NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKG:0777)
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Oct 16, 2026, 4:08 PM HKT
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Earnings Call: H2 2020
Mar 26, 2021
Dear friends, good morning. Thank you for joining NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited today for our 2020 annual results presentation. Our presentation PPT will be broadcast on the live streaming platform. The PPT is also available for download on our company website at www.nd.com.cn under the investor relations tab in IR Webcast section. Before the start of our presentation, please allow me to introduce the management who are joining us today. Dr. Simon Leung, Group Vice Chairman and Executive Director. Ben Yam, Group CFO. Lin Chen, Group Senior VP. Vin Riera, CEO of Promethean. Now, let's pass our time to Dr. Simon Leung to host our presentation today.
Well, thank you. Well, good to be here. We have not been together for a while now, so it's great to get together once again to go through in 2020, and also our quick outlook of this year. Unfortunately, because of the COVID situation, we have to do it virtually. That's why we decided to make it very formal. We're wearing a jacket. All kidding aside, we have the team here. Actually, with technology, we have Vin in Seattle, and Lin Chen is in Fuzhou, and Ben and I are in Hong Kong. We're going to get together virtually. Because we issued a press release last night, I'm sure you guys have a chance to study it. What I'm going to do, and the team will go do, is actually is to keep it at a high level, and then we go into Q&A.
With that, I'm going to start with my presentation. I talk about team. The agenda is actually, I go through the highlights, and trust me, it's going to be highlights. Vin will talk about Promethean more in the sense of blended learning. Lin Chen will talk about gaming. Ben will go through the financials. I'll talk a little bit about one of the program that we've embarked on last year, which we will continue for a long time to come, which is actually country rollout. I'll do a high-level outlook for the rest of the year, and then we'll go into Q&A. I just have to bring everybody back to last year. It's a very interesting year. I've been around for a long time, but I never seen a year like that. I still remember, I think it was about February last year.
I was sitting in Vancouver talking to Vin about the year and saying, "Wow, it's like COVID's coming, blah, blah." We did a lot of work to get ourselves ready just in case we have a down year. The result surprised all of us in a very good way. Let me go through the results and then we can talk about everything else. We're quite happy with the result. Of course, we can always do better. Revenue, we hit over 6 billion CNY, almost $1 billion. Actually, the one I really like is actually operating profit, which is actually 1.1 billion CNY, and our net profit is actually close to 1 billion CNY. One of the metric I should have put on, it's actually my fault, is actually is our cash generation. We generated 1.3 billion CNY of cash last year.
That brought us to a very strong cash position. We are sitting on about $4 billion of cash, which is about $700 million of net cash. You know our performance in revenue and earnings. Gaming is just like a repeat theme in a down year, in the sense of the economy. We continue to grow exactly for the 10th consecutive years. I have been here six years. Every year we grew, and we grew in a very tough year. The other thing that is really encouraging is we have been promoting this idea, we want to enable learning, whether you are at home, whether you are in the classroom, or whether you are on the go, which is mobile. We talk about ecosystem. We talk about a lot of things before. But at the end of the day, it is really everything about blended learning.
We see that the market is coming to us last year because of COVID-19. I think it is coming to us regardless. But I think COVID-19 actually fastened the pace, which we benefited. We talk about the country rollout. We will talk about more like a case study on what we are doing with Egypt and what we are doing with some of the other countries. Let me just very quickly talk about blended learning. I did, but just to confuse you, I put up a very complicated map. Just to tell you, this is actually something we have been pushing for the last five years under a different name. We call it the ecosystem, but now we can officially blend it into our blended learning solutions.
This will also see all our products coming together under one vision very clearly, including Promethean and Edmodo, those two big companies that we have. A lot of synergy between those two companies. Then we are leveraging that to support our customer, whether you are a teacher, whether you are a student, whether you are parents, and whether you are a single school, whether you are a district in the U.S. or a country. The role is actually very clear for us in terms of blended learning. With that, I am going to turn it over to my friend Vin, as he is going to take you through a lot of the good things that happened with Promethean, actually more with blended learning. Vin, take it away.
Great. Thank you, Simon. Good morning, everybody. My name is Vin Riera, and I am the CEO of Promethean. 2020 was definitely a dynamic year for Promethean. The traditional way that our products were bought and used in a classroom setting evolved rapidly. We saw districts adopt hybrid learning environments where teaching and learning takes place in the classroom or remotely. We saw blended learning environments with some students in the classroom and some students working remote. In each of these use cases, we have positioned our interactive panels and lesson delivery software as an essential and adaptable tool for educators around the world. Promethean continued to be You can go back to the previous slide. The market leader. Perfect. Thank you. Promethean continued to be the market leader in 2020 with 24.6% market share.
