Operator
女士们、先生们,感谢各位的耐心等待,欢迎参加Hello Group Inc. 2022年第四季度及财年业绩电话会议。所有参会者均处于只听模式。会议将先进行演示,随后是问答环节。[接线员说明]请注意,本次会议今天将被录音。现在,我将会议交给今天的第一位发言人,Jing女士。谢谢。请开始,女士。
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2022 Hello Group Inc. Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ms. Ashley Jing. Thank you. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Ashley Jing
谢谢接线员。大家早上好,晚上好。感谢各位今天参加Hello Group 2022年第四季度及财年业绩电话会议。公司业绩已于今天早些时候发布,可在公司投资者关系网站上查阅。今天参加电话会议的有公司首席执行官唐岩先生;以及公司首席财务官彭晖女士,他们将讨论公司的业务运营、亮点以及财务状况和指引。在随后的问答环节中,两位都将回答各位的问题。在开始之前,我想提醒各位,本次电话会议可能包含根据1995年《私人证券诉讼改革法案》安全港条款所作的前瞻性陈述。此类陈述基于管理层当前的预期、当前市场和运营条件以及相关事件,涉及已知或未知的风险、不确定性和其他因素,所有这些都难以预测,且许多超出公司的控制范围,可能导致公司的实际结果、业绩或成就与前瞻性陈述中的内容存在重大差异。有关此风险、不确定性和因素的进一步信息包含在公司向美国证券交易委员会提交的文件中。除非法律要求,公司不承担因新信息、未来事件或其他原因而更新任何前瞻性陈述的义务。现在,我将电话交给我们的首席执行官唐岩先生。
Ashley Jing
Thank you, operator. Good morning, and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Hello Group's fourth quarter and fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. The Company's results were released earlier today and are available on the Company's IR website. On the call today are Mr. Tang Yan, CEO of the Company; and Ms. Peng Hui, CFO of the Company, who will discuss the Company's business operations and highlights as well as the financials and guidance. They will both be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that, this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and related events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control, which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding this and other risks, uncertainties and factors is included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. I'll now pass the call to over to our CEO, Mr. Tang Yan.
Tang Yan
翻译中...
Tang Yan
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our call. 2022 was an extremely challenging year for many Chinese companies. So COVID resurgence brought a lot of uncertainties to the overall business environment. However, I'm pleased to see that our team was due to external pressures by timely adjusting strategic priorities and corresponding execution plans in the second half of the year with flexible product and operational measures. Despite the challenges, we delivered solid financial results for shareholders, enabling us to conclude the year on a satisfactory note. Our first to review the main operating and business results in the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022 and then our outline our strategic priorities for fiscal 2023. I will start with a brief overview of our financial performance. For the fourth quarter of 2022, total revenue was RMB3.21 billion down 13% year-over-year, and 1% quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted operating income was RMB499 million with a margin of 16%. Total revenue for a Momo app and standalone new app was RMB2.87 billion, down 11% year-over-year, a 1% quarter-over-quarter and adjusted operating income was RMB514 million, down 21% year-over-year and 20% quarter-over-quarter. With a margin of 18%, total revenue from Tantan came in as RMB347 million, down 21% year-over-year, but up 2% quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted operating loss was significantly narrowed to RMB15.17 million from RMB114 million in the same quarter of last year. On a sequential basis, adjusted operating loss continued to narrow further despite an increase in the year-end seasonal expenses. I'm pleased with the progress that Tantan made improving cost efficiency in the second half of the year. For fiscal year 2022, total revenue was RMB12.3 billion compared with RMB14.6 billion in 2021. Adjusted operating income was RMB2.03 billion with a margin of 16% compared with RMB2.59 billion in 2021. The decrease in total revenue and adjusted operating income was mainly due to the significant pressure on both Momo and Tantan caused by COVID related factors and regulatory factors. We adjusted some of our strategic priorities mid-year focusing on cost reduction and efficiency improvement to mitigate negative impact of external factors on our bottom line. Total revenue from the Momo app and standalone app for fiscal year 2022 was RMB11.3 billion, down 10% from last year, the decrease was due to the decline in Momo revenue while the standalone apps maintain rapid growth momentum from a high base in 2021. Adjusted operating income was RMB2.36 billion in 2022, with a margin of 21% compared with RMB2.92 billion in 2021 with a margin of 23%. Tantan's total revenue was RMB1.37 billion down 33% from 2021. Adjusted operating loss were RMB330 million and be compared with RMB337 million and be in 2022 -- sorry, 2021. Although revenue declined from last year, due to the impact of the pandemic and the reduction in channel investments, Tantan's adjusted operating loss narrowed as a result of our initiatives to reduce costs and improve efficiency starting in July. Bottom line performance improved significantly in the latter half of the year, laying a solid foundation for Tantan to achieve breakeven in fiscal 2023. Now, I'll discuss the execution of our strategic priorities in 2022. At the beginning of the year, we set separate goals for Momo, Tantan, and our new standalone apps, given the different business cycles. For the Momo app, the product with the largest user base and most mature commercial experience in our brand portfolio, its main goal was to maintain a stable user base with a limited marketing budget and seek growth opportunities on top of that, while ensuring the cash cow of business remains stable. Although many uncertainties surrounding the COVID and regulatory environment last year resulted in a relatively large gap between that goal and actual results, I'm pleased to see that in response to the external challenges, our team primarily mitigated the decline in profit by reducing cost and improving efficiency. This has laid a solid foundation for our cash cow business to turn to a growth trajectory, once the external environment improves this year. Tantan's goal was to deliver solid user growth by improving marketing efficiency and the quality experience. However, the COVID situation continued to deteriorate from the beginning of the year, and largely affected user savings sentiment and their propensity to pay for value-added services, resulting in a significant decline in China ROI. Therefore, we decided to adjust the Tantan strategic goals in the second half of the year to focus on narrowing net loss, by reducing low efficiency channel marketing spend and accelerating our efforts to develop product and monetization models that are suitable for the Asian dating culture in order to pursue profitable growth. Tantan's financial performance in the past two quarters has clearly demonstrated the importance of our strategic adjustments and our team's strong execution ability. With respect to the new products and businesses, our goal was to continue to enrich our product portfolio and push the boundaries beyond Momo and Tantan. We made steady progress on this front in 2022. Next, I walk you through the details. Firstly regarding Momo app user growth and key operating metrics in 2022 user traffic and engagement level, so is the most of your challenges in comparison with the previous year. The main pressure came from the increasingly tightened COVID container measures throughout the year, as well as the COVID infection surge in many regions in China after the removal of the zero COVID policy in December. In the fourth quarter, Momo has RMB94.6 million monthly active down 13% sequentially. The rapid spread of COVID