CyberAgent Inc

TSE:4751

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q1

[Operator]

President, Fujita will take us through the business results.

[Susumu Fujita, executive]

Thank you for coming to our session today. I know it is very cold today, so we appreciate you being here. I'm sorry my voice is a little bit nasal today, so I apologize, it might be very hard to hear. But in any case, I would like to share the business results for our first quarter.

So our fiscal year ends in September, so this session will be for the first quarter of the new fiscal year. Overall, we're on track, so we don't really have big topics for this quarter. But in terms of the business forecast for this fiscal year, we are on the right track and progressing as scheduled.

In AbemaTV, we are trying to -- we're doing -- making upfront investment to get more users, and that number of users is growing steadily as well. And the advertising business is still growing very impressively. And games, for a while it's been flat, so we're still waiting for a new hit title. So that's where we are.

This is the quarterly consolidated sales. The first quarter, we did JPY 97.9 billion. So we come to a point where we're doing about JPY 100 billion a quarter.

This is the quarterly consolidated OP, operating profit. If we -- we did JPY 12.2 billion here, but that is if we subtract the upfront investment for AbemaTV.

In terms of the SG&A, this is as usual. The first quarter previous year, we actually increased a lot of the advertising costs, but this has come down for this fiscal year first quarter. And number of employees is as usual as well. The second quarter as well, it still -- it hasn't changed, it remains flat. But in the third quarter, we will be welcoming a lot of new graduates.

So this is our PL. So we are making upfront investments in AbemaTV, and Cygames is actually doing very well, contributing to revenue. So we -- actually it is a hard period to actually get net revenue -- net profits, but overall it's progressing.

And this is the balance sheet. We don't have major changes in respect to the balance sheet.

Now looking at -- we finished the first quarter by looking at the business forecast for this fiscal year. So it's become the age of smartphones, and the top line growth is actually growing at an accelerated pace. And this is -- at the right time, we're actually creating the next key pillar business, Game Business. It is smartphone games, but, mid to long term, there is some volatility. So at this period, we would like to make sufficient investment to make the key -- next key pillar of business.

This is the progress with respect to business forecast. This is where we are at the moment. So we've done about 25% of overall, so it is going well. We are off to a good start.

And if we look by segment, this is our plan. So AbemaTV, we will be making upfront investment of JPY 20 billion. We're not going to be using JPY 20 billion, but we're going to be investing JPY 20 billion. And Game Business is flat, and the Internet business, which is doing well, this will increase.

Sorry, the previous page -- never mind. This is a progress by -- of -- by segment for OP. But as you can see, Game Business is a little bit behind schedule.

Internet business, so we will start with Internet, Game and then Media. So I would like to go into detail about each.

I did mention that the Internet business is doing well, but Japanese economy is doing well also. And Internet business is actually growing quite highly, doing very well.

This is the shift in OP. So end of March is when many of the fiscal year for clients' ends, so we actually received last-minute orders. So the second quarter, we actually have higher results. So January to March, we believe that the performance will be quite high in the second quarter as well this year.

And I say this every time, but the -- what's supporting the high growth is the growth of smartphone ads. So many people are on their smartphones, and the longer they spend more time on smartphones, of course, the ads on smartphones will grow and the market itself will grow, so that situation has continued.

What is doing especially well is In-feed Ads, this is also growing steadily as well as video ads, this is also growing very highly. So this -- we have done a good job in growing this area as well.

So our focal points, our forte of the Net Advertising Business, is our ability to operate. So we can actually analyze and also offer advice in how to do a better job in operating. So -- and with video, national clients, we are actually trying to get new clients, develop new clients right now, but this is doing well.

Next, Game Business. So I mentioned that this is flat. It has been -- the top line has been flat for about 6 quarters in a row. And we've started the second quarter after we finished the first quarter. This -- in the second quarter, this quarter, we're doing fairly well. So we believe that it will be a little bit better than the first quarter, but in overall, it's still flat, so we want to actually create a new hit game.

This is the shift in OP.

Here are the major titles. Last year, we released BanG Dream!, about 1 year ago, and this is doing very well. But after that, we haven't been able to create a new hit, so we would like to soon have another hit game title.

On the right, we have -- sorry, on the left, we have second quarter topics. So Granblue Fantasy is celebrating fourth anniversary this March, and BanG Dream! that I mentioned, BanG Dream! Girls Band Party!, will be celebrating its first anniversary soon. So this -- and this is a very good opportunity to increase sales, the anniversaries.