Our volume growth rate of 16.4% reflects the market acceptance for interactive flat panels in a classroom setting, as well as remote learning or hybrid learning environments. Our customers continued to purchase our products as their students returned to the classrooms. Regardless of the learning environment, our front of class device shifted to become an integral part of the hybrid learning experience for students that remained remote. Our market leadership in 2020 is a reflection on the company's ability to embrace the shifting market dynamics of remote and hybrid learning. Next slide, please. In our top 10 markets, where we are either the market leader or a close second, we offer at least two products in each market. Our value Nickel offering or our premium Cobalt or Titanium offering. Having product differentiation allows Promethean to compete at the middle to high end of the market.
Our philosophy has and continues to be to offer a product that enables us to lead the market, that is designed for use in the classroom and can be sold through our global distribution channel. Our approach to market leadership is to do so thoughtfully. Our growth in any given market is always balanced with our ability to do so profitably. This enables us to sell our products to customers that are seeking a product designed to be used in a classroom and hybrid learning environment. While discussing market share, there are four different markets that I want to highlight on this slide. The U.S. is our largest market in terms of overall size. The U.S. is large and growing market that has significant installed base of schools using interactive whiteboards that are now transitioning to interactive flat panels.
This allows Promethean numerous opportunities to upgrade our existing customers to interactive flat panels, as well as compete for share with net new customers looking for new hybrid learning solutions. Education technology and funding in the U.S. was strong in the first half of the year and then significantly increased when the CARES Act was announced. The CARES Act is an economic stimulus bill passed in response to the economic fallout of COVID-19 pandemic. This increase in funding will carry into 2021. Egypt is the second largest market and represents an important part of Promethean and NetDragon's business. The business that we do in Egypt is done at the country level instead of with individual schools, and is part of a broader initiative with the Egyptian Ministry of Education, Promethean and NetDragon.
This is an exciting part of our business and represents an offering that we believe we can replicate in working with ministries of education in different countries. The U.K. market is our third largest market, where we have 26.1% share. The majority of the business that we do is transitioning schools from IWBs to IFPs, either with our legacy customers or competitive wins. The U.K. market was the first to adopt front of class solutions and is a region where we gain insight into replacement cycles in our more mature markets. The last country I want to mention is Germany, where we're currently the number two provider in the market.
The two market dynamics that will drive growth in Germany are DigitalPakt funding source, which is a multi-year, multi-billion dollar funding stream for education technologies, and the rapid adoption of interactive flat panels, where nearly 60% of the classrooms do not have any type of front of class device. Our strong brand and key wins in this market will help propel our growth in 2021. Next slide, please. This slide shows the continued growth of interactive panels over the last five years. This year-over-year growth highlights the strong demand for our products in the past, and you can see it carried throughout 2020. Promethean embraced new and innovative ways to market and remotely demonstrate our products, as well as found new ways to train our customers and share best practices on hybrid learning techniques.
As Promethean worked with our customers in the early stages of the pandemic on implementing hybrid learning environments, we never stopped building pipeline, and that pipeline ultimately converted to orders in late Q3 and Q4. Next slide, please. This slide shows the strong revenue momentum in 2020. As you can see, our year-over-year revenue growth rate was at 5.6%. However, our second half revenue growth rate, half over half, was 8%. This increase in the second half speaks to the demand of our products during a year where our customers sought out new and innovative ways to educate students both in and outside the classroom. The second half growth illustrates how the market adapted to the change in blended learning and continued to buy interactive panels as part of these newly implemented solutions. Next slide, please.
Although materials drive the majority of our COGS spend, we do prioritize efforts to reduce costs in several other areas of significance, including freight, warranty, and warehousing. In 2020, we drove operational excellence across these categories in three ways. First, we improved our data to understand and identify spending drivers. Next, we established benchmarking to understand what good is. And third, we developed programs to specifically generate savings within these categories. For example, we strengthened our freight and warehousing procurement process to establish long-term partnerships while increasing competition and market visibility. The end result, we brought in a new ocean freight partner, drove costs down on our ground freight, and created a scalable cost structure for warehousing. Looking at our warranty operations, we experienced lower failure rates due to COVID-19, which in turn provided temporary improvement in warranty costs.
