Joyy Inc. (NASDAQ:YY)

WEB NEWS

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Deal Flow
GUANGZHOU, China, March 25, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JOYY Inc. (YY) (“JOYY” or the “Company”), a global video-based social media platform, today announced that its board of directors has authorized a convertible notes repurchase plan under which the Company may repurchase up to an aggregate of US$200 million of its 0.75% convertible senior notes due 2025 and 1.375% convertible senior notes due 2026 over the next 12 months. The convertible notes repurchases may be made from time to time through legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with applicable rules and regulations. JOYY’s board of directors will review the convertible notes repurchase plan periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size. The Company expects to fund repurchases made under this plan from its existing funds.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2019 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 64.2% to RMB7,618.2 million (US$1,094.3 million) from RMB4,640.9 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
  • Net income attributable to controlling interest of JOYY Inc.1 was RMB172.8 million (US$24.8 million), compared to RMB694.7 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
  • Diluted net income per ADS8 was RMB1.87 (US$0.27) in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to RMB10.54 in the corresponding period of 2018.

Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS9 was RMB6.70 (US$0.96) in the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to RMB13.03 in the corresponding period of 2018.

“We concluded 2019 with robust operating and financial performances in the fourth quarter, further demonstrating the success of our domestic and international businesses,” commented Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of JOYY. “During the quarter, we maintained our focus on the growth of our short-form video and live streaming products to fuel our dual growth engines. For Likee, our global short-form video platform, we continued to expand its geographic coverage, refine its content offerings, and augment its monetization capabilities. As a result, Likee’s total MAUs swelled to 115.3 million in the quarter, representing an increase of 208.3% on a yearly basis and 15.1% on a sequential basis. We also continued to expand our global live streaming ecosystem through BIGO Live, our flagship live streaming platform for international markets. Our persistence in cultivating BIGO Live’s operational efficiency, localization capabilities, and cultural sensitivity enabled the platform to achieve record growth in developed markets around the world in the quarter. Furthermore, HAGO, our casual-game-oriented social media platform, also maintained its healthy growth trajectory, as we continued to expand its game portfolio and innovate its social features to explore additional monetization opportunities.

In addition to our rapid expansion overseas, we also maintained our focus on serving YY Live’s community of loyal users to cement our leadership in China’s entertainment live streaming industry. The success of our 2019 YY Annual Awards once again demonstrated the strength and scale of our live streaming social media ecosystem in China. Moreover, as we continue to cultivate synergies across business segments, implement cutting-edge technology into our products, and cultivate our localization capabilities, we are also compounding the network effects of our product matrix and enhancing our ability to achieve sustainable growth.”

Mr. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of JOYY, further commented, “During the fourth quarter of 2019, we generated a year-over-year net revenues growth rate of 64.2%, exceeding the high end of our previous guidance range. In terms of our global strategy, we are committed to continuous investment in user base expansion, content enrichment and technology innovation, while keeping rapid monetization progress in both live streaming and short-form video services.  In response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, we immediately leveraged our capabilities to contribute to our society’s efforts of rallying charitable support and uplifting people’s spirit. While we assess and monitor the financial impact of the outbreak in 2020, we are confident that our global footprint, diversified products matrix, and abundant cash reserve have positioned us to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities ahead.”

Business Outlook
For the first quarter of 2020, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB6.75 billion and RMB6.85 billion10, representing a year-over-year growth of 41.2% to 43.3%. This forecast considers the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and reflects the Company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change, particularly as to the potential impact of the COVID-19 on the economy in China and elsewhere.


Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Comments & Business Outlook

Third Quarter 2019 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 67.8% to RMB6,882.2 million (US$962.9 million) from RMB4,100.5 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
  • Non-GAAP net income attributable to controlling interest of YY Inc.2 was RMB574.1 million (US$80.3 million), compared to RMB787.0 million in the corresponding period of 2018, primarily due to the impact of the consolidation of Bigo Inc (“Bigo”).

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of YY, commented, “Our solid operating and financial performance demonstrates the effectiveness of our strategies in product globalization, content innovation and technology advancement. During the third quarter of 2019, we extended the global footprints of Likee, imo, BIGO LIVE and HAGO. Through content localization, cross-platform synergy and AI technology enhancement, our global user base grew rapidly to 470.1 million. Notably, Likee, our global leading short-form video platform, hit the milestone of 100 million average mobile MAUs in the third quarter of 2019, sporting a year-over-year growth rate of 413.4%. Meanwhile, HAGO, our casual game-oriented social platform also increased its average mobile MAUs by 92.4% year-over-year to 32.3 million. In addition, our technology advancement in AI enabled us to create personalized user experience at scale, distribute our short-form video and live streaming content with precision and speed, and enhance our operating efficiency while maintaining cost effectiveness. Going forward, we seek to capitalize on the growing market demand for global video-based social media by harnessing the synergy among our various products and markets, expanding our geographic coverage, innovating our content formats and advancing our technology development.”

Mr. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “During the third quarter of 2019, we generated a year-over-year net revenues growth rate of 67.8%, exceeding the high end of our previous guidance range. We also managed to sustain profitability while maintaining investment in our overseas expansion. Because we hold a strong conviction of the vast market potential for our global video-based social media platform, we are willing to be patient and prudent when striking a balance between near-term monetization and long-term market share. We believe that our abundant cash reserve combined with our methodical execution of corporate strategies will not only yield superior shareholder value, but also propel our engine of innovation forward into the next phase of our global growth cycle.”

Business Outlook
For the fourth quarter of 2019, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB7.32 billion and RMB7.52 billion10, representing a year-over-year growth of 57.7% to 62.0%. This forecast reflects the Company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Deal Flow
GUANGZHOU, China, June 24, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading global social media platform, today announced that it closed the offering (the “Notes Offering”) of US$500 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) and US$500 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026 (the “2026 Notes,” and, together with the 2025 Notes, the “Notes”), which included the exercise in full by the initial purchasers of their option to purchase an additional US$75 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2025 Notes and US$75 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2026 Notes.

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Deal Flow

GUANGZHOU, China, June 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading global social media platform, today announced the proposed offering (the “Notes Offering”) of US$425 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”) and US$425 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026 (the “2026 Notes,” and, together with the 2025 Notes, the “Notes”), subject to market and other conditions. The Company intends to grant the initial purchasers in the Notes Offering a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional US$75 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2025 Notes and US$75 million in aggregate principal amount of the 2026 Notes. The Company plans to use part of the net proceeds from the Notes Offering to pay the costs of the capped call transactions described below, and use the remainder of the proceeds for (i) global expansion-related initiatives, including infrastructure investment, personnel recruiting, sales and marketing and other efforts aimed at acquiring and servicing global users, (ii) video-based content offering expansion and enrichment, (iii) technology enhancement, and (iv) working capital and other general corporate purposes.

The Notes will be senior, unsecured obligations of YY. The 2025 Notes will mature on June 15, 2025 and the 2026 Notes will mature on June 15, 2026, unless repurchased, redeemed or converted in accordance with their terms prior to such date. The Company may not redeem the Notes prior to maturity, unless certain tax-related events occur. Holders of the Notes may require the Company to repurchase all or part of their Notes in cash on June 15, 2023, in the case of the 2025 Notes, and June 15, 2024, in the case of the 2026 Notes, or in the event of certain fundamental changes.

Prior to December 15, 2024, in the case of the 2025 Notes, or December 15, 2025, in the case of the 2026 Notes, the Notes will be convertible at the option of the holders only upon satisfaction of certain conditions and during certain periods. Holders may convert their Notes at their option at any time on or after December 15, 2024, in the case of the 2025 Notes, or December 15, 2025, in the case of the 2026 Notes, until the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the relevant maturity date. Upon conversion, the Company will pay or deliver to such converting holders, as the case may be, cash, the Company’s American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”), each currently representing twenty Class A common shares of the Company, or a combination of cash and ADSs, at the Company’s election. The interest rate, initial conversion rate and other terms of the Notes will be determined at the time of pricing of the Notes.

The Notes will be offered in the United States to qualified institutional buyers pursuant to Rule 144A and to non-U.S. persons outside the United States in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”). The Notes, the ADSs deliverable upon conversion of the Notes, if any, and the Class A common shares represented thereby have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or the securities laws of any other place, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

In connection with the Notes Offering, the Company intends to enter into capped call transactions relating to each series of the Notes with one or more of the initial purchasers and/or their respective affiliates and/or other financial institutions (the “Option Counterparties”). The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution to existing holders of the Class A common shares and ADSs of the Company upon conversion of the relevant Notes and/or offset any cash payments that the Company is required to make in excess of the principal amount of the converted Notes, as the case may be, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap. If the initial purchasers exercise their option to purchase additional Notes, the Company expects to enter into additional capped call transactions with the Option Counterparties with respect to the relevant series of the Notes as to which the option was exercised. The Option Counterparties advised the Company that, in connection with establishing their initial hedges of the capped call transactions, the Option Counterparties or their respective affiliates expect to purchase the ADSs and/or enter into various derivative transactions with respect to the Company’s ADSs concurrently with, or shortly after, the pricing of the Notes. This activity could increase (or reduce the size of any decrease in) the market price of the ADSs or the Notes at that time. If any such capped call transaction fails to become effective, whether or not the Notes Offering is completed, the Option Counterparty party thereto may unwind its hedge positions with respect to the ADSs, which could adversely affect the value of the ADSs and, if the Notes have been issued, the value of the Notes.