And in terms of new titles, we will be releasing 10 this fiscal year. So we are spending a lot of time and money to create new games. Cygames is actually creating Princess Connect! And Sumzap is actually working on [indiscernible]. We believe that these are titles we will be able to release soon, so we have high expectations for their performance.

Overall, I said that the Game Business is doing flat, but that is not to say that it's shrinking. So we hope to continue to operate existing titles and create large hits. Of course, we're focusing on -- and we're also working on releasing third-party IP games as well. So we hope to introduce them to you soon as well.

Next, Media Business. Of course, AbemaTV, we are investing in AbemaTV right now. And we're not going to be disclosing numbers yet, but the AbemaTV advertising sales, we've been able to -- I've been saying pump up a lot, but we actually are spending more cost, but also doing more in sales as well.

So it has continued to -- it has started to generate revenue. And our dating services is actually doing well as well. So this is -- we're actually entering a very good eco cycle right now. And the number of downloads for AbemaTV is 26 -- exceeded 26 million.

Smartphone apps, sometimes it doesn't make sense if people download and they're not using it. So we don't really try to follow the number of downloads, but we still believe that this is quite an impressive figure. So we think that it's gaining momentum.

So MAU for AbemaTV has surpassed 10 million and WAU is around half, but we believe that when we hit 10 million in WAU, AbemaTV will be able to stand alone in its -- as its own business model. But we will continue to create peaks and also procure regular programs as well. And we believe that we will be able to hit this 10 million WAU target.

In October and December, at our session where we introduced our consolidated business results, in the beginning of November we actually broadcasted the 72-hour straight live show, and this is actually -- was very talked about and the viewer's rating was quite extremely high and this helped, actually, while we raised awareness for AbemaTV. And next week, January 31, we will also have a special birthday program for Shingo Katori. So of course, we will actually be making a big announcement at that time.

At the end of the year and beginning of the year, TV broadcasting stations as well, but we try to create a great -- we also try to create a great lineup of TV programs. So we had Win 10 million if you can push out [indiscernible], which was also much talked about. And then on the January 1, we also had a boxing program, the 3 challenges of the Kameda family. And as a countdown event, we have [indiscernible] year-end countdown live concert. And we also had a live broadcast of the last live performance with all 5 members, and that has also been much talked about.

And last, at the end of last year, many of the hit apps were awarded. In the previous year as well, AbemaTV actually won a lot of the best app awards.

So the best app are [ service hour ] also won the award, but as well as AbemaTV as well, Best Entertainment App. And also, Nika Entertainment actually released its top hits for 2017, and we were ranked first in the West Japan rankings. So in terms of entertainment, AbemaTV was actually very high profile, very much talked about.

So if we look at the users' age groups, we don't really take user attributes, so people can just download the app and start using it right away. So we don't really have accurate information. But when we use Google Analytics, we can actually get a lot of very quite precise member attributes, demographic information. But we believe that teens and 20s are very high in terms of we have a lot of young users, and this is what we wanted. So those -- the people that we -- the target audience is also are currently using our service.

And we did the 72-hour live show as well as a lot of Japanese female TV programs. So we have come to a ratio where it's nearly 50-50, and we believe that this is acceptable to us. So the female-male ratio is actually quite close to 50-50 now.

So people say it's a TV program that you watch on TV, that you watch on smartphones. But in 2017, when we compare from year before, 70% of the people watch on smartphones, and there's 30% of the people watch on PC, tablets and TV. So people -- many people want to -- actually are starting to watch AbemaTV on larger screens, so Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast. So if you connect your TV to that, you can -- AbemaTV is actually -- is even more user-friendly. So we want to concentrate and help that area grow.

And TV device, actually, people spend sometimes more time watching on TV than on smartphones. So we can -- they will watch much longer on TV. So in the mid to long term, we want to focus our efforts on making it easy to watch on TV as well.

From January onwards, it's already -- we want to make sure that this becomes part of users' routine behavior. So [ Voice Like an Angel ], we've actually started showing. And this is the -- we've broadcast episode 2, and we believe that we're satisfied with the content of this program. Also, it's already -- it's on right now, but we will be live broadcasting the Grand Sumo Tournament. So we will be live broadcasting from 8:30 to 6:00 p.m., even the lower-ranked sumo wrestlers as well.

So we are trying to offer high-quality Abema -- unique to Abema's commentary and also program. And I think this will be very quite fresh to people who like to watch sumo.

