Hong Kong, August 30, 2024 — Vobile Group Limited ("Vobile" or the "Group", Stock Code: 3738.HK), a leading global provider of digital content asset protection and transaction software as a service (SaaS), has released its unaudited consolidated interim results for the period ended June 30, 2024.

 

Summary of 2024 Interim Results

  • The total revenue was HK$1.2 billion, reflecting a YoY increase of 17.7% compared to HK$1.0 billion in 1H 2023, or a YoY increase of 20.3% without considering the impact of foreign currency rate volatility.
  • The revenue from subscription services was HK$545 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 16.8% compared to HK$467 million in 1H 2023, accounting for about 46.2% of the revenue. The revenue from value-added services was HK$635 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 18.5% compared to HK$536 million in 1H 2023, accounting for about 53.8% of the revenue. 
  • The revenue in Mainland China was HK$605 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 8.0% compared to HK$560 million in 1H 2023, or a YoY increase of 10.1% without considering the impact of foreign currency rate volatility. The revenue in the United States and other regions was HK$576 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 30.1% compared to HK$443 million in 1H 2023.
  • The gross profit was HK$504 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 28.3% compared to HK$393 million in 1H 2023. The gross margin has achieved 42.7%, up 3.5 percentage points from 1H 2023.
  • The profit for the period was HK$46 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 36.5% compared to HK$34 million in 1H 2023. 
  • The adjusted net profit was HK$64 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 10.7% compared to HK$58 million in 1H 2023. 
  • The Adjusted EBITDA was HK$196 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 8.3% compared to HK$181 million in 1H 2023. 

 

Business Review

 

In 2024, we will continue the high quality growth strategy to respond to the impact of the economic environment and other factors, ensuring existing development and firmly laying out the future. During the reporting period, we continued to expand the scale and categories of digital content services in our main business areas, building the business foundation of the GenAI field, and successfully exploring business in new market areas. A stable business foundation and effective business innovation expansion allow us to constantly achieve excellent performance in a constantly changing industry environment.

 

In the United States market, Vobile maintains strong growth momentum, with our customer base and the number of active assets continuing to grow. We have further deepened our cooperation and partnership with major content providers, continuously improving the quantity and quality of their content management on social media platforms. We have completed technical testing of watermarking technology applications on a large global video platform and are further advancing commercial deployment. At the same time, Vobile deepened its cooperation with large music label clients, significantly increasing the number of managed music assets.

 

In Mainland China market, Vobile’s performance and brand influence have achieved excellent growth. Through cooperation with China’s largest television network client and short video platform, Vobile provided comprehensive copyright protection services for the broadcast and distribution of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games program. In terms of global distribution services, Vobile has helped Chinese content providers significantly increase the number of daily active viewers and enhance the international influence of content and brands by building a comprehensive media matrix and implementing localised operation strategies. In addition, the copyright protection and transaction platform that we have jointly built with our large broadcasting and television customers has entered the trial operation stage.

 

In the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau, we grasp the trend of integrated development, increase our talent and investment deployment in the Greater Bay Area, deeply participate in building the IP Ecosystem in local regions, and play a key role in it.

 

In Japan and Europe, we strengthen our contact and cooperation with local IP rights holders by increasing our well-known music and animation company client base, becoming key trade organisations and association members in the region, and preparing for the subsequent scale landing of local business.

 

Subscription Services

 

A subscription-based business model has constantly provided long-term stable services to the world’s leading content providers and platforms. With our essential proprietary VDNA digital fingerprint and watermark technologies, we help content owners trace infringements and preserve timely and powerful evidence, and we charge subscription fees based on the scale of services provided to customers. At the same time, we provide content identification services and traceability capabilities for online video websites and platforms, empowering platform customers.

 

In the first half of 2024, our subscription business made significant progress. With the expansion of service capabilities to more copyright categories, the number of customers continues to grow, and the penetration rate of the content library steadily increases, achieving service coverage of copyright content in all categories. Vobile has strengthened its cooperation with important content providers, expanded the scope and types of services for large customer content libraries, and focused on expanding new content areas such as micro-dramas, e-commerce, music, audiobooks, podcasts, and images.

 

During the reporting period, Vobile constructed the ‘‘China Film All-Media Publishing and Marketing Platform Project’’ for top industry organisations. We have completed the first phase of the construction project for China Media Group and started testing operation. Through deepening cooperation with top short video platforms, we provided customers with full business coverage including short dramas, novels, music, and sports events and provided copyright monitoring and protection services covering both on-site and off-site for large short video platforms and large music platforms through API service integration.