In addition, the Option Counterparties or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivative transactions with respect to the ADSs and/or by purchasing or selling the ADSs or other securities of the Company in secondary market transactions following the pricing of the Notes and prior to the maturity of each series of the Notes. The Option Counterparties may engage in such activity during any observation period relating to a conversion of each series of the Notes.  This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the market price of the ADSs or the Notes, which could affect noteholders’ ability to convert the Notes and, to the extent the activity occurs during any observation period related to a conversion of the Notes, it could affect the number of ADSs and the value of the consideration that noteholders will receive upon conversion of such Notes.



Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2019 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 47.1% to RMB4,780.6 million (US$705.3 million) from RMB3,248.9 million in the corresponding period of 2018.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS9 was RMB9.32 (US$1.38) in the first quarter of 2019, compared to RMB10.96 in the corresponding period of 2018.

“We are very excited to witness that YY has successfully evolved into a global social media platform with over 400 million in global video and live streaming average mobile MAUs in the first quarter of 2019, after the acquisition of Bigo. We carried our strong growth momentum into 2019 with solid first quarter results, driven by enhanced performances from YY, Huya and Bigo,” stated Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of YY. “Importantly, over 75% of such global video and live streaming MAUs were from outside of China, demonstrating that our global expansion strategy has achieved initial success. Our average mobile MAUs for short form video and live streaming services reached 192.4 million, and total number of paying users for YY, Huya and Bigo continued to grow healthily year over year. This strong growth was a result of our commitment to expanding our global operations, upgrading our content offerings, and improving our AI technological capabilities. During the same quarter, IMO had 211.8 million in average mobile MAUs. By offering frictionless video call and other communication tools, IMO has attracted a highly engaged and video-oriented user base in the Middle East, South Asia and other global regions. As we continue to develop synergies among different business lines going forward, we will leverage these synergies to create high-quality video-based content across our platform and best-in-class user experiences for our global user community.”

Mr. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “We delivered another quarter of solid financial results, marked by high growth and strong profitability. Our total net revenues in the first quarter increased by 47.1% year over year to RMB4,780.6 million, exceeding the high end of our previous guidance range. The increase in net revenues was primarily driven by an year-over-year 47.9% increase in live streaming revenues to RMB4,485.0 million, and the contribution from the consolidation of Bigo. Going forward, as we continue to invest in video-based content offerings, global user base expansion and AI technological innovation, we believe that we will further enhance our monetization and yield sustainable growth.”

Business Outlook
For the second quarter of 2019, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB6.0 billion and RMB6.2 billion10, representing a year-over-year growth of 59.0% to 64.3%. This forecast reflects the Company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2018 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 28.0% to RMB4,640.9 million (US$675.0 million) from RMB3,626.5 million in the corresponding period of 2017.
  • Diluted net income per ADS6 was RMB10.54 (US$1.53) in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to RMB11.53 in the corresponding period of 2017.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 was RMB12.86 (US$1.87) in the fourth quarter of 2018, compared to RMB14.51 in the corresponding period of 2017.

Business Outlook
For the first quarter of 2019, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB4.01 billion and RMB4.16 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 23.4% to 28.0%, without giving effect to the acquisition of Bigo Inc. This forecast reflects the Company’s current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Acquisitions

GUANGZHOU, China, March 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced its recent acquisition of the remaining approximately 68.3% of all the issued and outstanding shares of Bigo Inc (“Bigo”) from the other shareholders of Bigo, including Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting CEO of YY, for an aggregate purchase price of US$1,452,778,383, comprising of US$343,061,583 in cash, 38,326,579 Class B common shares of YY issued to Mr. Li and 313,888,496 Class A common shares of YY issued to Mr. Li and other selling shareholders of Bigo. Prior to the transaction, the Company owned approximately 31.7% of all the issued and outstanding shares of Bigo on a fully diluted and as-converted basis. Mr. Li's total voting power in YY remains largely the same before and after the transaction.  The amount and form of the purchase price was discussed and agreed upon between YY and all the selling shareholders of Bigo in the recent months. YY negotiated other terms of the transaction with the shareholders of Bigo unrelated to YY. The transaction was approved by the independent audit committee of YY’s board of directors, which considered the arms length negotiation background as well as the fairness analysis conducted by its advisor China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) Limited, and was approved by YY’s board of directors. The transaction was completed today after satisfaction of all the closing conditions. Lazard is acting as financial advisor to the Company.

Bigo is a fast-growing global tech company. Headquartered in Singapore, Bigo owns BIGO LIVE, a leading global live streaming platform excluding China, LIKE, a leading short form video social platform worldwide, and other social apps. Bigo has created a video-based online community for global young generation users. It has established footprints with a strong presence in South-Eastern Asia, Southern Asia, the Middle East and America, paving the way for further global expansion.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, “We are very excited to announce the completion of the acquisition of Bigo. It is an important milestone for YY group which demonstrated our confidence and commitment to the globalization strategy. Bigo has delivered both rapid user growth and significant monetization progress in 2018, making it one of the fastest growing internet companies worldwide. While BIGO LIVE is consolidating its leadership in entertainment live streaming market outside China, LIKE also experiences tremendous user growth and user time spent increase in short form video market. The combination of YY’s and Bigo’s unparalleled businesses and services in both China and overseas will enable us to create enhanced live streaming content, expand our global footprint, and offer world-class user experiences for our global user community. As a result, we will be well positioned to become a world leading video-based social media platform.”


Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Comments & Business Outlook

Third Quarter 2018 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 32.6% to RMB4,100.5 million (US$597.0 million) from RMB3,092.3 million in the corresponding period of 2017.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 increased by 11.1% to RMB12.07 (US$1.76) in the third quarter of 2018 from RMB10.86 in the corresponding period of 2017.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, “During the third quarter of 2018 we recorded outstanding operating results, highlighted by a 20.7% year-over-year growth in our mobile live streaming monthly active users (MAU) and a 26.3% year-over-year growth in our total live streaming paying users. Our strong performance in the third quarter was attributable to the continuous market expansion for both YY Live and Huya. For YY Live, we continued to leverage our industry-leading AI technology to increase the accuracy and effectiveness of our content recommendation process. Meanwhile, we have initiated a strategic cooperation with Xiaomi to exclusively operate certain entertainment live streaming services on Xiaomi Live. The cooperation will provide Xiaomi’s users with a better experience in entertainment live streaming services and enable both YY and Xiaomi to explore additional monetization opportunities. Looking ahead, we will remain focused on cementing YY’s leadership in the live streaming industry through product innovation and technology advancements.”

Mr. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “We once again achieved solid financial performance in the third quarter of 2018. Our total net revenues increased by 32.6% year over year to RMB4,100.5 million, exceeding the high end of our previous guidance range. The increase in net revenues was driven by the robust growth of our live streaming revenues which increased by 35.6% year over year to RMB3,894.5 million. Our non-GAAP net income attributable to YY also increased by 19.7% year over year to RMB787.0 million in the third quarter of 2018. We are confident that our strategies to enhance our content offerings and AI technologies will continue to yield sustainable growth, and increase our market share in the live streaming industry.”

Business Outlook
For the fourth quarter of 2018, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB4.39 billion and RMB4.54 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 21.1% to 25.2%. This forecast reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Acquisition Activity

GUANGZHOU, China, June 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced that it has further invested US$272 million in the series D preferred shares of Bigo Inc. (“Bigo”) as the lead investor. YY is an existing shareholder of Bigo and has become its largest shareholder after the series D financing.  In addition, YY has obtained a right, exercisable after the first anniversary of the closing date, to purchase additional Bigo shares at the then fair market price to exceed 50.1% of the voting power in Bigo. Together with YY, other investors also participated in the series D financing, including Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting CEO of YY, who invested in Bigo using his personal funds.

Bigo is a fast-growing global video-based social media platform. Headquartered in Singapore, Bigo owns Bigo Live, a leading global live streaming platform excluding China, and Like, a short form video editing and sharing platform. Bigo has created a video-based online community for global young generation users. It has established footprints with a strong presence in emerging markets such as South-Eastern Asia, Southern Asia and the Middle East, paving the way for further global expansion.


Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Notable Share Transactions

GUANGZHOU, China, May 22, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced that it has appointed Citi’s Issuer Services business, acting through Citibank, N.A. (“Citi”), as the successor depositary for the Company's American Depositary Receipt (the “ADR”) program, effective immediately.

The Company has also entered into an amended and restated deposit agreement with Citi to replace the previous deposit agreement. A registration statement on Form F-6 has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the change of depositary and the form of the amended and restated deposit agreement is filed as an exhibit to the Form F-6.

Holders of the YY’s ADRs or American depositary shares issued in the ADR program are not required to take any action in connection with the change of depositary.

Citi is a leading provider of depositary receipt services. With depositary receipt programs in 61 markets, spanning equity and fixed-income products, Citi leverages its global network to provide cross-border capital market access to issuers, intermediaries and investors.


