is it likely to be applied in the global market as well.
For AfreecaTV, we are doing a platform business. But unlike the other platform businesses, we have higher business engagement with the BJs, BJ engagement. And also our business manager has that very clearly set in his mind. So, the foreign or overseas BJs who are in the SOOP, they are likely to get the same kind of benefits. It could be mostly in the form of the content support from AfreecaTV or from SOOP. Now the Korean BJs who want to expand to the global market, what we can do is we can use the mirroring for the simultaneous broadcasting basically. So, they can broadcast at the same time in Korea SOOP and SOOP Global, all at the same time. So that's a support that we can provide.
Also, the Korean BJs after having some kind of experiences, they can basically use if they just kind of go to Global SOOP only, it's not likely that the number is going to be high, but in that case, we can be like give them a tailored services. There's a [Foreign Language] that BJ is now in Canada. And he's only broadcasting from Canada and sees that from he's likely to see the success in the Global SOOP. If you want to do that, we can provide a very tailored services because the number isn't going to be that huge.
Just to add, the AfreecaTV BJ, they can enjoy the simultaneous broadcasting with its Global SOOP. And there was a question about the AI, and I think I can incorporate those questions into my answer. So, also the -- we need to study the viewers' behaviors and we're doing a lot of it actually now. But in the global platform named SOOP, we are also going to integrate AI and of course, the translation is going to be a very pivotal part of it. So when, let's say, it could be in the subtitle or it could be the voice format that could be basically simultaneous interpretation provided as part of that service of the Global SOOP. We're doing our research already on that and there's a lot of open APIs in relation to AI. We can use those sources. And if needed, we can make investments in that direction.
So again, the launch is imminent and we need to speed up on this development and research. We're actually doing quite a lot. Just yesterday, I had a meeting with the person related. And I think we are pretty concrete now not all BJs can do the simultaneous broadcasting right away immediately after the launch. But most -- like very influential BJs, a few of them, they might be able to enjoy the simultaneous casting pretty soon. So, we are making all our efforts in the full preparation for that. Okay. So basically, a live sub-titles, right, TTS [ SED ]. But if you saw the BJ ceremony, like in a personal BJ, did you see the subtitles coming right immediately. And that's pretty much what we based our research on last year. And this year, Samsung has S24, right, the new Galaxy and it's a simultaneous interpretation as you're talking. And also the Buzz ERPs will allow you to get the translated version of it. So, we see the greatly enhanced technology when it comes to interpretation. And also, it can be -- it can easily be applied in live streaming pretty soon.
Now the quality of it is not that important at this point. What that means is -- the idea of having that function will be the basis for more learning from the machine and the accuracy level of the interpretation/translation, I think is very high. In the past, it was less than 50%. It's now over 50%. But at this point, as we're speaking, it's around 70% accuracy level. So, I think it's pretty much at the level where we can use it for their live services. For me, I bought Galaxy S24+ and I went abroad. Actually, I went to Japan. And I'm using that for this new phone and I try this interpretation services. I don't speak any Japanese not one word. But I think it was really just like able to travel around, especially getting the reservations for hot spring in Japan. So yes, I think it will be a great technology that can be utilized for you.
[Foreign Language] thank you so much, these users who are giving us a Star Balloons, 100 wow, [Foreign Language] 33 Star Balloons and that they've become the die hard fans of our show. Thank you so much. I think that's one of our BJs. [Foreign Language] Thank you. Oh, wow, we are almost there, 300 fans. I mean, I kind of said it with no expectation, but wow, thank you so much. And now we are ranked as one of the #1 show right now. Oh, wow, we have reached 300 fans, very nice. All thanks to you guys. Thank you. Yes, we are over 300. And there's a sticker of 15th supporter from AfreecaTV. Thank you.
Now that you've become our die hard fans, you can also give your love and support to our BJ. You can put a show in your favorites. And yes, so don't forget, her name is Yoon Mishi. Okay. I mean it hasn't been so long doing shows here. But I see there are even more fans here than my show. She used to the reporting and show host and she just joined us last October. But in earnest, I would say this has been active only 1 month. So, she's a newbie. So she needs your love.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chan. So these users who joined us will come to my show, too.
Yes, why not. Yes, they're very active and they're -- yes, they're going to put you in their favorites. But you have to be active on our platform.
Oh, yes, of course. Well, I kept track of your shows when you do. And you have recently, you've been very active, but looked like 2 to 3 weeks ago, you've been busy.
Yes, that's right.
So I was going to tell you that when I see you today. But since our ALCON viewers, we have so many ALCON viewers. I'm sure you publicize your show. I'll do my best. Thank you.
Well, thank you so much for this high viewership. When we say BJ streamer, there are 2 names that we use. But when we do rebranding, would that consolidate? Well, that's right. In general, and also when we -- since we were considering a global platform, the ad revenue will go up then the revenue from Star Balloons and the Global SOOP will enjoy more users than Korean SOOP enjoy viewership. That's where I'm aiming at. So to get there, the name BJ will change to something else when AfreecaTV becomes SOOP in the third quarter. And it's likely that we're going to use the name streamer. And Star Balloon, the name Star Balloon will also change. We're thinking about some candidates.