led to a significant decline in organic traffic and retention. For our considerations, our team scaled back investments in channels timely to reduce unnecessary spending during the peak of the pandemic. The decline MAU cost the number of paying users to decrease by 600,000 to 7.8 million in the fourth quarter. In 2022 to improve marketing efficiency, our team continued to optimize channel strategy and shifted our user acquisition focus from MAUs to paying users. The improvements in channel marketing efficiency mitigated all financial pressure in a challenging environment and had a positive impact on ensuring the stability of our cash cow business. With user social sentiment gradually recovering after the Chinese New Year, and they use started to continuously trend upward and have bounced back to the same level as Q3 last year. Meanwhile, use as time spent surpassed its peak level in 2022. Now discuss progress we made regarding the priorities of ensuring our cash cow business remains stable. In 2022, multiple external factors brought severe challenges to Momo app top-line, particularly is the live streaming business. The incremental revenue contributed by the new standalone apps to Momo segment last line partially elevated the pressure from Momo app. For fiscal 2022, the revenue ratio of VAS and live streaming increased by 22 percentage points from the previous year to 87%. Our team leveraged VAS use cases to unleash the spending potential of long tail users, which created a more balanced revenue structure. Must live streaming revenue was RMB1.56 billion for the fourth quarter, down 20% year-over-year, but up 3% sequentially. For fiscal 2022, revenue from live streaming totaled RMB5.97 billion down 20% year-over-year. In 2022, the pressure on live streaming revenue mainly came from two factors. Number one, the macro headwinds and spending softness as a result of the pandemic; and number two product adjustments we made in Q2 to meet regulatory requirements. In the second half of the year, our live streaming team introduced the new features targeting high paying users to improve their product experience and the expansion in the number of top cohort users drove continuous growth in live streaming revenue. In December, a large number of broadcasters suspended work due to a high infection rate after the reopening, causing severe short-term disruptions to the supply side and revenue growth. However, the incremental revenue from the yen competition in November provided strong support for the live streaming revenue to grow sequentially in Q4. In 2022 our live streaming team gradually shifted the operational focus from revenue growth to profitable growth and control costs by adjusting the operational policy and design of the Themify features. With this guideline in mind, we introduced some cost saving designs to the year in competition events. This partially reduced this pressure of large scale event on the gross profit margin. The sequential dip in GP margin in Q4 '22, was milder than in the same period last year. The overall revenue sharing policy and supplies and ecosystem remain stable throughout the year. With regards to last, revenue from value-added services excluding Tantan totaled RMB1.27 billion for the fourth quarter up 2% year-over-year and down 5% sequentially. The year-over-year growth was entirely attributable to the incremental revenue from the new standalone apps. In the fourth quarter, past revenue from the Momo app totaled RMB1.04 billion in the down 9% both year-on-year and quarter-over-quarter, revenue from the standalone apps was RMB220 million up 129% year-over-year and 15% sequentially. For fiscal year 2022, revenue from value-added services excluding Tantan totaled RMB5.18 billion, up 7% year-over-year. VAS revenue from the Momo app decreased 2 percent year over year to RMB4.45 billion, due to the continuous pressure from COVID. Momo Advanced revenue was considerably lower than our expectation at the beginning of 2022. In order to offset this revenue decline, our team pushed harder on monetization of new apps, driving revenue from these new apps collectively to increase 143% year-over-year to RMB737 million. As COVID control measures became increasingly strict in 2022, social use cases with higher conversion of online to offline activities saw significant pressure on both traffic and revenue fronts. For example, uses enthusiasm on virtual gifts consumption in interest group and ingredients from the nearby [indiscernible] list significantly weakened compared with before the strict COVID control measures were implemented. Revenue from membership subscriptions also declined, because this service represents paying features designed to increase user's efficiency to make new connections that they can potentially meet offline. In contrast, the audio and video based social entertainment experiences with less RBS attributes were able to effectively offset the impact of COVID on traffic and users' propensity to pay and drove steady revenue growth in 2022, by leveraging innovative products and features. With respect to Tantan, I'll start with user trends and overall financials. In response to the business and financial impacts on Tantan, caused by the escalating pandemic control measures, since the beginning of the year, the management decided to pursue a cost control strategy in the second half to narrow Tantan's net loss by reducing marketing spend and cutting investments in channels and methods with low ROI. Since the removal of the zero COVID policy in early December, many regions across the country experienced a surge in COVID infections, which put a lot of pressure on user traffic, compounded by the reduction in China investment. China's overall and a huge decrease to 12% quarter-over-quarter to RMB18.4 million in December, down 26% from June before we initiated call controls. The number of paying users was 1.7 million down to 100,000 sequentially, mainly due to the decline in both MAU and paying conversion amid the fast growing COVID infections. As infection gradually eased off after the Chinese New Year, traffic started to resume growth. DAU in early March has recovered to the level before the pandemic outbreak in December last year. Now, I'll briefly reveal Tantan's financial performance. Total revenue for the fourth quarter was RMB347 million, down 21% year-over-year, but up 2% sequentially. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the decline in the number of paying users. The sequential growth was due to the improvement in ARPPU, driven by live streaming and the new premium Black Gold membership service, which offset the pressure on revenue caused by the decline in paying users. Last revenue was RMB184 million, down 9% sequentially although the sales of new memberships service played a positive role in improving VAS ARPPU, the increase couldn't fully offset the pressure from paying user decline because membership revenue is highly correlated with the number of paying users. On the other hand, the live streaming business, which is more sensitive to revenue oriented operational efforts, our team was able to drive significant ARPPU growth through product improvements and new features. As a result, live streaming revenue for the fourth quarter was up 17% sequentially to RMB163 million. For fiscal year 2022, Tantan's total revenue was RMB1.37 billion, down 33% year-over-year, mainly due to the decrease in paying user count resulting from COVID and our initiative to reduce channel investments. Lost revenue in 2022 was RMB824 million, down 27% year-over-year and live streaming revenue