Weibo Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2015 Financial Results

BEIJING, March 02, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Weibo Corporation (“Weibo” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ:WB), a leading social media in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2015.

Fourth Quarter 2015 Highlights

• Net revenues increased 42% year over year to $149.0 million, reaching the high end of the Company’s guidance between $146 million and $149 million.
• Advertising and marketing revenue increased 47% year over year to $129.5 million.
• Weibo Value-Added Services (“Weibo VAS”) revenue increased 13% year over year to $19.5 million, despite a 31% year-over-year decline in revenue from data licensing, a deemphasized business.
• Net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders increased 332% year over year to $19.1 million, and diluted net income per share was $0.09, compared to $0.02 for the same period last year.
• Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders increased 258% to $32.9 million and non-GAAP diluted net income per share was $0.15, compared to $0.04 for the same period last year.
• Adjusted EBITDA increased 131% year over year to $37.0 million.
• Monthly active users (“MAUs”) in December 2015 grew 34% year over year to 236 million, 83% of which were mobile users. Average daily active users (“DAUs”) in December 2015 grew 32% year over year to 106 million.

Fiscal Year 2015 Highlights

• Net revenues increased 43% year over year to $477.9 million.
• Advertising and marketing revenue increased 52% year over year to $402.4 million.
• Weibo VAS revenue increased 9% year over year to $75.5 million.
• Net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders reached $34.7 million, or diluted net income per share of $0.16, compared to a net loss of $65.3 million for 2014, or diluted net loss per share of $0.35.
• Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders was $68.8 million, or non-GAAP diluted net income per share of $0.32, compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $2.3 million for 2014, or non-GAAP diluted net loss per share of $0.01.
• Adjusted EBITDA increased 454% year over year to $85.7 million.

“Weibo ended 2015 on a high note with non-Alibaba advertising and marketing revenues growing 69% year over year on a constant currency basis and adjusted EBITDA margin reaching 25% in the fourth quarter,” said Gaofei Wang, Weibo’s CEO. “On the user side, Weibo’s traffic growth continues to be robust, as we are positioned at the conjuncture of social, mobile and video. For example, in December 2015, mobile DAUs grew 46% year over year to 94 million and average daily video views grew 53% sequentially.”

Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Results

For the fourth quarter of 2015, Weibo reported net revenues of $149.0 million, compared to $105.2 million for the same period last year. Advertising and marketing revenue totaled $129.5 million, compared to $88.0 million for the same period last year. Weibo VAS revenue totaled $19.5 million, compared to $17.2 million for the same period last year.

Costs and expenses for the fourth quarter of 2015 totaled $123.2 million, compared to $100.6 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP costs and expenses were $116.3 million, compared to $95.7 million for the same period last year. The increase in non-GAAP costs and expenses was primarily due to an increase in infrastructure costs resulting from strong video consumption and overall growth traffic, an increase in game and other revenue share, value added taxes associated with higher revenues, and higher personnel-related costs.

Income from operations for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $25.8 million, compared to $4.7 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP income from operations was $32.8 million, compared to $9.5 million for the same period last year.

Non-operating loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $5.8 million, compared to a non-operating income of $3.0 million for the same period last year. Non-operating loss for the fourth quarter of 2015 included write downs on investments of $7.2 million.

Net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $19.1 million, or diluted net income per share of $0.09, compared to $4.4 million for the same period last year, or diluted net income per share of $0.02. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $32.9 million, or diluted net income per share of $0.15, compared to $9.2 million for the same period last year, or diluted net income per share of $0.04.

As of December 31, 2015, Weibo’s cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $335.9 million. For the fourth quarter of 2015, cash provided by operating activities was $51.7 million, capital expenditures totaled $2.7 million, and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $4.4 million.

Business Outlook

For the first quarter of 2016, Weibo estimates that its net revenues to be between $111 million and $116 million. This forecast reflects Weibo’s current and preliminary view, which is subject to change.