Thursday, May 17, 2018

Comments & Business Outlook
GUANGZHOU, China, May 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced that underwriters of the initial public offering ("IPO") of the American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) by its majority-controlled subsidiary, HUYA Inc. (“Huya”) had exercised their over-allotment option in full to purchase an additional 2,250,000 ADS from Huya at the IPO price of US$12.00 per ADS.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Notable Share Transactions

GUANGZHOU, China, May 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced the pricing of the initial public offering by its majority-controlled subsidiary, HUYA Inc. (“HUYA”) of 15,000,000 American Depositary Shares ("ADSs"), each representing one Class A Ordinary Share of HUYA, at a price of US$12.00 per ADS for a total offering size of US$180.0 million, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs. The ADSs have been approved for listing on the NYSE and are expected to begin trading today under the ticker symbol "HUYA."

The underwriters have been granted an option, exercisable within 30 days from the date of the final prospectus, to purchase up to an additional 2,250,000 ADSs.


Thursday, March 8, 2018

Comments & Business Outlook

GUANGZHOU, China, March 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced that HUYA Inc. (“Huya”), a majority-controlled subsidiary of YY, entered into definitive agreements for its series B equity financing with Tencent. The financing has been completed today. The total amount raised in this round is approximately US$461.6 million. After the completion of this transaction, YY maintains control over Huya. In connection with this around of financing, Tencent has also obtained a right, exercisable between the second and third anniversary of the closing date, to purchase additional Huya shares at fair market price to reach 50.1% of the voting power in Huya.

“We are very excited about Huya’s completion of series B equity financing from Tencent,” said Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer of YY. “This investment will reinforce and solidify Huya as the leader in the fast-growing game live streaming market in China. Supported by Tencent’s strong capabilities in game development, distribution and operation, Huya will march into a new era of building and maintaining the largest game live streaming and e-sports community for young generations in China. Meanwhile, Huya remains a major asset of YY, continuously bringing significant value for YY shareholders.”


Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2017 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 46.0% to RMB3,626.5 million (US$557.4 million) from RMB2,484.2 million in the corresponding period of 2016.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS5 increased by 45.2% to RMB14.77 (US$2.27) in the fourth quarter of 2017 from RMB10.17 in the corresponding period of 2016.

“We are delighted to conclude 2017 with robust growth momentum in both operating and financial performance,” stated Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer of YY, “In the fourth quarter of 2017, driven by both YY Live and Huya, our mobile live streaming monthly active users (MAU) increased by 36.6% year over year to 76.5 million, and our total live streaming paying users increased by 25.0% year over year to 6.5 million. This further demonstrates the effectiveness and efficiency of our operational capabilities in our live streaming business. For YY Live in particular, we continued our efforts in content enrichment and product innovation by incorporating additional live streaming content and continuously launching new features on our platform, such as a series of casual games. Looking ahead, we will continue to further expand our product offerings and solidify our market leading position to capture the opportunities in China’s rapid growing live streaming industry.”

Mr. Bing Jin, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “We are pleased to once again deliver strong financial results in the fourth quarter of 2017. Our total net revenues increased by 46.0% year over year to RMB3,626.5 million, exceeding both our previous guidance and street consensus. Our revenue growth was primarily driven by the robust growth of our live streaming revenues, which increased by 51.9% year over year to RMB3,368.5 million with RMB2,675.8 million coming from YY Live. Huya recently submitted a draft registration statement on a confidential basis to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Committee for a possible initial public offering in the U.S. to attain its own group of investors to fund its long-term growth. We remain confident that we have the right strategy in place to drive our financial performance and sustain our rapid growth for the coming quarters and years.”

Business Outlook
For the first quarter of 2018, the Company expects net revenues to be between RMB3.00 billion and RMB3.15 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 32.3% to 39.0%. This forecast reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Thursday, August 17, 2017

Notable Share Transactions

GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced that the underwriters of its previously announced offering of 5,750,000 American depositary shares (the “ADSs”) have fully exercised their over-allotment option to purchase an additional 862,500 ADSs at US$70.00 per ADS. The full exercise of the over-allotment option increases the net proceeds to the Company, after deducting underwriting commissions and fees and the estimated offering expenses payable by the Company, from approximately US$384.4 million to approximately US$442.2 million. After giving effect to the exercise of over-allotment option, the total number of ADSs outstanding immediately after the offering will be 45,299,428 ADSs.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. and China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) Limited are acting as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

The Company expects to close the offering of the 6,612,500 ADSs on or about August 21, 2017, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.


Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Notable Share Transactions

GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 14, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a leading live streaming social media platform in China, today announced the commencement of the offering of 5,750,000 American depositary shares (the “ADSs”), each representing 20 Class A common shares of the Company (the “ADS Offering”). The Company intends to grant the underwriters in the ADS Offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 862,500 ADSs to cover over-allotments, if any.

Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C. and China Renaissance Securities (Hong Kong) Limited are acting as the joint book-running managers for the ADS Offering.


Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Notable Share Transactions
GUANGZHOU, China, May 16, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a live streaming platform, today announced that on May 16, 2017, YY entered into a definitive shares subscription agreement for a US$75 million Series A equity funding round for HUYA Inc., the Huya subsidiary of YY. This Series A round is led by China Ping An Insurance Overseas (Holdings) Limited, with participation also from Banyan Partners, Engage Capital and Morningside, as well as Mr. David Xueling Li, the Chairman of the Company, and Mr. Rongjie Dong, the CEO of Huya. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. Following the completion of this Series A equity funding, YY will maintain majority ownership of Huya.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2017 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 37.4% to RMB2,267.0 million (US$329.3 million) in the first quarter of 2017 from RMB1,649.3 million in the corresponding period of 2016, primarily driven by the increase in live streaming revenues.
  • Diluted net income per ADS5 increased by 153.4% to RMB9.25 (US$1.34) in the first quarter of 2017 from RMB3.65 in the corresponding period of 2016.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS6 increased by 109.6% to RMB9.62 (US$1.40) in the first quarter of 2017 from RMB4.59 in the corresponding period of 2016.

“We are very pleased to have delivered another quarter of strong top- and bottom-line results in the first quarter of 2017,” said Mr. Zhou Chen, Chief Executive Officer of YY. “Our live streaming revenues continued to witness significant growth, increasing by 51.5% year over year to RMB2.06 billion. These robust results were driven by the successful execution of our content strategy and demonstrate the strength of both YY Live and Huya broadcasting. Importantly, our mobile live streaming MAUs increased by 11.8% quarter over quarter, reaching 62.6 million in the first quarter of 2017, and our total number of live streaming paying users increased by 66% year over year to 5.88 million. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on expanding the product and content offerings across our platforms and enhancing our content ecosystem. As the leading live streaming platform in China, we are confident that we have what it takes to further expand our market share in this growing industry and create additional value for all our stakeholders.”

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “We continued to witness sustainable revenue growth in the first quarter of 2017, with total net revenues increasing by 37.4% year over year to RMB2.27 billion, driven by the robust growth in our live streaming revenues. Importantly, we continued to successfully expand our profit margins and our Non-GAAP operating margins2 exceeded 28% in the first quarter of 2017. In addition, our Non-GAAP net income attributable to YY increased by 115.7% year over year to RMB565.7 million, of which Huya segment’s loss shrunk tremendously year over year from RMB140.5 million to RMB35.2 million. Our solid financial and operational results continue to prove that we can maintain our growth momentum and achieve long-term profitability despite the competitiveness in the live streaming industry.”

Business Outlook

For the second quarter of 2017, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB2.45 billion and RMB2.55 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 23.7% to 28.7%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Wednesday, May 10, 2017

CFO Trail

GUANGZHOU, China, May 10, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a live streaming platform, today announced that it has appointed Mr. Bing Jin as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer, effectively immediately. Mr. Jin succeeds Mr. Eric He, who has decided to retire after serving as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer since August 2011.

“Bing brings over a decade of experience in investment banking, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate strategy,” said Mr. Zhou Chen, Chief Executive Officer of YY. “We believe he will be an invaluable addition to YY, bringing a fresh perspective to our management team. With his track record of success, deep expertise with the U.S. capital markets, and rich experience, we are confident that we will greatly benefit from his leadership as we move into the next stage of growth.”

Mr. Chen added, “On behalf of the Board of Directors and management team, I would like to thank Eric for his remarkable service to YY as our Chief Financial Officer in the past six years. He has led the Company through many challenges and successes during his tenure, contributing significantly to what YY has become today. I wish him the best of luck with his future endeavors.”

“I am honored to join YY as its Chief Financial Officer,” said Mr. Jin. “I have tremendous respect for the Company’s senior management and highly experienced finance team and am eager to work in this exciting industry. I look forward to working with Mr. Chen, the rest of the management, and the Company’s talented employees as we continue to accelerate our growth and expand our market share in China’s live streaming industry.”

Prior to joining YY, Mr. Jin served as the Head of China Technology of Investment Banking and Capital Markets, Asia Pacific, at Credit Suisse. During his tenure at Credit Suisse, Mr. Jin worked with many U.S. listed and private Chinese technology companies for various financing and M&A transactions. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Jin worked at Citi’s China Investment Banking Department. Before his investment banking career, Mr. Jin worked in government services, consulting, and corporate banking.

Mr. Jin received an MBA from the Wharton School, a Master’s degree in Pacific International Affairs from the University of California, San Diego, and a Bachelor’s degree in English from the Beijing Foreign Studies University.