And we've also made a lot of -- tried many different things in the past. And reality romance -- reality TV shows actually are -- we do a very good job of creating hits in that respect. So many teens, they -- people say that they're not too worried, they're not too concerned about romance and love, but they've spent a lot of time thinking about it actually. So starting in January, we have 4 TV programs that is a reality show -- dating reality show. So we have Love Cast, [ Compass ] as well as You can't fool me, Mr.Wolf. And 2 more, Fell in love today and Weekend Homestay. So those are the 4 dating reality shows that we will be regularly showing.

And just from the weekend, we opened the new channel focusing on game, Ultra Games. And this is actually doing well, Mahjong Channel is actually very popular. People who watch games, there's a lot of -- there were quite a number of people who were watching games on the Internet already, and we've been able to capture that audience. So we will be broadcasting esports, then Monster Hunter, new title, we've actually broadcast that. And we will be introducing new titles, so we want to actually make use of the group synergy, take advantage.

And we also established a TV shopping channel [indiscernible] AbemaTV. So this will be a regular program as well starting next week. Next week, that program will begin. The first day, we're not going to be selling anything. But from the next, next week onwards, we will be selling products on AbemaTV.

So I mentioned that we will continue to make upfront investments this fiscal year as well. So we will be growing sales as well as we'll be pumping sales as well as the cost that we spend in content to expand the service. So we're strengthening content and also increasing advertising sales as well, advertising products.

In 2017, on the left, you see the breakdown of the investment. But what's changed is that based -- we have been able to raise awareness and recognition for our service by focusing on -- by producing high-quality content. So we've actually taken the advertisement costs and decided to spend more on content. And original content is actually driving the number of users. So we've actually focused the investment more on content, especially original content in AbemaTV.

So of course, I mentioned that we will be using JPY 20 billion, and it will be JPY 20 billion [ in the red ] in the media, and I've said it repeatedly, so we haven't seen any competitors. Nobody wants to take -- step into this arena, so we will continue to try to create a competitor-less pioneering business model.

Other than that, we have new business fields, numerous new business fields. So I've already mentioned the dating service previous -- at the previous session. But esports is actually gaining momentum as well. And crowdfunding, it's the biggest crowdfunding service in Japan.

And in terms of Bitcoin, we have a virtual currency which will begin in spring. And AWA, we are continuing to grow the number of users. We haven't reached the breakeven point yet. But of course, if we continue to do as we have done, we will be able to start making a profit.

And dating service, Tapple, is actually doing quite well. In terms of the sales rankings, it is #1 in Japan. We did advertise this in AbemaTV quite a lot. And it's become quite natural to -- it is becoming more and more natural to meet somebody using a dating service. And we have created dramas and documentaries -- we will be creating dramas and documentaries that will communicate how natural it is to meet through dating services.

And we also have esports called RAGE. And it -- this will also happen next month as well. And once we actually have a esports event, we can actually -- we receive about 10,000 audiences. So this field is actually gaining a lot of momentum.

And we also have Shadowverse, which is a Cygames title, and OPENREC is operated by CyberZ. And we also just opened Ultra Games in AbemaTV, but this will -- all these will work together to try to build momentum for esports.

And crowdfunding, we have CyberAgent crowdfunding, was actually changed to Makuake, the name -- but it was the name of the service now. The company is also called Makuake. But this folding hybrid electronic bike actually raised more than JPY 100 million. And we are also [indiscernible] has actually raised funds for his performance, and we actually haven't disclosed -- accurate numbers aren't available, but we believe that we are the biggest crowdfunding company in Japan.

But in summary, I continue to say the same thing at these sessions, and I think that it might not be too interesting for you. I'm quite worried that it might not be interesting for you because I keep saying the same thing. But it's important to continue to say the same thing as well.

So we -- for Media, want to establish AbemaTV for mass media. We don't want to fumble around once our company starts to do well. We want to continue to -- we want to actually make an investment beforehand so that we are prepared.

And the advertising, it is the right period -- right period for our advertising, so we will continue our efforts.

And Game, we said that it's still -- it is flat, but we will continue to operate well the existing titles. And this year as well, we want to release a new hit game so we can actually grow once again.

And this is the graph. So we invested in Ameba Blog and then grew once again, and then focus on smart -- smartphone business and grew even further. And that's probably why our shareholders are not complaining about our investment in AbemaTV, and this is probably due to our past track record. But we hope to actually link this, our investment, to future growth. That's it for myself. Thank you very much for coming today.