Yes. So, I asked. I asked around and they said how about seeds, how about new sprouts because the platform is going to be SOOP, which means forest in Korean. Well, we're thinking some other candidates. It will be a little bit unfamiliar, but the new and fresh, we're going to come up with something very nice. But before that, I will definitely communicate with you, of course. We have someone in charge of the communications, so he's going to do his job. He's a very energetic guy. So, he's going to also build consensus with our users. So, stay tuned.
Yes. Thank you, everyone for all that gifts. We thank you very much. And I just had one question, if that's okay.
Sure, Please go ahead.
For Twitch is making an official end in the Korean market. And some have -- many of them actually have transferred to AfreecaTV. Now there are some other platforms where they can provide a usually paying service into a free service temporarily. So that could be a quick view or the subscription. That usually requires payment. But for some time, they can offer -- you can offer a free services for some time. What do you think?
Yes, we have 2 users, one being the yours or the users and the BJs. If we -- I thought about that actually for the regular users, but I think the quick view the subscription, it's actually services or benefits to our BJs. So, if you look at the efficiency, is that at the platform level events. I think it could be between the BJs and the users. They could have some sort of this kind of events. To our best BJs, we have this monthly voucher for the -- for this kind of gifts, maybe we can expand that. We can look into that. Yes, you're right, it could be something very meaningful because it's important that you have the first experiences. And the first month free services can help them and the conversion to the actual people -- the people that actually pay for it from this free trial, it will be quite a sizable number, I hope. So, events of that sort can be expanded down the road.
Thank you. I think I just kind of made a big deal there. Okay. So here, we now have 327 in our fan club. And the last person to join our show is [Foreign Language], but it's time that we finish our show today. Let's see if there's any last question before you actually wrap up. Maybe we're going to wait for another minute to see if there are any questions because I think there's a bit of a lag for the chat room to actually show up the questions.
Okay. I've seen other ALCON shows before, but I have never seen such active engaging show. I think that says a lot about what we are as a platform. I think here, of course, there are people in the industry, the players in the industry, but not -- I don't think not all of them are from that industry. They're just like the viewers. They're just curious about what I, as the CEO will say in a formal setting because I'm not going to be joking the whole time. And that just means that a lot of people are interested in what must come out of my mouth. Thank you.
[Foreign Language] Thank you so much. I've seen you in other shows, actually, and you're now the die hard fan and also [Foreign Language] is probably the last person in the fan club. So we have the baseball match today hoping rooting for Lotte. Okay. I don't think there are any further questions. So that means we're going to wrap up here today. We spent about an hour today.
Any last words from your side?
Sure. I will go ahead. This is such an unimaginable performance show today, which also gives me a heavy sense of responsibility. I want to be able to continue this momentum, this steam. And I think every year is the same, but this year, particularly, we have the strong reserve and I have a high level of expectations for this coming year. And I'll do our best to not let you down. We'll do our best in terms of the business and the services. So by April, end of April, we're going to meet you again in this outcome with Yoon Mishi. Thank you.
Ms. Kim?
I think he made a very impressive last remarks. So, just to add to it. This is the first ALCON of this year. We have many ambitions and I hope that our messages for this year has been communicated properly to you. And we talked about the consensus just briefly, and we also gave you some explanations on the guidance. And those figures that I gave you are just a minimum of what we want to achieve, which means that we have a lot of uncertainties about variables, but these could be in the positive, it could be used for the positive direction. And we want to make the most out of it. And we're very excited for this great variables. And stay tuned, and we look forward to giving you more better results.
Ms. Jun.
I realize that I'm always the last after 2 impressive remarks. But like I mentioned in the onset, this year, we have great changes ahead of us. Of course, I probably said the similar things last year, but this year is the most dynamic year of all. And in 2 months' time, we will see you again, next quarter performance. And I hope to be able to share with you even greater results then. Okay. Thank you very much. We've already shared with you great news in this show already. And the next one, I hope to be able to share with you even better. What did you think of at this time?
I was super happy, super excited.
You didn't seem nervous at all.
No, I was actually quite nervous because I've never had this kind of show to so many people around me and it was a pretty nerve breaking moment. And also having you at the high level people next to me made me pretty nervous.
You did a great job.
And I see so many people joining us in the fan club. That's a great signal. So, thank you so much. Thank you for backing me up there.
And hello, you sound like -- you seem like a vitamin right?
I actually thought about what to wear, what color to wear and yellow was precisely what I meant to show spring and also like the vitamin to brighten the mood and brighten the people of AfreecaTV. Thank you very much. Okay. The last person in the fan club is [Foreign Language]. Thank you all very much for staying with us until the very end. And I will see you again the next time around. Thank you.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]