Monday, April 3, 2017

Deal Flow
GUANGZHOU, China, April 03, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a live streaming platform, today announced that it has completed its previously announced repurchase right offer relating to its 2.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2019 (the “Notes”). The repurchase right offer expired at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on March 30, 2017. Based on information from Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas as the paying agent for the Notes, US$399,000,000 aggregate principal amount of the Notes were validly surrendered and not withdrawn prior to the expiration of the repurchase right offer. The aggregate purchase price of such Notes was US$399,000,000. The Company has accepted all of the surrendered Notes for repurchase and has forwarded cash in payment of the same to the paying agent for distribution to the applicable holders.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2016 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 30.8% to RMB2,484.2 million (US$357.8 million) from RMB1,899.8 million in the corresponding period of 2015.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 increased by 40.3% to RMB10.17 (US$1.46) in the fourth quarter of 2016 from RMB7.25 in the corresponding period of 2015.

“We are delighted to have delivered another quarter of solid results in the fourth quarter of 2016,” said Mr. Zhou Chen, Chief Executive Officer of YY. “In addition to our robust financial performance in the fourth quarter, our mobile MAU reached 56.0 million, representing a 4.8% increase from the previous quarter, and our PC MAU was stable at 96.1 million. Our solid financial results and user numbers are due to the continued strengthening of our product and content offerings and our dedication to the development of new and diverse market content. For example, the introduction of new vertical content like YY Live’s outdoor and travel and the expansion of our mobile game live broadcasting content for the Huya broadcasting platform are key components for expanding our content offering. Additionally, in order to further strengthen user stickiness across our platform, we began to encourage more users from both YY Live and Huya broadcasting to share more live broadcasting sessions based on social relationships and locations. Going forward, we will introduce even more content verticals to YY, and in turn, we are confident that we can further expand our market share and maintain our leading position in this massive growth industry.”

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “In the fourth quarter of 2016, we continued to see strong growth momentum in our revenues, with total net revenues increasing by 30.8% year over year to RMB2.5 billion, primarily attributable to the healthy growth in our total number of live streaming paying users which grew by 91.9% year over year to 5.2 million. Importantly, despite the intense competitive landscape in the live streaming industry, our live streaming revenues for the full year of 2016 witnessed a remarkable 54.8% year over year growth to over seven billion, and our Non-GAAP profit margin for the year exceeded 20%, which is a testament to the solid strength and long-term competitiveness of both of our platforms. As Huya broadcasting’s revenue growth continues to accelerate, its margins continue to improve, which ultimately strengthens our long-term profitability.”

Business Outlook
For the first quarter of 2017, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB2.2 billion and RMB2.3 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 33.4% to 39.5%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Monday, November 21, 2016

Comments & Business Outlook

Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 40.3% to RMB2,089.8 million (US$313.4 million) from RMB1,490.0 million in the corresponding period of 2015.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 increased by 79.4% to RMB7.48 (US$1.12) in the third quarter of 2016 from RMB4.17 in the corresponding period of 2015.

“We are extremely pleased to have achieved solid results this quarter with both top- and bottom-line growth across the board,” said Mr. Zhou Chen, Chief Executive Officer of YY. “This growth was primarily driven by the robust 54.5% year-over-year growth in our live streaming business, which was made possible through the successful execution of our business and content strategy. Importantly, we continued to focus on the development of PUGC (Professionally-curated User Generated Content) and PGC. In the third quarter of 2016, we launched a new relationships program and further developed our sports content. Additionally, Huya broadcasting continues to increase its content offerings for mobile game broadcasting and broaden its popularity. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen our content to meet the ever evolving demands of YY’s 98.0 million PC MAU and 53.4 million mobile MAU in the third quarter of 2016. We believe in our ability to build a comprehensive content ecosystem across our two live streaming platforms, YY Live and Huya broadcasting, and are confident that we have the right strategy in place to further fortify our position as China’s leading interactive, live streaming platform.”

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, further commented, “For the third quarter of 2016, we continued to see strong revenue growth as total revenues increased by 40.3% year over year to RMB2,089.8 million, primarily driven by a 63.4% year-over-year growth in the total number of paying users to 4.6 million, as well as a solid live streaming revenues growth of 54.5% year over year to RMB1,790.4 million. In particular, Huya broadcasting witnessed continued strong growth with a significant 139.0% year-over-year increase in revenues. Meanwhile, in the third quarter of 2016, mobile revenues contributed 52.8% to YY Live revenues, which demonstrated the improvement we have further made in mobilization. With these exciting growth momentum, we are confident in our ability to maintain healthy revenue growth in the coming quarters. Going forward, we will continue to expand our content offerings and remain agile in adopting new and innovative ideas to further differentiate the user experience on our platform from our competitors.”


Thursday, August 18, 2016

Comments & Business Outlook

Second Quarter 2016 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 45.9% to RMB1,980.8 million (US$298.0 million) in the second quarter of 2016 from RMB1,357.2 million in the corresponding period of 2015
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS6 increased by 25.7% to RMB6.65 (US$1.00) in the second quarter of 2016 from RMB5.29 in the corresponding period of 2015.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman of YY, stated, “We are glad to report another strong quarter of both top- and bottom-line growth across the board. This growth momentum was primarily driven by solid year-over-year user adoption of over 54.5% to 4.2 million paying users, as well as robust IVAS revenue growth of 48.7% year over year. More importantly, we continued to see steady growth in monthly active users (“MAUs”) on the YY platform increasing by over 16% year over year to 141.9 million users. Additionally, in June 2016, we revamped our online music and entertainment branding to YY Live. This rebranding effort is a key part of YY leveraging our core broadcasting technology to more broadly support the increasing popularity of mobile live-broadcasting on our online music and entertainment platform. With the new brand, we aim to further leverage the established YY brand and build an even deeper content ecosystem which will also include the development of PUGC (Professionally-curated User Generated Content). Meanwhile, we are excited to announce the promotion of Mr. Zhou Chen as YY’s new CEO as well as the promotion of Mr. Rongjie Dong to CEO of our Huya broadcasting division. We firmly believe their deep experience, creative genius and solid leadership capabilities will help to lead YY through our next phase of development. Overall, we remain confident in our ability to stay ahead of our competitors and further fortify YY’s competitive moat as a leading interactive, live streaming platform in China.

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, “For the second quarter of 2016, our revenue momentum continued as total revenues increased by 45.9% year over year to RMB1.98 billion. The growth in both top and bottom line reflects the strength of our increasingly large and diverse IVAS revenue streams. Our online game broadcasting business, Huya, saw continued strong growth, with a 67.7% year-over-year increase in revenue and a 111.6% year-over-year increase in the number of paying users to 1.1 million. Our online music and entertainment business, recently upgraded to YY Live, had a 50.3% year-over-year increase in revenue and 51.4% year-over-year increase in the number of paying users. Meanwhile, our leading music and entertainment business for mobile devices continued its robust growth with a 96.7% year-over-year increase in revenue and 88.3% year-over-year increase in the number of paying users to 1.8 million. Going forward, under the leadership of our new management team, we will continue to drive top- and bottom-line growth by expanding our innovative content and service offerings in order to meet the ever-evolving demands of our massive user community."

Business Outlook

For the third quarter of 2016, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB2.00 billion and RMB2.10 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 34% to 41%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Going Private News

GUANGZHOU, China, June 15, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (YY) (“YY” or the “Company”), a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform, today announced that the special committee of the Company’s board of directors (the “Board”) received a letter from Mr. Jun Lei, Chairman of the Board, and Mr. David Xueling Li, director and Chief Executive Officer of YY (together, the “Buyer Group”), stating that the Buyer Group would withdraw the non-binding going private proposal (the “Proposal”) dated July 9, 2015, with immediate effect. The letter stated that, having given due consideration to recent unfavorable market conditions, the Buyer Group had determined not to proceed with the Proposal.

In addition, the Company announced that the Board has authorized a program under which YY over the next 12 months may repurchase up to an aggregate of US$200 million worth of its shares (including shares represented by American depositary shares (“ADSs”)) and its convertible senior notes due in 2019. Share and convertible note repurchases under this program may be made through open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions off the market and/or other legally permissible means from time to time as market conditions warrant in compliance with applicable rules and regulations. The timing and extent of any purchases will depend upon market conditions, the trading price of the Company’s ADSs and other factors. This share and convertible note repurchase program will be funded by the Company’s available cash balance.


Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2016 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 43.4% to RMB1,649.3 million (US$255.8 million) from RMB1,150.3 million in the corresponding period of 2015.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS6 increased by 5.3% to RMB4.59 (US$0.71) in the first quarter of 2016 from RMB4.36 in the corresponding period of 2015.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, “We continued to see solid growth momentum in our top line in the first quarter of 2016, primarily driven by our IVAS business. In particular, we saw significant growth in the mobile broadcasting business and have been able to rapidly capitalize on these opportunities through our newly launched mobile broadcasting app ME, which we will further develop this year. By featuring popular stars and hosting various entertainment events, we believe that there is significant potential to further accelerate its growth and enhance its popularity. Additionally, in the online music and entertainment business, our newly-launched Da Pai Wan Chang Hui is an interactive concert broadcasting service that connects celebrities and participants virtually. This new service clearly demonstrates our strategy to continue strengthening our professionally-generated content offerings and expand our user community. Overall, we remain confident in our market opportunities and aim to continue fortifying our position as the leading real time internet platform in China.”