 

It is expected that with the increasing global focus on copyright, Vobile’s expanding coverage of diverse content, and the growing demand from copyright platforms, our subscription services will continue to maintain a good development trend.

 

Value-added Services

 

With the continuous development of our business and the diversification of customer needs, we are further providing diversified value-added services based on strengthening subscription services to help customers maximise the value of content. We enhance the penetration and profitability of customer content by providing diverse monetization solutions and earning revenue through revenue-sharing models. In 2024, we continued the trend of upgrading contracts with large content providers, achieving greater coverage of top-tier content and providing assurance for the growth of value-added services.

 

In the first half of 2024, Vobile deepened its cooperation with major social media platforms and actively explored ways to increase the profitability of content on the platforms. We have seen a significant increase in views of our content on Shorts, a short video platform under YouTube, further expanding our ability to monetize on social media. We also offer a more diverse range of monetization services, with the number of active assets continuing to increase. During the reporting period, Vobile not only enhanced its penetration into major content platforms’ content libraries but also gathered high- quality micro-drama content to form an innovative product system, providing services for copyright protection and global dissemination of micro-dramas.

 

With the significant impact of technological innovation on the development of the digital content industry, the monetization methods for content are becoming more lightweight and diversified. We will continue to deploy innovative technologies and product services to provide content owner clients with a wider range of value-added service options.

 

Research and Development

 

Vobile has effectively enhanced the efficiency of value delivery across the industry ecosystem by building the technology infrastructure for the protection and transaction of digital content assets. Currently, major content providers and AI large-scale model platforms are gradually reaching a consensus on copyright issues, and relevant legislation in major economies is also advancing rapidly. Vobile’s ability to provide comprehensive copyright services to content providers will be key to ensuring the effective industry practice on copyrights.

 

We further strengthen our collaboration with the University of Florida, especially in the field of AI exploration. Vobile’s founder Mr. Wang Yangbin was selected for the inaugural Hall of Fame for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, highlighting Vobile’s outstanding achievements in the field of computer engineering. Vobile has an industry-leading technology team and collaborates closely with renowned institutions worldwide, including the University of Florida, Zhejiang University, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, to continuously enhance its technological capabilities. At the same time, we are in communication and collaboration with the world’s leading chip companies and platform companies to jointly address the increasingly complex copyright challenges in the GenAI field.

 

Vobile has launched a diverse range of watermarking technology solutions and is fully prepared to enter the commercial application phase. Through commercial deployment, we can quickly integrate watermarking technology into our customers’ existing streaming media workflows, providing a more efficient and cost-effective solution.

 

We continue to upgrade content identification and rights identification technology. We have significantly reduced the time for content rights identification by enhancing the application and deployment of AI algorithms. Meanwhile, through the expansion of the scale of real-time service for live content, we have further strengthened our content protection capabilities on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, ensuring timely takedown of infringing content.

 

Through these technological upgrades and reserve, we have constantly enhanced the efficiency of content identification and the coverage capability of our services, making sufficient preparations for the increasingly complex copyright environment in the era of GenAI, and contributing to a healthier and more efficient industry ecosystem for content rights holders and AI technology companies.

 

Company Strategy and Outlook

  •  Seize strategic opportunities in the GenAI era and expand service capabilities in the GenAI field
  • Scalable growth through developing platform-based business to serve more content owners, including the small-to-medium creators
  • Seizing opportunities in the digital economy’s development and promoting in the digital trade ecosystem.

 

About Vobile

 

Vobile Group is a leading global provider of digital content asset protection and transaction software as a service (SaaS). Vobile develops a series of software services based on its core patented VDNA fingerprinting and watermarking technologies to protect copyrights and increase distribution revenue for digital content asset owners, such as movie studios, TV networks, and streaming platforms. The Group is committed to empowering the digital culture industry with AI technologies and offers digital infrastructure service capabilities for digital asset protection and transaction related in the Web3 era. The Group provides customers with efficient professional solutions through subscription and value-added services.

 

Vobile continues to accumulate its core capabilities of digital content rights protection and transaction, and is committed to building the necessary technical infrastructure for the protection and transaction of digital content assets, and to enhance the effective delivery of the value of the industrial ecosystem. Creative content is the core value of the film and television industry, and the protection and transaction of creative content is the foundation to support the value chain. With the rise of generative AI technologies and its impact on content production and distribution, Vobile continues to strengthen our core competitiveness in the digital content rights protection and transaction field to support our clients to maintain the core value of their digital content assets in the ever-changing content era. We are committed to serving global content creators, and making creative content more valuable.