The MAU of mobile QQ increased to 490 million, and QQ still have more energy than WeChat.

On 14th May, Tencent published their performance reporting of the first quarter.

And according to the reporting, the monthly active users(= MAU) of WeChat increased 87% compared with the same period last year, and it was 396 million people. The MAU of WeChat on the previous period was 355 million people, so it means the MAU of WeChat increased 40 million people compared with the previous period.

As you see, WeChat keeps their power in the Chinese social media market, and Tencent said that they will continue to enhance the payment solution of WeChat as before.

But as same as the previous period, QQ still has more energy than WeChat in this market. According to this reporting, the 'mobile' MAU of QQ increased 52% compared with the same period last year, and its number was 490 million people. In the previous period, the difference of MAU between WeChat and mobile QQ was about 70 million, but this difference increased to about 100 million people in this period.

The total MAU of QQ was 848 million people in this quarter, and so it can be said that QQ is still king of Chinese social media market.

And the total MAU of Qzone was 644 million people, and the number of its mobile MAU was 467 million people. 

We or some related news site have paid attention to WeChat in particular, but I think that we also have to pay attention to QQ or Qzone, particularly their mobile area.

Source -> The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

The monthly active users of WeChat was 355 million people as of the end of 2013, but QQ is still more welcomed than WeChat.

Yesterday, Tencent published the their performance reporting of 2013. And according to the reporting, the monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat was 355 million people as of the end of 2013 in total.

This report said the MAU increased 6% compared with the previous quarter, and it increased 121% compared with the same period last year. But they published only the total MAU number of WeChat, and they didn't published the breakdown of its number, for example the rate of China users and oversea.


And the other numbers that are related to social media are as follows:

- Monthly active users of IM (* It means 'QQ') were 808 million people.
(It decreased 1% compared to the previous period, and increased 1% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- The number of the peak simultaneous online IM was 180 million people.
(It increased 1% compared to the previous period, and increased 2% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- Monthly active users of Qzone were 625 million people.
(It increased 0.3% compared to the previous period, and increased 4% compared to the year-earlier period.)


This reporting said that the monthly active 'smartphone' users of QQ was 426 million as of the end of 2013. This number is larger than WeChat, so it may be said that QQ is still welcomed more than WeChat in China.

Few days ago, China's central bank demanded that payments made by scanning a bar code with mobile devices be halted, hitting the payment arms of Internet companies Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding.

We have to keep watching there will be what kind of influence for WeChat, QQ and their business.


Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

Sina Weibo went into the black in the fourth quarter of 2013 for the first time, but...

SINA corporation published the financial results in the fourth quarter of 2013, and they also published the financial results of Sina Weibo there.

According to this report, Sina Weibo went into the black in the fourth quarter of 2013 for the first time, their sales revenue was 71.4 million USD in total.

The breakdown of total revenue was composed of 56.0 million USD of ad revenue and 15.4 million USD of service revenue. Its ads revenue increased 163% compared with the year-earlier period, and its service revenue increased 114% compared with the year-earlier period.

Sina Weibo was also increasing their revenue on the second quarter and the third quarter compared with each year-earlier period, so it can be said that their sales performance has been continuously growing.

And according to the information from Financial Times, Sina Weibo prepares New York IPO in the second quarter of this year.


Judging only from their financial results and the rumor of IPO, their future seems to be rosy. But I think there are two main anxiety of them.

- The percentage of ad revenue was too high.
As everyone knows, the customer basically would like to advertise on the platform that has a lot of active users. But as I repeatedly said, Sina Weibo has continuously decreased their active users. In the interview of this financial results, the official said their active user increased to 61.4 million in December. But I feel this comment is unbelievable.


I have login to Sina Weibo everyday since 2010 to watch the number of active friend user, and I also have checked the traffic from Sina Weibo to the official site of our company every week. But as I said before, both are continuously decreasing.

I think it is high time to reconsider countermeasures to increase their active users. Otherwise they will also decrease the sponsor of advertisement.


- There are no remarkable outcome from the relationship with Alibaba.
As you know, Alibaba acquired 18% share of Sina Weibo in 586 million USD last April. And they also started alliance activity at same time, but till now, it seems that there are no remarkable outcome from it.