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, “In the first quarter of 2016, our total revenue increased by 43.4% year over year to RMB1.6 billion, reflecting the strength of our core business. Meanwhile, we were able to significantly grow the number of our paying users by 57.1% year over year to 3.89 million. Our online game broadcasting business Huya grew significantly, with an increase in revenue by 114.0% year over year and an increase in number of paying users by 131.7% year over year to 899,000.  For our online music and entertainment business, our on-going efforts to introduce diverse content resulted in a revenue increase of 55.8% year over year. Additionally, our mobile music and entertainment business continued its robust growth with a 202.8% year-over-year increase in revenue and 137.5% year-over-year increase in number of paying users. Because of the execution of our planned transition to an increasing amount of UGC content revenues across the YY platform, we have continued to experience compression to gross and operating margins.  This expected decline in margins results from the decreased concentration of our high-margin gaming revenues year over year, from 20.1% of total revenue to 10.4% in the first quarter of 2016, as revenue growth for our other offerings continues to outpace our gaming revenue. Going forward, we will continue to leverage our ecosystem and expand our innovative content and service offerings in order to meet the evolving demands of our massive user base.”


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2015 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 62.3% to RMB1,899.8 million (US$293.3 million) from RMB1,170.6 million in the corresponding period of 2014.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS6 increased by 7.6% to RMB7.25 (US$1.12) in the fourth quarter of 2015 from RMB6.74 in the corresponding period of 2014.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, �We are pleased to report another strong quarter as we saw continued top-line growth momentum across our core business segments, namely online music and entertainment, online dating, and Huya broadcasting. Furthermore, in our online music and entertainment business, revenues from mobile grew at an impressive rate of 452% year over year and accounted for 45% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2015. Going forward, we will continue to build up our mobile offering and introduce other innovative services as we strive to meet the evolving demands of users in the dynamic mobile internet market. As we continue to augment and adapt the services across our healthy ecosystem, we are confident in our ability to strengthen our position as the leading real-time internet platform in China.�

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, �In the fourth quarter of 2015, we continued to see strong top-line growth with our net revenues increasing by 62.3% year over year, primarily reflecting our core business growth, but partially offset by the expected ongoing softness of the online game business. In addition, we further increased our paying users by 29.9% year over year to 3.2 million as of December 31, 2015. The mobile-end was a strong driver of our overall growth in the fourth quarter. Particularly in our core online music and entertainment business, mobile ARPU increased by 139% year over year to RMB388, and mobile paying users increased by 131% year over year to 1.4 million. As we move forward, we remain confident in our ability to roll out new, innovative services to our massive community of users and strengthen our ecosystem.�


Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2015 Financial Results
  • Net revenues increased by 48.9% to RMB1,490.0 million (US$234.4 million) from RMB1,000.4 million in the corresponding period of 2014.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS6 in the third quarter of 2015 was RMB4.17 (US$0.71), as compared to RMB5.37 in the corresponding period of 2014.

 Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "In the third quarter, we saw ongoing vitality in our traditional music and entertainment business, and continued rapid growth in our emerging online dating and Huya broadcasting business. Furthermore, we were able to grow our paying users by 49.6% year over year to 2.8 million as of September 30, 2015. In particular, we launched a highly-interactive live concert service, and began to enable our users to support their favorite YY singers on our platform as the singers create and share original and professional content with the aim of attracting a larger fan-base. Our overall growth was partially offset by the lackluster performance of our online games business, due to intensifying competition and widespread softness in the online gaming market. To revitalize growth, we will focus on strengthening our pipeline of massive multiplayer online (MMO) games and optimizing our online broadcasting platform."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "Our top-line continues to impress with revenues growing apace, driven primarily by our core online music and entertainment business and our emerging online dating business, albeit offset by the contraction of our online games business. As we expected, a shift in our revenues mix and increased competition has led to continued margin pressure. This situation was exacerbated by other exogenous factors, such as a one-time charge associated with the conversion of Chinese Renminbi to US dollars in our offshore account, which adversely affected our net income in the third quarter. Nonetheless, we are very optimistic about our business, as we leverage our massive user community to introduce new and innovative services and fortify our position as the leading real-time interactive social platform in China."

- See more at: http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/11/23/789724/10157071/en/YY-Reports-Third-Quarter-2015-Unaudited-Financial-Results.html?f=22&fvtc=9&fvtv=China#sthash.WOOMc8vq.dpuf

Friday, August 14, 2015

Comments & Business Outlook
Second Quarter 2015 Financial Results
  • Net revenues increased by 61.4% to RMB1,357.2 million (US$218.9 million) from RMB841.0 million in the corresponding period of 2014.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 in the second quarter of 2015 increased by 22.5% to RMB 5.29 (US$0.85) from RMB4.32 in the corresponding period of 2014.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are excited about our robust performance in the second quarter of 2015, as we continue to grow and strengthen our interactive social platform and further expand our new initiatives. Revenue growth exceeded our guidance for the quarter, driven both by the continued strong performance in the core segments and the remarkable progress in the emerging businesses. Our core online music and entertainment business, notwithstanding the increased competition in the online entertainment market, continued apace, with strong growth from Mobile YY both in terms of ARPU and paying users. Going forward, we will continue to adapt to the evolving Internet landscape in China and provide new and innovative services to our community of users."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "We continue to see strong top-line growth, driven primarily by our core online music and entertainment business and online dating. However, we expect this strong growth to be partly offset by a weaker performance in online games resulting from increased competition and widespread softness in the online gaming market. In addition, due to a continued shift in our revenue mix to businesses involving higher user-generated content and higher associated costs, which include increased revenue-sharing fees and content costs, as well as the increasing competition in a number of markets in which we operate, we expect our gross margins for the full year to be slightly lower than we have earlier anticipated. Nonetheless, we plan to mitigate the effect of this trend by continuing to improve our operational efficiency. By adapting to the ever-changing needs of our users, we will stay one step ahead of our competitors and fortify our position as the leading real-time interactive social platform in China."


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Going Private News

GUANGZHOU, China, Aug. 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform, today announced that the special committee of its board of directors (the "Special Committee") has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. as its independent financial advisor and Fenwick & West LLP as its legal counsel. The Special Committee was formed in connection with the preliminary non-binding proposal dated July 9, 2015 from the consortium comprising Mr. Jun Lei, Chairman of the Company's board of directors, and Mr. David Xueling Li, director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company (the "Proposal").

The Special Committee cautions the Company's shareholders and others considering trading in the Company's securities that the Special Committee is continuing its evaluation of the Proposal and that, at this time, no decisions have been made by the Special Committee with respect to YY's response to the Proposal. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, that any agreement will be executed or that the Proposal or any other transaction will be approved or consummated.


Thursday, July 16, 2015

Going Private News

GUANGZHOU, China, July 16, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform, today announced that in response to the previously announced preliminary non-binding proposal (the "Proposal") contained in a letter dated July 9, 2015 that the Company's board of directors (the "Board") received from Mr. Jun Lei, Chairman of the Board, and Mr. David Xueling Li, director and Chief Executive Officer of YY (together, the "Buyer Group") proposing a "going-private" transaction to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares of YY not already beneficially owned by the Buyer Group, the Board has formed a special committee of independent and disinterested directors (the "Special Committee") to review and evaluate the Proposal.

The Special Committee is composed of Mr. Peter Andrew Schloss, Mr. David Tang, and Mr. Peng Tsing Ong, who are independent directors of the Company and are unaffiliated with the Proposal. Mr. Schloss will be the chairman of the Special Committee. The Board also authorized the Special Committee to, and expects that the Special Committee will, retain independent advisors, including independent financial and legal advisors, to assist it in the process of reviewing and evaluating the Proposal.

The Company cautions its shareholders and others considering trading its securities that neither the Board nor the Special Committee has made any decision with respect to the Company's response to the Proposal. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made by members of the Buyer Group or any other person, that any definitive agreement will be executed relating to the proposed transaction, or that the proposed transaction or any other transaction will be approved or consummated.


Thursday, July 9, 2015

Going Private News

GUANGZHOU, China, July 9, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (NASDAQ:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform, today announced that its Board of Directors (the "Board") has received a non-binding proposal letter, dated July 9, 2015, from Mr. Jun Lei, Chairman of the Board, and Mr. David Xueling Li, director and Chief Executive Officer of YY (together, the "Buyer Group"), proposing a "going-private" transaction (the "Transaction") to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares of YY not already beneficially owned by the Buyer Group for $68.50 in cash per American depositary share ("ADS"), each representing 20 ordinary shares. The proposed purchase price represents a premium of approximately 17.4% to the closing trading price of the Company's ADS on July 8th, 2015, the last trading day prior to the date hereof.

The Buyer Group currently beneficially owns approximately 35.7% of all the issued and outstanding shares of the Company, which represent approximately 75.1% of the aggregate voting power of the Company.

According to the proposal letter, the Buyer Group intends to fund the consideration payable in the Transaction with a combination of debt and/or equity capital, and rollover equity in the Company. A copy of the proposal letter is attached as Annex A to this press release.

The Board intends to form a special committee comprised of independent and disinterested directors and will authorize the special committee to retain legal and financial advisors to assist it in evaluating the Transaction.

The Board cautions the Company's shareholders and others considering trading in its securities that the Board just received the non-binding proposal letter from the Buyer Group and no decisions have been made with respect to the Company's response to the Transaction. There can be no assurance that any definitive offer will be made, that any agreement will be executed or that this or any other transaction will be approved or consummated. The Company does not undertake any obligation to provide any updates with respect to this or any other transaction, except as required under applicable law.


Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2015 Unaudited Financial Results 

  • Net revenues increased by 72.6% to RMB1,150.3 million (US$185.6 million) from RMB666.3 million in the corresponding period of 2014.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 in the first quarter of 2015 increased by 26.0% to RMB 4.36 (US$0.70) from RMB3.46 in the corresponding period of 2014.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "In what has historically been a seasonally weak quarter, we are pleased by our first quarter 2015 results as we continue to build upon our core music and entertainment business and further expand our new initiatives. We saw the growth of our online dating segment continued apace, as revenues grew 41% quarter-over-quarter. The strong growth momentum of Mobile YY, our music and entertainment application, continued in the first quarter of 2015, as Mobile YY monthly active users reached nearly 34 million, representing a growth of 71% year-over-year. In addition, revenues from Mobile YY grew almost 400% year-over-year, driven by an increase of 219% and 54% in paying users and ARPU, respectively. Mobile YY revenues accounted for 24% of the total music and entertainment revenues in the period, a significant improvement from the 14% in the fourth quarter of 2014. Furthermore, during the fourth quarter of last year, we restructured the operating team of our online game broadcasting business, and we are already seeing benefits of the restructuring through accelerating growth in active users. Going forward, we remain confident in our ability to evolve and adapt to meet the ever-changing needs and demands of our users, and will continue to offer new and innovative services in the online interactive marketplace in China."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "We continue to see strong top-line growth, driven primarily by an increase in paying users across different business segments. The change in our revenue mix to include more businesses involving user-generated content associated with higher cost of revenues in the form of revenue-sharing fees and content costs, compounded with the increased investment in our game broadcasting business, resulted in diminished gross margin for the first quarter, and we expect it to remain at this level throughout 2015. However, we expect profit margins to improve slightly going forward as we continue to enhance our operating efficiency. By recognizing and meeting the dynamic needs of our users, we can stay ahead of our competitors and further solidify our position as a leading real-time interactive social platform in China."

BUSINESS OUTLOOK

For the second quarter of 2015, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB1.27 billion and RMB1.29 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 51% to 53%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Friday, March 6, 2015

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2014 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 91.2% to RMB1,170.6 million (US$188.7 million) in the fourth quarter of 2014 from RMB612.3 million in the corresponding period of 2013, primarily driven by an increase in IVAS revenues.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 in the fourth quarter of 2014 increased by 85.7% to RMB 6.74 (US$1.04) from RMB3.63 in the corresponding period of 2013.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are pleased to report strong fourth quarter results as we continue to expand upon the strength of our music and entertainment business and introduce exciting new initiatives. Driven by the strength of our online music and entertainment business, we experienced another year of over 100% total revenue growth. This achievement has enabled us to reach another remarkable milestone; we have more than doubled our total revenues every single year for the past nine consecutive years. We are particularly pleased with the performance of our Mobile YY, which we upgraded with a number of new features at the end of September last year. For the fourth quarter of 2014, Mobile YY monthly active users reached 30 million, representing a growth of 32% quarter-over-quarter and over 80% year-over-year. Partly driven by a successful Grand Annual Event Competition in the fourth quarter of 2014, revenues from Mobile YY almost doubled and the number of Mobile YY paying users grew 81% quarter-over-quarter, accounting for nearly 40% of total music and entertainment paying users. As we move forward, we remain confident in our ability to provide our users with new and innovative services, and further solidify our position as the leading real-time interactive social platform in China."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "We continue to see strong top-line performance, driven primarily by an increase in paying users across the YY platform. As we head into 2015, we anticipate increased investments in order to strengthen and expand our content offering, bandwidth capacity and services offerings across the YY platform. We remain steadfast in exploring new avenues to meet our users' dynamic and evolving needs, and by providing unique and innovative new services, we can continue to build scale and cost efficiencies into our business and create additional value for our shareholders."

BUSINESS OUTLOOK

For the first quarter of 2015, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB1.06 billion and RMB1.08 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 59% to 62%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Friday, December 12, 2014

Acquisition Activity

GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 11, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to fully acquire Beijing Huanqiu Xingxue Technology Development Co., Ltd ("Xingxue") and Beijing Huanqiu Chuangzhi Software Co., Ltd ("Chuangzhi") from Shanghai Global Career Education Science & Technology Holding Company ("Huanqiu") for a total cash consideration of approximately RMB 120 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

Xingxue and Chuangzhi operate the online education website, edu24ol.com. With approximately 700,000 registered users, edu24ol.com is one of China's leading online vocational training and language training platforms. Edu24ol.com generates over half of its revenues from students studying architecture and construction engineering, but also has a strong focus in the medical, finance and accounting subject matter. As part of the agreement, Huanqiu will retain the online English training business.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are extremely excited about our acquisition of edu24ol.com. Not only have we acquired one of the best online professional education platforms in China, but we have also dramatically expanded our own educational service offerings. By utilizing YY's advanced technology platform and massive user base, edu24ol.com can reach a larger number of students while focusing on its core strength of producing high-quality educational content. We are confident that this deal will help strengthen our online education platform, and we look forward to a strong future together."


Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Comments & Business Outlook
Third Quarter 2014 Unaudited Financial Results
  • Net revenues increased by 105.3% to RMB1.0 billion (US$163.0 million) from RMB487.2 million in the corresponding period of 2013, primarily driven by a 114.6% increase in revenues from internet value-added services, or IVAS revenues.
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 in the third quarter of 2014 increased by 87.1% to RMB 5.37 (US$0.87) from RMB2.87 in the corresponding period of 2013.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We entered the second half of 2014 with strong momentum, propelled by both the new initiatives that have diversified our product offerings as well as the continuing strength of our core growth engines that remain the solid foundation of our business. For the first time, we achieved total quarterly net revenue of over one billion RMB, more than double what we achieved in the same period last year. Online music and entertainment, the main contributors to this outstanding performance, continued to experience robust growth of 133.2% year-over-year. Moreover, we were pleased to see that our exciting online dating business, launched less than a year ago, performed impressively again with revenues growing at a torrid pace of 119.0% quarter-over-quarter. Having amassed a solid base of over 105 million average monthly active users for the third quarter of 2014, we are confident that by providing a comprehensive talents and services marketplace for our vast number of users, we will further heighten user stickiness on our platform and elevate the barriers that fortify our leading position as a revolutionary real-time interactive social platform in China."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "We once again achieved results which exceeded our expectations on both top line growth and margins. Due to the increasing scale of our business operations and cost efficiency, we saw net income attributable to YY grow by 122.0% year-over-year. With a mature understanding of our customers' needs and solid technical know-how, we will remain focused on creating shareholder value by continuing to expand our service offerings as well as growing our core business lines."

BUSINESS OUTLOOK

For the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB1.08 billion and RMB1.10 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 76% to 80%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Thursday, August 7, 2014

Comments & Business Outlook

 Second Quarter 2014 Unaudited Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 105.6% to RMB841.0 million (US$135.6 million) from RMB409.0 million in the corresponding period of 2013.
  • Net income per ADS diluted was US$0.60 vs. last years same quarter US$0.27

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are excited about our strong performance in the second quarter of 2014, as we continue to grow and strengthen our interactive social platform. Our online music and entertainment business once again exceeded our expectations, as revenues grew by 202.7% year-over-year and paying users grew by 77.6% year-over-year. In addition, this quarter witnessed the ascension of our online dating business, with revenues surging by 299.2% quarter-over-quarter. By utilizing our unique and powerful online communication capabilities, we continue to build new business lines that will broaden our product offering, elevate our brand and pave the way for further growth. Having attracted over 100 million average monthly active users through the second quarter of 2014, we are tirelessly working to build new and innovative products, providing a comprehensive services marketplace that caters to our users' ever-changing demands."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "In the second quarter, we once again achieved results which eclipsed our expectations on top line growth, driven primarily by increased user engagement and spending. In addition to music and entertainment, online game broadcasting continues to grow at a tremendous pace, with revenues increasing by 243.2% year-over-year. Moreover, net income attributable to YY grew by 139.0% year-over-year due to the expanding scale and leverage of our business operations. We also saw our non-GAAP operating margins improve slightly year-over-year, which we believe will remain stable going forward. Seeking to capitalize on the economies of scale inherent in both our unique business model and technology platform, we will continue to develop and introduce new services for our users."

Business Outlook

For the third quarter of 2014, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB925 million and RMB935 million, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 90% to 92%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2014 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 111.6% to RMB666.3 million (US$107.2 million) from RMB315.0 million in the corresponding period of 2013,
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS7 in the first quarter of 2014 increased by 143.7% to RMB3.46 (US$0.56) from RMB1.42 in the corresponding period of 2013.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are excited to have achieved robust performance and continued strong momentum heading into 2014, even during our seasonally slow first quarter. Once again, online music and entertainment outperformed our expectations, with revenues growing by 228.0% and paying users increasing by over 103.2% year-over-year. In addition, we are very excited about the launch of our online education platform, 100 Education, in February followed by the introduction of the PC and mobile branded client last month. By providing a real-time interactive setting for students and teachers, which utilizes our powerful audio and video communication technologies with massive real-time hosting capabilities, we will continue to broaden our diverse online community and user base. The increasingly rich user-generated content on our scalable platform has enhanced user engagement and stickiness, and helped drive our average monthly active users to reach 95.5 million in the first quarter of 2014. With the strong foundation we have established, we will continue to attract users, enhance our offering and monetize traffic by further developing our online entertainment, live broadcasting, education, and other verticals, and enabling services which cater to users' dynamic and ever-changing demands."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "In the first quarter, we were once again able to achieve results that exceeded our expectations on the top line, driven by increased user engagement and spending. Moreover, we also saw net income attributable to YY almost triple year-over-year due to the expanding scale and leverage of YY's business operations. As we continue to scale our business, our unique business model, coupled with the economies of scale inherent in our technology platform, will strengthen our operating leverage and enhance our ability to diversify and expand our services."