was RMB544 million, down 40% year-over-year. Tantan's adjusted net loss for fiscal year 2022 was RMB306 million in the compared with RMB337 million in 2021. Although the net loss in 2022 was still relatively large, adjusted net loss was substantially narrowed in the latter half of the year. Thanks to our effective strategy to control costs and optimize channel investments. The average quarterly adjusted net loss significantly improved from RMB140 million be in the first half of the year to RMB14 million and in the second half. And the efficiency of results investments greatly improved. Now, let's look at the progress Tantan has made against these strategic priorities. The strategic goal is that at the beginning of the year before the pandemic situation deteriorated was to deliver solid use of rolls by improving marketing efficiency and call dating experience. However, during the second quarter, tighten COVID control measures had a severe negative impact on user retention and paying conversion. User retention and pain conversion are key indicators that determine the LTV and channel ROI. The significant decline in both matrix led to a negative third cycle where the more user we acquired, the greater the financial loss. Growing the user base without making a profit not only makes no economic sense, but it's also unsustainable. In response to the uncertainties created by the pandemic, in the second half of the year, we adopted a more prudent marketing strategy rather than grow at the expense of bottom line. We reduce the spending in low efficiency channels to narrow net loss. At the same time, we continue to focus on improving user retention and ARPU. ARPU growth through algorithms, product innovation and new non membership VAs features once all items positive, we will realize the profit into marketing to create a self-sustaining growth cycle. Next, let's look at the progress we have made in terms of improving user acquisition efficiency and enhancing retention and ARPU. Firstly, on the channel front, since the beginning of the year, our team continued to improve channel efficiency by optimizing ad materials and adjusting the proportion of new users and domain users. Therefore, although the large-scale outbreak of the pandemic in December led to a larger-than-expected decline in user base, the key user acquisition indicators such as the unit acquisition cost, retention and new user ARPU have all improved to varying degrees compared with the previous year. The average unit acquisition cost for fiscal year 2022 was down nearly 20% year-on-year and especially in Q4 user acquisition cost was down 50% from the year ago period. And new user ARPU increased by more than 40%. Compared with the previous year, the average user age tended to be younger and the proportion of new female users remained at a satisfactory level. Our team maintained the stability of the user experience and of the platform ecosystem despite the deteriorating pandemic situation and the decline in new users, resulting from the channel investment reduction. In terms of improving ARPPU through new product experiences, we have clarified two important directions: First, for user products, we need to explore effective social experiences beyond the swipe and match features. Second, for commercial products, we need to introduce non-language advanced paying models to improve per user revenue. During the year of 2022, we made a few important optimizations to the chat room experience, which has played a positive role in improving retention and the time span of female users, and of those who are reluctant to show their real photos. At the same time, as the consumer experience based on virtual gifting, chat room can also effectively unleash the spending potential of different cohort of users, when it comes to monetization. In 2022, in addition to exploring non-membership VAS features, our team also continued to dig deeper in the direction of membership subscriptions. In the second half of the year, we launched high-end Black Gold membership service on top of that VIP. This was immediately well received by a high spending cohort, making a positive impact on ARPPU expansion. I'll review the progress we made with our new endeavors. For the new standalone apps, financials of the profit oriented VAS and gaming apps are consolidated and Momo's P&L in our segment reporting. In the fourth quarter, revenue from the standalone apps totaled RMB229 million doubled from the year ago period and up 13% sequentially. For fiscal 2022, total revenue of our new endeavors was RMB791 million, up nearly 150% year-over-year. All standalone social apps have started to contribute to the group's profits this year, while delivering rapid top-line growth. We expect the three standalone apps to continuously contribute meaningful revenue and profit to the group. In addition to profit oriented products, we made breakthroughs in non-ROI oriented products for the first time in 2022. At the beginning of the year, we took the opportunity of the generational transition to launch the first large DAU product targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha users and the user base quickly reached to a considerable level. This confirms our team's competitive advantage in discovering new markets and seizing new opportunities in the social space. Going forward we'll accelerate the pace of new products exploration based on trial and error and strive to provide better social products for users of different ages and with different needs. This concludes our business updates. Now, I'll briefly go through our strategic priorities for 2023. Firstly for the mature Momo app, our goal is to keep the users and revenue scale stable, and continuing to optimize on cost structure and maintain the productivity of the cash cow business. To achieve this goal, we will continue to optimize product operations and introduce new monetization features as well as improve cash utilization and personnel efficiency. Secondly, for Tantan, our goal is to achieve breakeven for the year and pursue sustainable growth on the back of a positive business cycle. To achieve this, we'll walk on both channel and product fronts. So, we can build product and monetization models that are suitable for the Asian dating culture. And thirdly, with respect to new products, we're willing enrich our product portfolio, push the boundaries beyond Momo and Tantan and develop long-term growth engine. Specifically, our plan for ROI oriented standalone apps is to continue to scale up profit and to contribute more incremental revenue and profit to the group top line and bottom line. In addition, we'll further explore opportunities for large DAU products to open up a new growth top. Lastly, I would like to conclude by announcing that our board has declared as special cash dividend in the amount of $0.72 per ADS, which will amount to a total cash payment of approximately $137 million or 50% of the adjusted net income attributable to Hallo Group Inc., in 2022. Investors who have been following us long enough will know that this is the fifth consecutive year that we have shared the fruits of our work with our shareholders. Whatever decision we're making in terms of driving organic growth, business growth, identifying decent investment opportunities or paying back shareholders with dividends or in the form of equity buyback, the fundamental principle of our capital allocation strategy is to create long-term value for our shareholders. I would like to thank you all for your faith in us. Now, let me pass the call over to Cathy for financial view.