Non-GAAP Measures

This release contains the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP costs and expenses, non-GAAP income (loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income (loss), non-GAAP diluted net income (loss) per share attributable to Weibo’s ordinary shareholders and adjusted EBITDA. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, measures of the Company’s financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The Company’s non-GAAP financial measures exclude stock-based compensation, amortization of intangible assets net of tax, change in fair value of investor option liability, gain on the sale of investments and impairment on investments, net, and dividend income from investments. In addition, adjusted EBITDA excludes depreciation expenses, interest income (expenses) and income tax expenses (benefits). The Company’s management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in their financial and operating decision-making, because management believes these measures reflect the Company’s ongoing operating performance in a manner that allows more meaningful period-to-period comparisons. The Company believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in the following ways: (i) in comparing the Company’s current financial results with the Company’s past financial results in a consistent manner, and (ii) in understanding and evaluating the Company’s current operating performance and future prospects in the same manner as management does, if they so choose. The Company also believes that the non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to both management and investors by excluding certain expenses, gains (losses) and other items (i) that are not expected to result in future cash payments or (ii) that are non-recurring in nature or may not be indicative of the Company’s core operating results and business outlook.

Use of non-GAAP financial measures has limitations. The Company’s non-GAAP financial measures do not include all income and expense items that affect the Company’s operations.  They may not be comparable to non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies.  Accordingly, care should be exercised in understanding how the Company defines its non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of the Company’s non-GAAP measures to the nearest comparable GAAP measures are set forth in the section below titled “Unaudited Reconciliation of Non-GAAP to GAAP Results.”

The unaudited condensed combined and consolidated statements of operations and balance sheets have been prepared assuming that the Weibo funds acquired from SINA on June 30, 2015 as if they had been owned by Weibo for all periods. Impact of such funds to each period was not significant.

Conference Call

Weibo will host a conference call at 8 PM - 9 PM Eastern Time on March 2, 2016 (or 9 AM – 10 AM Beijing Time on March 3, 2016) to present an overview of the Company’s financial performance and business operations. A live webcast of the call will be available through the Company’s corporate website at http://ir.weibo.com. The conference call can be accessed as follows:

US Toll Free:  +1 (888) 346-8982
Hong Kong Toll Free:  +852 800-905-945
China Toll Free:  +86 400-120-1203
International:  +1 (412) 902-4272
Passcode for all regions:  Weibo

A replay of the conference call will be available through midnight Eastern Time, March 9, 2016. The dial-in number is +1 (412) 317-0088. The passcode for the replay is 10081694.

About Weibo Corporation

Weibo is a leading social media for people to create, share and discover Chinese-language content. Weibo combines the means of public self-expression in real time with a powerful platform for social interaction, as well as content aggregation and distribution. Any user can create and post a feed of up to 140 Chinese characters and attach multi-media or long-form content. User relationships on Weibo may be asymmetric; any user can follow any other user and add comments to a feed while reposting. This simple, asymmetric and distributed nature of Weibo allows an original feed to become a live viral conversation stream.

Weibo enables its advertising and marketing customers to promote their brands, products and services to users. Weibo offers a wide variety of advertising and marketing solutions to its customers, ranging from large brand advertisers to Alibaba/e-commerce merchants to small and medium sized enterprises to individuals. The Company generates a substantial majority of revenues from the sale of advertising and marketing services, including the sale of social display ads, promoted feeds and event-based ad solutions. Weibo has developed and is continuously refining its social interest graph recommendation engine, which enables its customers to perform people marketing and target audiences based on user demographics, social relationships, interests and behaviors, to achieve greater relevance, engagement and marketing effectiveness.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to, among other things, Weibo’s expected financial performance and strategic and operational plans (as described, without limitation, in the “Business Outlook” section and in quotations from management in this press release. Weibo may also make forward-looking statements in the Company’s periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology, such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “confidence,” “estimates” and similar statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Weibo’s limited operating history in certain new businesses; failure to grow active user base and the level of user engagement; the uncertain regulatory landscape in China; fluctuations in the Company’s quarterly operating results; the Company’s reliance on advertising and marketing sales for a majority of its revenues; failure to successfully develop, introduce, drive adoption of or monetize new features and products; failure to compete effectively for advertising and marketing spending; failure to develop the small and medium enterprise market by the Company or through cooperation with other parties, including Alibaba; failure to successfully integrate acquired businesses; risks associated with the Company’s investments, including equity pick-up and impairment; failure to compete successfully against new entrants and established industry competitors; changes in the macro-economic environment, including the depreciation of the Renminbi; and adverse changes in economic and political policies of the PRC government and its impact on the Chinese economy. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Weibo’s annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014 filed with the SEC on April 28, 2015 and other filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date hereof, and Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.