Alibaba is the giant company in Chinese EC industry, and they also have a lot of giant group company, such as Taobao and Alipay. So there should be a lot of method to enhance their relationship. But it seems that their remarkable outcome is only that ads posting or banner increased on Sina Weibo.

I think that they also have to consider this countermeasure in earnest.


Anyway, we have to continue watching their action as ever.


Source => Official financial report from Sina corp. , TechWeb

The number of WeChat monthly active users is 271.9 million people, and it increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period.

Because Tencent also published their performance reporting in the third quarter, so I would like to introduce some number that is related to social media.

At first, this report said that the monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat was 271.9 million people as of the third quarter.

It increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period, and increased 15.3% compared to the previous period.

Tencent haven't published the total number of WeChat registered users since the beginning of this year, so I don't know the actual ratio of active users. According to some source, the total number of WeChat registered users are about 500 million people, so it can be said that the ratio of monthly active users is about 54.3%.


And the other numbers that are related to social media are as follows:

- Monthly active users of IM (* It means 'QQ') were 815.6 million people.
(It decreased 0.4% compared to the previous period, and increased 4.0% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- The number of the peak simultaneous online IM was 178.2 million people.
(It increased 2.9% compared to the previous period, and increased 6.5% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- Monthly active users of Qzone were 623.3 million people.
(It decreased 0.5% compared to the previous period, and increased 5.1% compared to the year-earlier period.)


Tencent said that they will continuously strive to increase the MAU of WeChat, and they will also strive to get more WeChat users in overseas.

They published the latest version of Android client, but this adding function may be the small evidence of their effort to get more oversea users :)

Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

The ad sales revenue of Sina Weibo increased 125% compared with the year-earlier period. They will also publish ads API soon.

Sina recently published the performance reporting of Sina Weibo in the third quarter.

This report said that the total revenue of Sina Weibo in the third quarter was 53.4 million USD, and this breakdown is composed of 43.7 million USD ad revenue and 9.7 million USD services revenue.

Their ad revenue increased 125% compared with the year-earlier period, and their service revenue increased 121%, but at the point of comparison with the last quarter, it can be said their service revenue was slight increase.

This service revenue includes the revenue from Weibo Club and the sharing revenue from the apps or games developer, but as I said before, they have to enhance this area to industrialize more than now.

But on the other hand, of course, the ad revenue is the one of important business for Sina Weibo. So they recently announced that they will publish the ad API of Sina Weibo soon.

Their rival 'WeChat' already expressed that they would not like their user to use their platform as a marketing tool. So from this point of view, to become a social marketing platform may be a one of good method for the differentiation with them.


Source => Tencent IT, Lieyun Net

The number of WeChat monthly active users is 236 million people.

Tencent also published the performance reporting in the second quarter today.

You can download from here (PDF) its full version, but I would like to introduce some numbers that related to their social media area.

They announced that WeChat monthly active users is 235.8 million people, and this number increased 176.8% compared to the YoY.

Tencent recently does not officially publish the actual user numbers, but it is said that the number of WeChat registered users are more than 400 million people. This means their monthly active user rate is about 60%.

60% are high or low? According to a news, their rival LINE has about 90% of monthly active users rate. So it may be said that it's a little bit low.

Tencent CEO Ma said in this report that Tencent will continue to focus on the mobile solutions from now on too, and they recognize that WeChat will play a central role not only in the domestic market but also the oversea market.

WeChat has more than 70 million oversea users now, but their rival LINE already has more than 100 million oversea users. So firstly they have to catch LINE, and also have to increase the rate of active users.

By the way, I also would like to introduce the number that is related other social media services.

- The number of IM monthly active users were 818.5 million people, and this number increased 4.5 compared to YoY.

- Peak simultaneous online IM user accounts were 173.2 million people, and this number increased 4.0% compared to YoY.

- The number of Qzone monthly active users were 626.4 million people, and this number increased 4.8% compared to YoY.

I explained before that Tencent dominates more than 65% of mobile instant messenger market in China. But looking this report, I recognized the power of Tencent in Chinese social media market again.

Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

Two things that Sina Weibo have the problem.

Sina published the performance reporting in the second quarter yesterday, and some number of Sina Weibo also became clear with this.