Peng Hui
大家好。感谢各位参加我们今天的电话会议。现在让我简要带大家回顾一下财务情况。2022年第四季度总收入为32.1亿元人民币,同比下降13%,环比下降不到1%。非美国通用会计准则下归属于公司的净利润为4.879亿元人民币,不包括对未分配收益计提的所得税费用的影响,这两个期间的数据不具备可比性。尽管收入下降,但由于我们的成本控制努力,2022年第四季度的非美国通用会计准则净利润较去年同期增长了8%。来看本季度关键收入项目:首先,直播业务方面,2022年第四季度直播业务总收入为17.2亿元人民币,同比下降20%,但环比增长4%。陌陌应用直播收入本季度总计15.6亿元人民币,同比下降20%,但环比增长3%。同比下降是由于疫情和监管因素带来的压力。环比增长主要归因于年终竞赛活动带来的增量收入。探探直播收入为1.529亿元人民币,较去年第四季度下降19%,但较上一季度增长7%。同比下降主要是由于疫情的负面影响和渠道投入减少,导致付费用户数量大幅下降。环比增长得益于我们的产品和运营努力带来的ARPU增长。2022年第四季度增值服务收入为14.5亿元人民币,较去年第四季度下降2%,环比下降6%。剔除探探后的增值服务收入在2022年第四季度达到12.7亿元人民币,同比增长2%,但环比下降5%。同比增长由独立新应用贡献的增量收入推动。环比下降是由于2022年第四季度中国疫情恶化对陌陌应用LBS相关功能造成的压力。探探增值服务收入为1.838亿元人民币,较去年第四季度下降22%,较上一季度下降9%。下降是由于疫情相关因素以及营销支出减少对探探MAU和付费转化造成的压力。2022年第四季度非美国通用会计准则营收成本为19.1亿元人民币,去年同期为21.9亿元人民币。本季度非美国通用会计准则毛利率为40.4%,与去年同期持平,但较上一季度下降1.3个百分点,主要由于直播年终竞赛活动相关的增量费用。2022年第四季度非美国通用会计准则研发费用为2.505亿元人民币,去年同期为2.797亿元人民币,同比下降10%。下降是由于自年初以来持续的优化和人员成本控制。非美国通用会计准则研发费用占收入比例保持稳定在8%,与去年同期相同。本季度末员工总数为1,705人,其中459人来自探探,而去年同期员工总数为2,051人,其中552人来自探探。集团研发人员占员工总数的比例为63%,去年第四季度为62%。2022年第四季度非美国通用会计准则销售和营销费用为3.886亿元人民币,占总收入的12%,去年同期为6.486亿元人民币,占总收入的18%。无论是绝对人民币金额还是占收入比例均出现显著同比下降,主要归因于营销策略的复合转变,即削减低效率方法的支出以关注投资回报率,以及在较小程度上疫情期间陌陌营销支出的减少。2022年第四季度非美国通用会计准则一般及行政费用为8,490万元人民币,去年同期为8,940万元人民币,分别占总收入的3%和2%。现在简要说明其他运营亏损,其他运营收入/亏损项目。本季度其他运营亏损为6,520万元人民币,去年同期为收入3,860万元人民币。在2022年第四季度,我们计提了9,290万元人民币的潜在损失,涉及陌陌用户涉嫌非法活动和挪用资金,这些资金在陌陌平台上被检索和消耗。集团方面没有涉嫌或被指控的不当行为。案件中涉及的9,290万元人民币在我们的资产负债表上记录为受限现金。在法院裁决公布之前,我们无法确定这些资金最终会被释放还是从我们的账户中提取以补偿案件中的原告。然而,出于保守考虑,我们决定将该项目作为2022年第四季度的运营亏损计入损益表。由计提金额引起的其他运营亏损部分被几项收入项目所抵消。非美国通用会计准则运营收入为4.992亿元人民币,较2021年第四季度下降2%,较上一季度下降18%。本季度非美国通用会计准则运营利润率为16%,较去年同期上升2个百分点,但较上一季度下降3个百分点。非美国通用会计准则运营费用占总收入比例为23%,低于2021年第四季度的28%和上一季度的24%。非美国通用会计准则运营费用同比下降28%。所有项目绝对金额和占收入比例的下降主要是由于社交营销费用的减少,以及在较小程度上人员成本的优化。非美国通用会计准则运营费用环比下降4%。这归因于营销费用的减少,抵消了年终奖金等季节性费用的增加。现在简要说明所得税费用,本季度所得税费用总额为1.103亿元人民币,有效税率为19%。第四季度公司计提了3,970万元人民币的预提所得税,这是我们外商独资企业产生的未分配利润的10%。如果没有预提所得税,我们估计第四季度的非美国通用会计准则有效税率约为12%。现在来看资产负债表和现金流项目。截至2022年12月31日,整个集团的现金、现金等价物、短期存款、长期存款、短期投资和受限现金总计134亿元人民币,而截至2021年12月31日为157.1亿元人民币。减少是由于多项现金流项目,包括我们的现金股息支付、公司可转换票据回购、正在进行的回购计划下的公司股权回购,以及向中国税务机关支付款项以将现金从中国的外商独资企业汇回我们的离岸实体。2022年第四季度经营活动产生的净现金为5.39亿元人民币,而2021年第四季度为6.66亿元人民币。最后,关于业务展望,我们预计第一季度收入将在26.5亿元人民币至27.5亿元人民币的范围内,同比下降15.8%至12.6%,或环比下降17.5%至14.4%。对于2023年第一季度,按环比计算,我们预计陌陌和探探的总收入将下降中双位数百分比,这是由于重新开放后的感染激增加上春节的负面季节性影响。请注意,此预测代表公司当前对市场和运营条件的初步看法,可能会发生变化。这结束了我们今天讨论的准备部分。现在让我把电话交回给Ashley开始问答环节。Ashley请。
Peng Hui
Hello everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call today. Now let me briefly take you through the financial review. Total revenue for the fourth quarter 2022 was RMB3.21 billion down 13% year-on-year and less than 1% quarter-on-quarter. Non-GAAP net income attributable to the Company was RMB487.9 million excluding the impact of accrued income tax expenses on the undistributed earnings, which were not on a comparable basis for the two periods. Non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2022 was up 8% from the year ago period, despite the top line decrease as a result of our cost control efforts. Looking into the key revenue line items for the quarter, firstly, a live broadcasting, total revenue from live broadcasting business for the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB1.72 billion down 20% year-on-year but up 4% quarter-over-quarter. Momo apps live forecasting revenue totaled RMB1.56 billion for the quarter, down 20% year-on-year, but up 3% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decrease was due to the pressure caused by the COVID and regulatory factors. The sequential growth was mainly attributable to the incremental revenue generated by the year-end competition event. Tantan's live broadcasting revenue amounted to RMB152.9 million, down 19% from Q4 last year, but up 7% from the previous quarter. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the negative impact of the pandemic and reduced channel investment, resulting in a significant decrease in the paying user count. The sequential increase was driven by ARPU growth thanks to our product and operational efforts. Revenue from value-added service for the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB1.45 billion, down 2% from Q4 last year and 6% sequentially. Revenue from value-added service on an ex-Tantan basis reached RMB1.27 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 a 2% increase year-on-year, but down 5% sequentially. The year-over-year growth was driven by incremental revenue contributed by the standalone new applications. The sequential decrease was due to pressure on Momo app, LBS-related features caused by the deteriorating COVID situation in China in Q4 2022. Tantan value-added service revenue amounted to RMB183.8 million, down 22% from Q4 last year and 9% from the previous quarter. The decrease was due to the pressure on Tantan's MAUs and paying conversion caused by the COVID-related factors as well as the reduction on marketing spend. Non-GAAP cost of revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 was RMB1.91 billion compared to RMB2.19 billion for the same period last year. Non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 40.4%, same as the year ago period and down 1.3% from last quarter, mainly due to the incremental expense in connection with the year-end competition event for live streaming. Non-GAAP R&D expenses for the fourth quarter was RMB250.5 million, compared to RMB279.7 million for the same period last year or a 10 % decrease Y-o-Y. The decrease was due to continuous optimization and personnel costs, since the beginning of the year. Non-GAAP R&D expenses as a percentage of revenue remained stable at 8% from the year ago period. We ended the quarter with 1,705 total employees of which 459 are from Tantan, compared to 2,051 total employees of which 552 from Tantan a year ago. The R&D personnel as a percentage of total employees for the group was 63% compared with 62% Q4 last year. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses for the fourth quarter was RMB388.6 million, or 12% of total revenue compared to RMB648.6 million or 18% of total revenue for the same period last year. The significant year-over-year decrease both in terms of absolute renminbi amount and as a percentage of revenue was primarily attributable a compound shift in marketing strategy to cut spending on low efficiency approaches in order to take care of ROI and to a lesser degree reduction of Momo's marketing spend amid a pandemic outbreak. Non-GAAP G&A expenses was RMB84.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to RMB89.4 million for the same period last year, representing 3% and 2% of total revenue respectively. Now, briefly on other operating loss, other operating income/loss items. Other operating loss for the quarter was RMB65.2 million, compared to an income of RMB38.6 million for the same period last year. In Q4 2022, we accrued RMB92.9 million of potential loss related to a Momo users alleged illegal activity and embezzlement of funds, which was retrieved and consumed on Momo platform. There is no suspected or alleged wrongdoing on the part of the group. The RMB92.9 million involved in the case is recorded as restricted cash on our balance sheet. Until the ruling of the court is announced, we won't know for sure whether the fund will be ultimately released or instead drawn from our account to compensate a plaintiff in the case. However, for conservative purpose, we've decided to take the item into our P&L as an operating loss in Q4 2022. Other operating loss caused by the accrued amount was partially offset by a couple of income items. Non-GAAP operating income was RMB499.2 million, a decrease of 2% from Q4 2021 and 18% from the previous quarter. Non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 16%, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year, but down 3 percentage points from the previous quarter. Non-GAAP OpEx as a percentage of total revenue was 23%, a decrease from 28% for Q4 2021 and 24% from last quarter. Non-GAAP operating expenses on a year-over-year basis decreased 28%. The decrease in both absolute R&D amount and as a percentage of revenue for all pass was mainly due to the reduction in social marketing expenses and to a lesser degree optimization in personnel costs. Non-GAAP operating expenses decreased 4% sequentially. This is attributable to the decrease in marketing expenses, which offset the increase in seasonal expenses such as year-end bonus. Now briefly on income tax expenses, total income tax expenses was RMB110.3 million and then before the quarter with an effective tax rate of 19%. In Q4 the Company accrued a withholding tax income of RMB39.7 million, which is 10% of undistributed profits generated by our WFOE. Without a withholding tax our estimated non-GAAP effective tax rate was around 12% in the fourth quarter. Now, turning to balance sheet and cash flow items. As of December 31, 2022, whole group's cash, cash equivalents, short-term deposits, long-term deposits, short-term investments and restricted cash totaled RMB13.4 billion, compared to RMB15.71 billion as of December 31, 2021. The decrease was due to a number of cash flow items, including our cash dividend payments, repurchase of the Company's convertible notes, repurchase of the Company's equity under the ongoing buyback program and payment to Chinese tax authorities to repatriate cash from WFOE in China to our offshore entity. Net cash provided by operating activities in the fourth quarter 2022 was RMB539 million compared to the RMB666 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Lastly, on business outlook, we estimated our first quarter revenue to come in the range from RMB2.65 billion to RMB2.75 billion representing a decrease of 15.8% to 12.6% year-on-year, or a decrease of 17.5% to 14.4% quarter-over-quarter. For Q1 2023, on a sequential basis, we expect the total revenue from both Momo and Tantan to decline mid teens due to the infection surge after reopen coupled with the Chinese New Year negative seasonality. Please be mindful that this forecast represents the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operating conditions which are subject to changes. That concluded our prepared portion of today's discussion. With that, let me turn the call back to Ashley to start Q&A. Ashley please.