We worked with our manufacturing partners to drive quality improvements, allowing us to optimize the cost to provide warranty services to our customers. In other words, deciding between buying a warranty or self-warranty a product based on lowering costs over the long term. In all, these efforts created operating leverage with costs growing slower than revenue. Promethean's commitment to continually enhance our operational efficiency and control costs was an important factor in our year-over-year margin improvement in 2020. Despite our year-over-year increase in revenue and volume, Promethean recorded an overall reduction in freight, warranty, and warehousing in 2020. These efficiencies helped us improve our margin from 30.1% in 2019 to 33.6% in 2020. Next slide, please. Another key differentiator for Promethean is our network of global channel partners that we've been working with for years.
Recently, we added focus and resources to recruiting new resellers throughout the world. In 2020, Promethean successfully added 100 new resellers to our network. All of the new partners added to the Promethean distribution network commit to our onboarding and training program. As our new partners are trained and their knowledge grows on the Promethean products, I expect the sales pipeline growth to follow. Promethean ended 2020 with over 1,000 distributors and resellers covering 105 countries worldwide. Next slide, please. In 2020, we successfully transitioned from a company that sells interactive flat panels with lesson delivery software to a company that is part of a blended or hybrid learning model. Our product value proposition puts us in a unique position to capitalize on the blended learning environment. Promethean shifted our resources and focused on connecting with our customers and prospects with virtual sales and marketing efforts.
Our seismic shift from being face-to-face to virtual is similar to what the education segment experienced in 2020, moving from classroom instruction to hybrid learning. Many of the best practices that we developed last year will carry forward for years to come. Let us move on to why customers buy from Promethean. Next slide, please. We were able to make the shift to hybrid learning because we have the right brand equity, the right product value, and we sell our products at the right price. I want to start with brand equity. Promethean has been in the education market for over 20 years. School administrators, teachers, and resellers know our product, and we have been part of the educators' technology journey for the past two decades. When our customers had to change the way they teach due to the pandemic, they trusted and they relied on Promethean.
We design our products to be engaging for the teachers and students, and that engagement carries forward with virtual instruction. That means we focus on how teachers use our panel and lesson delivery software when teaching their lessons. There is a real value that we deliver to our customers in every panel that they use. Finally, we have honed our skills at creating an innovative interactive panel for the education segment that has unique and intuitive features and functionality that deliver at the right price point. Creating this experience for our customers in the education market is part of Promethean's DNA. Next slide, please. In these last few slides, I want to share with you the reasons why customers do business with us and share a powerful case study on why a large school district in the U.S. chose Promethean as part of their hybrid learning solution. Next slide, please.
In Q4 of 2020, Promethean commissioned Forrester Research to do a total economic impact study. One of the important outputs is reflected in this slide. Not surprisingly, Promethean's interactive panels increase teacher satisfaction, which in turn has a positive impact on student attendance, retention, test scores, and graduation rates. This study was beneficial for Promethean as it confirms that teachers like our products, and when teachers have the tools and resources that they can depend on, they have a positive experience. In turn, that positive experience resonates in their teaching and the way they engage with their students. Next slide, please. We have numerous examples of where we have successfully implemented hybrid learning environments for our customers in 2020. The case study I want to share with you is about a large school district that we won in Q4 of last year.
We're working with this top district in the U.S. that needed to implement a hybrid learning environment across 230 schools, supporting 155,000 students in a blended learning environment. Our goal was to support the teachers instructing students that were remote. The solution was to have the teacher use our interactive panel with a video camera capturing the lessons and then streaming those lessons to students on a district-provided one-to-one device. In this hybrid teaching model, students in the classroom and students that were remote could have similar learning experiences. The incumbent provider was not able to find a way to configure the camera, nor did their panel have the processing ability to allow the camera to function properly. Promethean's panel unique capabilities and our company's expertise in working with schools to implement complex applications propelled the district to shift vendors and begin placing orders with Promethean.
We project nearly $18 million in revenue from this district this year. I expect we will implement solutions like this one across the globe in 2021. Next slide, please. In my final slide, I want to share the areas that Promethean will continue to focus on in 2021. Promethean will build on our global K12 leadership, meaning we'll leverage our unrivaled brand recognition and trust that we've established in the market at a global scale. We will continue to grow our sales channel and enter new markets while developing new business opportunities in emerging markets by leveraging our long-standing partnerships. Promethean will also stay on track to expand market penetration by evolving our hybrid learning applications that resonate with teachers across various learning environments. We'll also continue with our robust digital and virtual marketing efforts to maintain our market leadership.
Finally, Promethean will capitalize on the accelerated trend of blended learning due to COVID-19, a trend that we expect to carry on well past the end of the pandemic. We will continue to align our products with funding sources and lead in the pursuit of large countrywide tenders like we do in Egypt. Thank you for your time today. I'm now going to turn the call over to Dennis.