The total revenue of Sina Weibo was about 37.7 million USD in the second quarter, and it increased 46.1% compared to the last quarter. Among the revenue, the advertising revenue was 30 million USD, and the service revenue was 7.7 million USD.

About the advertising revenue increased more than 50% compared to the last quarter, but the service revenue was slight increase.

According to the annual reporting in 2012, 77% of Sina Weibo revenue was earned from the advertising revenue, other 23% of revenue was earned from service revenue.
But the rate of the advertising revenue in this quarter was about 85.7%, so it can be said that their dependence on the advertising revenue is more and more running high.

I think that this dependence (in other words 'bias') is the first problem for Sina Weibo, and I think that they have to strengthen other revenue more, such as the collaboration with Alibaba (It means "Social Commerce").


The second problem is the low rate of active users.

They announced that their daily active users were 54 million people, but their total registered user was over than 500 million people. It means that the rate of daily active users was only about 10%.

According to the news, the recent daily active user of Facebook was 699 million people. Compared to them, it can be said that the daily active users rate of Sina Weibo is very low.

Increasing the rate of active users have been the long term problem for Sina Weibo, but it can be said that it is still midway.


According to the news, PifferJaffray recently estimated that the market value of Sina Weibo is 6 billion USD, but this number is more than the value when Alibaba acquired 18% share of Sina Weibo in 586 million USD. And according to the some resources, Sina Weibo intends to list stocks independently in the future.


We have to keep watching whether their plan will achieve or not as ever.


Source => TechWeb, Sina Tech

The ad revenue of Sina Weibo was 18.8 million USD, and 34% of them were from mobile ad.

Sina published the performance reporting in the first quarter few days ago, but some number of Sina Weibo was also become clear with this.

The total revenue of Sina Weibo was 25.8 million USD in the first quarter, but this detail is as follows:

Advertising --- 18.8 million USD (34% of them were from mobile ad.)
Revenue share from Game --- 5 million USD
Professional service (Weibo Club) --- 2 million USD

About 73% of their revenue were from advertising, but this reporting emphasized that their revenue of besides ad was rapidly increasing. I think that this phrase includes their will or wish to expand the revenue from that area.


By the way, how much does the revenue of Sina Weibo contribute to all revenue of Sina now? This answer is as follows:

Ad revenue from portal site     59.9%

Ad revenue from Weibo             14.9%

Revenue from Mobile services  12.6%

Service revenue from Weibo        5.6%
(*This means "Game" and "Professional Service")

Other      5.8%




This graph said that the total revenue of Sina Weibo contributed about 20% to the all revenue of Sina. Sina is now mainly focusing on the Weibo business, but it can be said that this graph proved the result that Sina Weibo made a certain contribution.

Alibaba joined the Sina Weibo team last month, but which action will they execute together from now on? Let's keep attention to their action as before.


Source => china.com, iResearch, Performance reporting by Sina

Tencent published the performance reporting of the first quarter. The active users of WeChat increased to 194.4 million people.

Tencent published the performance reporting of the first quarter this week.

That summary is as follows:

- Gross income  13.55 billion RMB (= 2.18 billion USD)
* It increased 40.4% compared to the last year, and increased 11.5% compared to the last quarter.

- Profit  4.07 billion RMB (= 0.66 billion USD)
* It increased 37.4% compared to the last year, and increased 17.3% compared to the last quarter.


- Instant messenger "QQ" has 825.4 million active users per a month.
* It increased 9.8% compared to the last year, and increased 3.4% compared to the last quarter.
- Peak simultaneous online users of QQ were 173.0 million people.
* It increased 3.3% compared to the last year, and decreased 1.9% compared to the last quarter.


- WeChat has 194.4 million active users.
* It increased 228.4% compared to the last year, and increased 23.1% compared to the last quarter.

- Qzone has 611 million active users.
* It increased 5.9% compared to the last year, and increased 1.4% compared to the last quarter.

The number of Tencent Weibo did not exist in this report.



Tencent still continues to accelerate the overseas deployment of Wechat , but Tencent formally started to provide WeChat to Indian market.

The registered users of WeChat will exceed 400 million people soon, but it seems that the favorable of WeChat continues for the time being.


Source => TechWeb, The performance reporting by Tencent