Ashley Jing
谢谢。在开始提问前先做个简短提醒,请大家用中文提问,然后自行提供英文翻译。接线员,我们准备好接受提问了。谢谢。
Ashley Jing
Thanks. Just a quick reminder before we take the questions, please ask your questions in Chinese and followed by English translation by yourself. Operator, we're ready for questions. Thank you.
Operator
[接线员指示] 今天第一个问题来自德意志银行的Leo Chiang。请开始提问。
Operator
[Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Leo Chiang with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Leo Chiang
谢谢管理层回答我的问题。我的问题是关于陌陌App的。随着线下活动恢复正常,管理层能否分享陌陌App最新的用户和收入恢复趋势?另外,陌陌2023年的收入目标是什么?
Leo Chiang
Thank you management for taking my question. My question is regarding to the Momo app. As the offline activities resume normalization, can management sure the latest user and revenue recovery trend of the Momo app? Additionally what is the target of Momo's revenue in 2023?
Tang Yan
我先翻译一下。正如我之前提到的,12月初的开放短期内严重影响了我们的用户基础,导致第四季度用户数量环比大幅下降。1月初,当许多地区(主要是中国北方)感染率达到峰值后,随着疫情消退,本地用户开始逐渐回归。然而,恢复趋势被传统的春节淡季所打断。当人们1月开始返乡准备过节庆祝时,日活跃用户在2月初春节低谷后迅速反弹,增长率实际上显著高于1月初,也超出了我们之前的预期。目前陌陌用户基础已反弹至去年暑假结束时的水平。在运营策略方面,陌陌App将继续专注于生态系统和产品体验。在活动运营和竞争安排方面,我们将继续保持保守态度。这意味着,我们将优先考虑稳定利润,而不是推动无利润的收入增长。财务细节方面,我将请Cathy来回答。
Tang Yan
Let me translate first. So, as I mentioned earlier, the opening in early December severely affected our user base in a short period of time resulting in a sharp sequential decline and the use in Q4. In early January after the infection rate reached its peak in many regions, mainly in the northern part of China, as local users started to gradually come back as the pandemic subsided. However, the recovery trend was interrupted by the traditional low seasonality of Chinese New Year. When people started to return to their hometown in January to get ready for the holiday celebration, DAU rebounded rapidly in early February after the Chinese New Year trough and the growth rate was actually significantly higher than that in early January and it was also better than our previous expectations. And currently Momo user base has rebounded to the same level as the end of summer holiday last year. In terms of operation strategy, Momo app will remain focused on the ecosystem and product experience. We will continue to take a conservative approach in terms of event operation and competition arrangements. That means, we will prioritize stabilizing profit over driving non-profitable revenue growth. And I'll leave it to Cathy for financial details.
Peng Hui
好的。让我简要分享一下目前关于那个老问题的看法。对于第一季度,正如您从我们的指引中看到的,陌陌的直播业务将出现中高双位数的同比下降。最主要的原因是,去年第一季度基数相对较高——如果您还记得的话,那是在2022年5月监管变化之前,这使得之前的Q1对我们来说达到了一个高点。除此之外,我认为对全年宏观经济状况缺乏全面了解,仍然影响着我们部分高付费用户的心态,至少这是我们与部分顶级用户交流时感受到的普遍情绪。随着今年时间的推移以及刺激政策的出台,我们将观察这种情绪是否会逐渐改善。这就是第一季度的情况。展望第二季度及以后,随着流量和整体经济从过去三年的疫情限制中持续复苏,我们肯定会看到环比增长。此外,过去两三年笼罩在该行业的流动性监管状况,在未来几个季度似乎也将趋于稳定。唯一的不确定性,我认为是宏观经济复苏的强度,随着时间进入下半年,因为这确实将决定直播金字塔顶端用户的消费意愿。对于增值服务,今年第一季度也较为艰难,主要受中国重新开放后1月份感染高峰的影响。另一个因素与SoulChill相关,该业务在第一季度受到土耳其地震以及埃及镑对美元大幅贬值的严重影响。我们在埃及的一些支付渠道实际上因此被当地当局暂停。我们目前正在将营销资金和其他资源转移到其他海湾国家,那里的增长势头仍然相当强劲。总体而言,我们预计增值服务今年将继续增长,由于上述几个因素,下半年将明显强于上半年。因此,如果把所有这些不同的部分放在一起,我认为对于除探探以外的部分,我们可能会看到今年持续环比改善,这得益于逐步复苏以及来自较小新应用的强劲增长势头。全年营收增长的速度,正如我所说,很大程度上取决于宏观经济状况。希望这能回答您的问题。
Peng Hui
Sure. Let me briefly share what we can say at this point about that good old question. For Q1, as you can see from our guidance, Momo's live streaming is going to see mid- to high-teens decrease from last year. The biggest reason here is that, last quarter was -- last Q1 was relatively a high base because if you remember correctly, it was before the regulatory changes in May -- regulatory changes that happened in May 2022 that sort of made a prior Q1 sort of top-on for us. On top of that, I suspect that not having full visibility into the macro conditions for the rest of the year is still weighing on the mind of some of our high paying users, at least that the general sentiment that we are getting from talking to a portion of our top standards. We will see if the sentiment gets better overtime as the year progresses and we are stimulating policies get released. So that's Q1. Looking out to Q2 onwards, we are definitely going to see quarter-over-quarter increase as both traffic and the whole economy continues to recover from the past three years of COVID restrictions. Plus, it looks like that the fluid regulatory situation that have been hanging over the sector over the past two to three years is also going to see some stabilization from -- for the coming few quarters. The only uncertainty is, I would say, is the -- is how strong the macro gets, as we move deeper into the year because that's really going to determine the spending sentiment of the top of the pyramid users for live streaming. For value-added service, Q1 this year is also a bit tough due to the January trough related to China's reopen infection search. Another factor here was related to SoulChill which was heavily impacted in Q1 due to the Turkey earthquake as well as heavy depreciation of the Egyptian pound against U.S. dollar. Some of our payment channels actually, some of our payment channels in Egypt, was actually suspended by local authorities due to that reason. We are currently shifting the both in marketing dollars as well as some of the other resources to other Gulf countries, where the growth momentum remains quite strong. Overall, we expect value-added service to continue to grow this year, with second half being substantially stronger than first half due to the aforementioned several factors. So if you put all these different pieces together, I guess for the ex-Tantan part, we're going to probably see continued quarter-over-quarter improvement throughout this year driven by the gradual recovery as well as the strong momentum that's coming from the smaller new apps. How fast the top-line a ramp up throughout the year is really going to, as I said, heavily depends on the macro conditions. So I hope that sort of answers your question.