Business Outlook

For the second quarter of 2014, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB745 million and RMB755 million, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 82% to 85%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Deal Flow

GUANGZHOU, China, March 17, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY), a revolutionary rich communication social platform ("YY" or the "Company"), today announced that it proposes to offer up to US$400 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2019 (the "notes"), subject to market conditions and other factors. The Company intends to grant to Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, the initial purchasers, a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional US$60 million principal amount of notes. The notes will be convertible into YY's American Depositary Shares ("ADSs"), each representing, as of the date of this press release, 20 Class A common shares of YY. The notes will mature on April 1, 2019 unless earlier converted, redeemed for certain tax-related events or repurchased in accordance with the terms of the Notes. Holders will have the right to require YY to repurchase the notes on April 1, 2017 or upon the occurrence of certain fundamental changes. YY plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including working capital needs and potential acquisitions of complementary businesses. The conversion rate and other terms of the notes have not been finalized and will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering.

The notes, the ADSs deliverable upon conversion of the notes and the Class A common shares represented thereby have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. They may be offered and sold only in a transaction not subject to, or exempt from, registration under the Securities Act and other applicable securities laws. Accordingly, YY is offering the notes only to qualified institutional buyers ("QIBs") in reliance on the exemption from registration provided by Rule 144A under the Securities Act and to certain non-U.S. persons in offshore transactions in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act.


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Comments & Business Outlook

Fourth Quarter 2013 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 129.5% to RMB612.3 million (US$101.1 million) in the fourth quarter of 2013 from RMB266.8 million in the corresponding period of 2012,
  • Non-GAAP diluted net income per ADS8 in the fourth quarter of 2013 increased by 224.1% to RMB3.63 (US$0.60), from RMB1.12 in the corresponding period of 2012.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We're very pleased to end our first full fiscal year as a public company with a solid fourth quarter, building upon the strong momentum we saw throughout 2013. Online music and entertainment2, in particular, again outperformed our expectations, with revenues growing by 217.1% year over year. Resulting from the powerful real-time interactive and social capabilities of our unique platform, we have seen increasingly diversified and interactive online activities among our expanding base of active users, with our average monthly active users reaching 92.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. Through a series of engaging and diversified group entertainment events and activities, such as our 2013 Annual Entertainment Awards Ceremony, we were able to not only stimulate user engagement and spending, but also enhance user attachment to our platform. Heading into 2014, we're excited to build upon the robust foundation we have established and continue to broaden our ability to engage our users and monetize our user traffic by further penetrating into online entertainment, live broadcasting, education and other verticals. We are proud of our evolution into a large, live and sticky online entertainment platform and aim to further enable services which cater to Chinese users' dynamic and ever-changing demands."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "In the fourth quarter, not only we were able to exceed our expectations on both the top and bottom line growth, but we also further increased our profitability with non-GAAP net margin expanding to 35.4% from 22.0% a year ago. These results were driven by the greater operating leverage of our platform, which has increasingly been able to attract and engage massive audiences in a cost-effective manner through viral online marketing as well as self-promotions by performers and channel owners within our platform. We believe that YY has significant potential to become an even more powerful, pervasive and profitable platform through the ongoing diversification and expansion of our entertainment and education services."

Business Outlook

For the first quarter of 2014, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB625 million and RMB635 million, representing a year-over-year growth of approximately 98% to 102%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Comments & Business Outlook

GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 25, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary rich communication social platform, today announced it has launched the Company's newly-branded100 Education dedicated education platform.

YY's 100 Education platform will initially offer a variety of exam preparation classes and programs to aspiring students through its portal, www.100.com. These programs will include TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and IELTS (International English Language Testing System) preparation courses, which will be offered on the YY platform free of charge to its users. In addition, YY will open an online enrollment channel, providing simplified access for its millions of users to participate in the courses. 

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We're very excited to accelerate our education endeavors with the debut of our 100 Education branded education platform. Leveraging our powerful audio and video communication technologies with massive real-time hosting capabilities, we will provide comprehensive teaching tools that enable students to receive customized, real-time tutoring in highly interactive settings anytime and anywhere. Offering free TOFEL and IELTS courses, which are immensely popular in China, through our education platform will help significantly diversify and expand our user base. By bringing Chinese students a truly unique and interactive learning experience that is not possible in traditional offline education services, we believe our cost-effective online education programs have the potential to transform traditional means of learning. By offering such popular subjects that are increasing necessary in a competitive overseas higher education and job market, we believe that 100 Education will help us to further expand our user-reach and enhance the user experience on our increasingly diversified platform."

In conjunction with today's announcement, YY has established a stand-alone education department which consolidates its existing education services and resources onto the 100 Education platform. For the fourth quarter of 2013, there were more than 30,000 online education institutes and teachers providing lectures and online tutoring on YY's platform. The number of paying users in December 2013 increased by 340%, from the comparative period in 2012. 


Monday, November 18, 2013

Deal Flow

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY), a revolutionary rich communication social platform ("YY" or the "Company"), today announced that it has decided to withdraw its previously announced proposed offering of US$250 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible notes due 2018.

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any of the notes or any other securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.


Comments & Business Outlook

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 18, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY), a revolutionary rich communication social platform ("YY" or the "Company"), today announced that it has decided to withdraw its previously announced proposed offering of US$250 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible notes due 2018.

This press release is for informational purposes only and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any of the notes or any other securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Comments & Business Outlook

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY), a revolutionary rich communication social platform ("YY" or the "Company"), today announced that it proposes to offer up to US$250 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2018 (the "notes"), subject to market conditions and other factors. The Company intends to grant to the initial purchasers a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional US$50 million principal amount of notes to cover over-allotments, if any. The notes will be convertible into YY's American depositary shares ("ADSs"), each representing, as of the date of this press release, 20 Class A common shares of YY. The notes will mature on November 15, 2018 and may not be redeemed by YY prior to maturity. Holders will have the right to require YY to repurchase the notes on November 15, 2016 or upon the occurrence of certain fundamental changes. YY anticipates using a portion of the proceeds to pay for its expenses associated with the capped call transactions described below. YY also plans to use up to US$50 million of the proceeds to repurchase ADSs and intends to use the remainder of the proceeds for other general corporate purposes, including working capital needs and potential acquisitions of complementary businesses. The conversion rate and other terms of the notes have not been finalized and will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering.

In connection with the offering, the Company expects to enter into capped call transactions. The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution of the Company's Class A common shares and ADSs upon a conversion of notes in the event that the market value per ADS of the Company, as measured under the terms of the capped call transactions, is greater than the strike price of the capped call transactions (which initially corresponds to the initial conversion price of the notes and is subject to certain adjustments).

The Company has been advised that, in connection with hedging the capped call transactions, the hedge counterparties or their affiliates expect to enter into various derivative transactions with respect to the Company's ADSs concurrently with, or shortly after, the pricing of the notes and may, from time to time following the pricing of the notes, enter into or unwind various derivatives and/or purchase or sell the Company's ADSs in secondary market transactions. These activities could increase (or reduce the size of any decrease in) the price of the Company's ADSs concurrently with or following the pricing of the notes, and may also cause an increase or a decrease in the price of the Company's ADSs following any conversion of notes and during the period prior to, at or following the maturity date.

The notes, the ADSs deliverable upon conversion of the notes and the Class A common shares represented thereby have not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or the securities laws of any other jurisdiction. They may be offered and sold only in a transaction not subject to, or exempt from, registration under the Securities Act and other applicable securities laws. Accordingly, YY is offering the notes only to qualified institutional buyers ("QIBs") in reliance on the exemption from registration provided by Rule 144A under the Securities Act and to certain non-U.S. persons in offshore transactions in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase any of these securities, and shall not constitute an offer, solicitation or sale of the notes, the ADSs deliverable upon conversion of the notes or the Class A common shares represented thereby in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

This press release contains information about the pending offering of the notes, and there can be no assurance that the offering will be completed.


Deal Flow

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 14, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY), a revolutionary rich communication social platform ("YY" or the "Company"), today announced that it proposes to offer up to US$250 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2018 (the "notes"), subject to market conditions and other factors. The Company intends to grant to the initial purchasers a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional US$50 million principal amount of notes to cover over-allotments, if any. The notes will be convertible into YY's American depositary shares ("ADSs"), each representing, as of the date of this press release, 20 Class A common shares of YY. The notes will mature on November 15, 2018 and may not be redeemed by YY prior to maturity. Holders will have the right to require YY to repurchase the notes on November 15, 2016 or upon the occurrence of certain fundamental changes. YY anticipates using a portion of the proceeds to pay for its expenses associated with the capped call transactions described below. YY also plans to use up to US$50 million of the proceeds to repurchase ADSs and intends to use the remainder of the proceeds for other general corporate purposes, including working capital needs and potential acquisitions of complementary businesses. The conversion rate and other terms of the notes have not been finalized and will be determined at the time of pricing of the offering.

In connection with the offering, the Company expects to enter into capped call transactions. The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution of the Company's Class A common shares and ADSs upon a conversion of notes in the event that the market value per ADS of the Company, as measured under the terms of the capped call transactions, is greater than the strike price of the capped call transactions (which initially corresponds to the initial conversion price of the notes and is subject to certain adjustments).

The Company has been advised that, in connection with hedging the capped call transactions, the hedge counterparties or their affiliates expect to enter into various derivative transactions with respect to the Company's ADSs concurrently with, or shortly after, the pricing of the notes and may, from time to time following the pricing of the notes, enter into or unwind various derivatives and/or purchase or sell the Company's ADSs in secondary market transactions. These activities could increase (or reduce the size of any decrease in) the price of the Company's ADSs concurrently with or following the pricing of the notes, and may also cause an increase or a decrease in the price of the Company's ADSs following any conversion of notes and during the period prior to, at or following the maturity date.


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Comments & Business Outlook

Third Quarter 2013 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 113.0% to RMB487.2 million (US$79.6 million) in the third quarter of 2013 from RMB228.8 million in the corresponding period of 2012, primarily driven by an increase in IVAS revenues and, to a lesser extent, an increase in the Company's online advertising revenues.
  • Diluted net income per ADS6 in the third quarter of 2013 increased 201.0% to RMB2.17 (US$0.35), from RMB0.72 in the corresponding period of 2012.
  • Diluted non-GAAP net income per ADS7 in the third quarter of 2013 increased 151.8% to RMB2.87 (US$0.47), from RMB1.14 in the corresponding period of 2012.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are happy to see continued expansion of our platform and robust financial performance on both the top and bottom line driven by strong growth momentum across the board during the third quarter. We were especially successful in developing and monetizing our YY Music offering where we were able to grow our YY Music revenues by over 160% year-over-year. By creating a unique and compelling entertainment experience for our users that includes innovative free and paid features such as casting votes and interaction with singers, we continue to broaden our ability to entertain and monetize our growing user base of over 87.2 million aggregate monthly active users for the three months ended September 30, 2013.

"As our recent initiatives suggest, we are committed to exploring and pursuing opportunities to scale our platform by expanding beyond the Chinese domestic market and spreading into a larger number of vertical activities where rich communication capabilities are required. Recently, we established a strategic partnership with Asiasoft and S2 Games, which allows us to expand our user-base and brand internationally through offering the global market an unprecedented interactive and integrated multiplayer gaming experience. Going forward, we will expand our focus on leveraging the YY technology platform internally and externally through partnerships, broadening further into a number of emerging verticals both domestically and internationally," added Mr. Li.

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "Our strong third quarter performance, marked by greater revenues and user-base expansion, increased profitability and diversification into new verticals, speaks to the success of our unique business model and the economies of scale inherent in our technology platform. We will continue to support our core traditional business pillars, while seeking to develop and monetize complementary business lines, in order to boost future earnings and grow our brand."


Friday, October 25, 2013

Joint Venture

GUANGZHOU, China, Oct. 24, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YY Inc. (Nasdaq:YY) ("YY" or the "Company"), a revolutionary rich communication social platform, today announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Asiasoft Corporation Public Company Limited (SET:AS) ("Asiasoft") and S2 Games, to create a globally seamless and interactive playing experience.

Pursuant to the partnership, YY has licensed S2 Games' Strife, and will jointly operate the title with Asiasoft, the leading provider of online gaming services in Southeast Asia. Developed by S2 Games, the developer of award-winning hit title Heroes of NewerthStrife will be the premier of a second-generation, free-to-play, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena ("MOBA") title which is slated to start its beta test in the fourth quarter of 2013, with a scheduled commercial release for early 2014.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We're very excited to partner with Asiasoft and S2 Games, marking our expansion outside of China and into the international gaming arena. By leveraging our partners' established expertise and proven track record in game operation and development, we are not only adding a highly anticipated S2 Games' title to our gaming portfolio, but we are also gaining immediate access to Asiasoft's 60 million registered users. We believe such partnerships will further enable YY to leverage its unique and powerful communications technologies and expand its user base and brand further outside of China." 

Pramoth Sudjitporn, Chief Executive Officer of Asiasoft stated, "YY's communications platform and interactive features have proven to deliver premium audio and video services and content to millions of users. Meanwhile, S2 Games has developed a very exciting next-gen MOBA title in Strife. Asiasoft is proud to be partnering with YY and S2 Games as we are looking forward to the potentials of enriching the gaming experiences for our users, as well as further growing our market in Southeast Asia."

Marc DeForest, CEO of S2 Games, stated, "All three of our companies are navigating a similar trajectory to success. YY is a distributor of rich, engaging and compelling content that is delivered to hundreds of millions of people. Asiasoft is a leading online game operator in Southeast Asia. Because of our regional prowess, we have the potential to propel Strife to success throughout Southeast Asia.S2 Games is a seasoned developer of award-winning video games that have been played by millions around the world. We each have our respective expertise. Together, YY, Asiasoft and S2 will deliver what is set to be one of the most memorable and rewarding gaming experiences throughout China and Southeast Asia."


Friday, August 2, 2013

Comments & Business Outlook

Second Quarter 2013 Financial Results

  • Net revenues increased by 117.8% to RMB409.0 million (US$66.6 million) from RMB187.8 million in the corresponding period of 2012, primarily driven by a 132.0% increase in revenues from internet value-added services, or IVAS, revenues.
  • Net income attributable to YY Inc. increased by 436.7% to RMB92.8 million (US$15.1 million) from RMB17.3 million in the corresponding period of 2012.
  • Non-GAAP net income attributable to YY Inc. [1] increased by 184.1% to RMB125.1 million (US$20.4 million) from RMB44.0 million in the corresponding period of 2012.
  • Diluted net income per ADS [7]in the second quarter of 2013 was RMB1.58 (US$0.26), compared to a diluted net loss per ADS of RMB1.72 in the corresponding period of 2012.
  • Diluted non-GAAP net income per ADS [8] in the second quarter of 2013 was RMB2.13 (US$0.35), compared to a diluted non-GAAP net loss per ADS of RMB 0.74 in the corresponding period of 2012.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "We are very proud of our strong operational performance this quarter, which lead to robust top line growth and continued margin expansion. Driven by 170% year-over-year growth in the number of paying users on our YY Music platform, revenues exceeded our expectations and our total paying user numbers grew more than 50% year-over-year. These results demonstrate the unique and growing value proposition that our platform provides our large audience base, as more Chinese internet users increasingly embrace real-time online interactive entertainment."

"As we head into the second half of 2013, we're excited about our strategic initiatives designed to further leverage our large scale interactive online platform and our large and expanding user base. Opportunities like our exclusive partnership with Hunan Satellite Television in China to bring one of China's most popular entertainment shows, Happy Boy, also known as Super Boy, to our interactive platform, creates a new level of real-time interactive reality TV. Coupled with our continuing initiatives to diversify our verticals and enrich our content and product offerings, we aim to further broaden our user demographics, grow our brand recognition and strengthen our monetization capabilities," added Mr. Li.

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "Because of the growing scale and leverage in YY's business operations, we have been able to significantly increase our top and bottom lines as we continue to develop our offerings. Going forward, we will continue to invest in initiatives and opportunities that can expand and diversify our entertainment offerings and audience, helping us to create new and innovative ways of leveraging and monetizing our large user base."

Business Outlook

For the third quarter of 2013, the Company expects its net revenues to be between RMB430 million and RMB440 million, representing year-over-year growth of approximately 88% to 92%. These forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.


Friday, May 3, 2013

Comments & Business Outlook

First Quarter 2013 Results

  • Net revenues increased by 130.5% to RMB315.0 million (US$50.7 million) from RMB136.7 million in the corresponding period of 2012 driven by a 143.8% increase in revenues from internet value-added services, or IVAS revenues.
  • Net income attributable to YY Inc. increased significantly to RMB63.9 million (US$10.3 million) from RMB3.5 million in the corresponding period of 2012.
  • Non-GAAP net income attributable to YY Inc.1 increased by 164.2% to RMB82.1 million (US$13.2 million) from RMB31.1 million in the corresponding period of 2012.

Mr. David Xueling Li, Chief Executive Officer of YY, stated, "Building upon our Company's momentum in 2012, we delivered another solid quarter with total revenues and non-GAAP net income growing over 130% and 164% year-over-year, respectively. During our seasonally weakest quarter, we saw strength from our key operating metrics including user growth and user spending, demonstrating the increasing attractiveness of the YY brand to the 527 million registered user accounts on our large-scale online communication platform. In particular, the number of paying users on the YY platform grew by over 35.3% year-over-year to over 1 million, underscoring the rising consumption of the affordable interactive entertainment that our platform offers. We will continue to diversify and strengthen the content on the YY platform by expanding into new verticals and introducing new products across PC and mobile devices to address the increasing entertainment and real-time social demands in China."

Mr. Eric He, Chief Financial Officer of YY, commented, "Our robust growth in both the top-line and bottom-line continued to validate the network effect inherent in our large scale, real-time and sticky platform. These strong results, coupled with our ability to increase operating leverage and control costs, resulted in expanded margins during this quarter. We remain confident that our highly engaging products and live events as well as our strong execution capabilities will lead to continuing long-term growth for our shareholders."