Operator
下一个问题来自Jefferies的Thomas Chong。请提问。
Operator
The next question comes from Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thomas Chong
感谢管理层回答我的问题。我的问题是关于探探的。管理层能否分享最新的用户趋势以及2023年收入和盈利前景?另一方面,就收入规模而言,管理层能否分享2023年聊天室的情况?
Thomas Chong
Thanks management for taking my question. My question is about Tantan. Can management share about the latest user trends as well as the outlook for 2023 revenue and profitability? On the other hand in terms of the revenue scale, can management share about the chat room in 2023?
Tang Yan
探探的用户趋势与陌陌类似。在感染高峰期急剧下降,春节后有所回升。目前,日活跃用户已恢复到去年11月的水平。能否继续增长以及增长速度取决于我们能否持续改善产品体验和用户留存,以及我们引入新付费功能以有效提升渠道投资回报率的能力。我认为像过去一两年那样以牺牲利润为代价追求用户增长的模式已不再可行。我们需要的是能够产生利润的收入增长。如果投资回报率显著改善,我们将恢复渠道投资以加速用户增长,希望投资者在这方面对我们保持耐心。就收入增长而言,收入增长可能比用户增长来得更早更快,因为黑金会员和聊天室体验都建立在成熟的变现模式基础上,这两项功能对提升用户体验和留存都有积极作用。因此,即使用户规模保持在当前水平,我们也将从第一季度开始持续环比增长。至于聊天室体验,我们目前将专注于完善其产品和运营。因此,我们不期望聊天室今年带来大量收入,但我们对聊天室体验的变现模式和收入潜力充满信心。接下来让Cathy谈谈盈利情况。
Tang Yan
Can I use the base showed a similar trends to Momo. Falling sharply during the surge of the infection and voting out after the Chinese New Year. And currently, the DAU has rebounded to the same level as November last year whether or not we can continue to grow from that and at what pace and he depends on if we can see continuous improvement in product experience and user retention, as well as our ability to introduce new payment features that can effectively improve channel ROI. I don't think the pursue of user growth at the expenses of profits like in the past a year or two is still a viable model. So whatever we need is revenue growth that can generate profits. We will resume channel investment to accelerate user growth, if there is a significant improvement in ROI and investors put into it to be a bit patient with us on this round. So in terms of revenue growth, revenue growth is likely to come early and faster than user growth, and because both Black Gold membership and the chat room experience actually build on well established the monetization models, and both features play a positive role in enhancing user experience and retention. So, therefore, even if user scale remains at the current level, we will continue to grow sequentially from Q1. And as for chat room experience, we will focus on refining its products and operations for now. And so, we don't expect the chat room to bring large amount of revenue this year, but however, we have full confidence in the monetization model and revenue potential of the term experience. I will let Cathy talk about the bottom line.
Peng Hui
好的,关于探探的盈利情况,如果看2022年非GAAP运营亏损的轨迹,可以看到我们全年都在持续收窄季度运营亏损。第四季度,非GAAP运营亏损已降至约1500万元人民币的运行率。我们预计这种收窄趋势将在今年延续到2023年,这意味着探探应该在今年下半年,甚至更早实现盈利。这里值得指出的是,正如唐岩提到的,只要营销投资回报率保持正值,我们目前不会过于关注探探的盈利利润率增长,因为新产品在中国市场仍有大量增长机会。相反,我们可以让部分利润回流到营销中,以推动可持续的用户增长和收入增长。这就是我们所说的进入正向循环,这是探探今年最重要的战略重点。
Peng Hui
Okay, about Tantan's bottom line, well, if you look at the trajectory of the non-GAAP operating loss in 2022, you can see that we've been consistently narrowing down the offering loss quarter-over-quarter throughout the year. In Q4, non-GAAP operating loss was already at RMB15 million kind of run rate. We expect that narrowing trend, overall narrowing trend to continue into this year into 2023, which means that we should be looking at a positive bottom line for Tantan toward back half of the year, if not earlier this year. The other thing worth calling out here is that as Tantan, as Tang Yan mentioned, as long as marketing ROI remains positive, we won't focus too much on growing the bottom line margins at this point for Tantan because there are still a great deal of growth opportunities for the new products in the China market. Instead, we could let part of the profit flow back into marketing to drive sustainable user growth as well as top line growth. That's what we meant by you know getting into a positive cycle, which is the most important strategic priority for Tantan this year.
Operator
下一个问题来自中金公司的张雪晴。请提问。
Operator
The next question is from Xueqing Zhang with CICC. Please go ahead.
Xueqing Zhang
感谢管理层回答我的问题。我的问题是关于独立新应用的。管理层能否分享更多关于这些新应用策略的细节以及今年的收入预期?谢谢。
Xueqing Zhang
Thanks management for taking my questions. My question is about standalone new applications. Should management share more color on these strategies and revenue expectations of new apps this year? Thanks.
Tang Yan
2022年,以投资回报率为导向的新产品已实现盈利,收入较2021年增长近150%。今年该应用的目标是进一步扩大收入和利润规模。对于处于更成熟阶段的国内应用,目前用户基数相对稳定。因此,我们将通过提升每付费用户平均收入(ARPPU)和利润率来持续扩大利润。而对于面向更广阔市场空间的海外应用,我们的目标是在深化现有市场的基础上拓展新的收入市场。土耳其和埃及市场今年可能会受到一定程度影响。但总体而言,我们看到社交应用在中国大陆市场具有强劲的收入和利润增长机会。我们将继续朝这个方向努力。除了专注于收入和利润的投资回报率导向产品外,我们还将继续投资并探索日活跃用户(DAU)导向产品的机会。事实上,除了今年之外,我们目前还有几款处于测试阶段的DAU导向产品正在开发中。随着我们积累更多数据,我们将与投资者社区分享更多信息。
Tang Yan
In 2022, ROI oriented new product turned profitable with revenues up nearly 150% from 2021. And our goal for this app this year is to further scale up revenue and profit. For the domestic apps, which are at a more mature stage, the user base is relatively stable at the moment. So, we will continue to expand profits by driving ARPPU and margins. And for the overseas apps, which are facing a much broader market space, our goal is to expand new revenue markets on top of deepening the existing territory. Turkish and Egyptian markets may be affected to some extent this year. But overall, we see strong revenue and profit growth opportunities for social apps in the mainland market. We will continue to make efforts in this direction. In addition to the ROI oriented products that focus on revenue and profit, we will continue to invest and explore opportunities in DAU oriented products. And in fact, in addition to this year, we have several DAU oriented products in the pipeline currently in beta. We will share more information with the investor community as we accumulate our more data.
Operator
好的。我们还有摩根大通的Henry So的提问。请讲。
Operator
Yes. We have one more from Henry So with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Henry So
感谢管理层回答我们的问题。我的问题是关于利润率的。正如管理层在准备好的发言中提到的,优化成本将继续是今年的关键。管理层能否分享更多关于成本控制策略以及今年整体利润率趋势的细节?谢谢。
Henry So
Thanks management for taking our question. My question is about margin. As you mentioned in the prepared remarks, optimizing costs will continue to be a key for this year. Could management share more color on the cost control strategy and the overall margin trend this year? Thanks.
Peng Hui
好的,好的。是的,这个问题我来回答。关于毛利率,最大的驱动因素就是支付比率。我记得上个季度也有人问过这个问题。实际上,可能每个季度我们都会面对这个老生常谈的问题。我的回答与上个季度当时所说的基本保持一致,那就是,目前供应端因素相当稳定。这意味着支付比率也将基本保持稳定,当然,我们不同业务的利润率结构各不相同。因此,收入组合始终是您在建模预测毛利率时需要考虑的另一个变量。这就是关于毛利率的情况。沿着这条线往下看,去年我们在优化关键运营费用项目方面做得相当不错,比如人员费用、营销成本以及基础设施支出。我们刚刚完成了年度预算周期,看起来我们在所有这些支出领域仍有进一步提升效率的空间。因此,我们预计今年运营费用将进一步以相当显著的方式缩减。随着营收趋势的改善,随着今年时间的推移,净利润和净利润率也将随之改善。所以,我试图简要概括一下,如果您结合我之前提到的营收趋势和运营费用趋势,并思考一下今年整体的数学运算如何展开,可能有两个关键要点。第一,从营收角度看,2023年将看到持续的季度环比改善,这得益于整体疫情复苏以及来自较小新应用的强劲增长势头。第二,我们将继续优化成本和费用。因此,净利润将实现相当显著的同比增长,尤其是在下半年。这就是目前我能描绘的整体财务图景。目前我能有把握描绘的图景。至于其他方面,我想我们需要随着今年时间的推移再观察。考虑到时间关系,我想这将是我们要回答的最后一个问题。现在我把话筒交还给Ashley做结束语。
Peng Hui
Sure, sure. Yes, that's for me. For gross profit margin, the biggest driving force here is the payout ratio. I remember someone asked that question last quarter as well. Actually, probably every quarter, we all face this good old question. My answer remains pretty consistent with what I said at that time last quarter, which is that, the supply side factors are at this moment pretty stable. That means payout is going to remain largely stable as well, of course, different business of ours there are different margin profiles. So, revenue mix is always going to be another variable in the equation you should consider, when modeling out the GP margin. So that's the GP margin line. Moving down that line, last year, we did a pretty good job in optimizing the key operating expenses items such as personnel expenses, marketing costs as well as infrastructure spending. We just finished the annual budgeting cycle and it seems that, we still have some room to further improve the efficiency across all those spending areas. So we expect the operating expenses to further shrink down on a pretty -- in a pretty meaningful way this year. And with top-line trend improving, as the year progresses, both bottom-line and bottom-line margins are going to improve as well. So, just, I'm trying to sort of put things into a nutshell, if you look at the top-line and the OpExtrends that I mentioned earlier, and try to think about how the math overall math works to this year. There are probably two key takeaways. One is that top-line wise 2023 is going to see continuous quarter-over-quarter improvement driven by the overall COVID recovery as well as the strong growth momentum coming from the smaller new applications. And the second takeaway is that we're going to continue to optimize our costs and expenses. So bottom-line is going to see pretty meaningful growth on a year-over-year basis, especially in the second half of the year. So that's basically the overall financial picture that I can lay out at this point. I have visibility to layout at this point. For other stuff, I guess we'll have to wait and see as the year progresses. I guess, for the interest of time, that's going to be the last question that we take. I'll hand back to Ashley for closing remarks.
Ashley Jing
感谢各位参与我们的电话会议,我们下个季度再见。祝大家晚安和早安。再见。
Ashley Jing
Thank you everyone for participating our call and we'll see you next quarter. Have a good night and good morning. Bye.
Operator
今天的电话会议到此结束。感谢各位的参与。您现在可以断开连接。
Operator
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.