大家好,我是林晨,很高兴由我来介绍一下网龙游戏业务2020年全年的业绩。我们整个的游戏业务总体的战略是围绕我们的IP,跟我们擅长的品类进行的,打造我们的核心竞争力。大家也看到,在过去的十年,我们的游戏业务保持了连续的增长,尤其是我们的旗舰IP《魔域》保持了六年的增长。当然,在去年的2020年的上半年,我们遇到了一些在疫情、实名制跟防沉迷都给我们带来的一些挑战。我们很高兴地看到,在2020年的下半年,我们整体的游戏业务恢复了增长,有8%的同比增长。这也相信我们的游戏业务从去年的一些的挑战中,恢复到了很好的一个上升的趋势中。 这一页我可以跟大家分享一下我们的核心IP的一些数据。作为一个游戏的IP来讲,核心数据的跟核心用户的稳定跟持续的发展,是整个游戏业务健康发展的一个核心。大家可以看到,在MMO这个品类上是我们比较擅长的品类,我们有我们的旗舰IP《魔域》跟《征服》。同时我们在不同的游戏品类像在MOBA游戏上,在休闲跟数字宠物的品类下,我们也有我们的《英魂之刃》跟《Neopets》。同时从IP的布局来看,我们的《魔域》在国内有很大的一个影响力,包括我们的《征服》跟《英魂之刃》。同时我们《Neopets》在海外拥有大量用户的一个知名的IP。整体我们在游戏品类上的合理的布局,跟IP上的积累跟沉淀,也为我们的游戏收入的增长,包括未来的增长奠定了良好的基础。 首先我给大家介绍一下我们的《魔域》IP。事实上《魔域》IP在2020年其实取得了很好的成绩。大家可以看到,作为一个MMO品类,它最重要的就是用户基数跟整个良好的用户生态。这些都是MMO作为一个长线盈利的游戏,它很重要的一个基础。大家可以看到,从这个《魔域》来说,无论它的MAU、DAU、ACU跟PCU,在2021年都获得了很高的一个增长,包括了我们的端游的《魔域》,在MAU跟DAU获得了更加出色的一个增长。这个也会从这个数据上,我们的收入数据上直接体现在我们的端游《魔域》在2020年的Q4单月的收入创了历史新高,这个也给我们一个很大的信心。说明在MMO这品类上,它是有很强的一个护城河的效应。随着我们在IP上的持续投入,我们的用户经营,可以给我们带来非常核心的一个竞争力,跟长线的盈利优势。 刚才其实提到MMO它是一个非常内容向的一个游戏,持续不断地推出新内容是保有用户跟增加收入的一个核心。在2020年,我们加大了在内容产出上的投放,通过我们的IP联动,通过我们的跨界合作,通过我们在《魔域》大的世界观产出更好的一个剧情跟内容,我们在不断地推出版本跟资料片。这些版本跟内容不但是说能够很好地去产生用户粘性,我们也很高兴地看到,这些内容的一些二次传播跟发酵,为我们带来了一些新用户的引入,包括一些破圈跟话题性。这些都是作为一个MMO游戏的一个核心,跟良性健康发展的一个很好的基础。 网龙我们是在游戏IP上是有不断深入的长期投入的。我们对IP的理解是说,一个游戏IP是被市场证明的,用户情感的表达。《魔域》这个能够成功,而且是持续地增长,来自于我们传递给玩家爽快、热血这样的用户情感,不断地被用户所接受并喜欢。从整个的魔域IP来看,我们的目标是把它打造成有百亿流水的一个游戏IP。从现在的四十亿的流水来看,我们还有一个很大的发挥空间跟成长的空间。从三条线上来讲,我们都可以不断地把魔域IP给持续做大。一个是我们的原汁原味的魔域的IP,可以通过我们不断的系列化跟衍生品,推出魔域手游2、魔域传说,以及后续不断的版本,持续地扩大我们现有的用户基数。同时,热血、爽快这种用户情感,事实上被证明是被用户所持续喜欢的。我们同时也会用更新的、更受年轻人喜欢的画面跟玩法,不断地推出我们的新版本。在2021年,我们的画面升级版本和我们下一代Next Generation的UE4的魔域,都能够承载我们这个游戏的精神,传递给更多的新用户。同时,MMO作为一个大品类,它其实也是游戏品类里最复杂、最有深度的一个品类。其实我们在不同其他游戏品类上的布局,也给我们带来一些融合创新的机会。我们同时也会通过MMO加其他品类的融合,推出更多的魔域系列化的产品。 这边看到的就是我们魔域的UE4的版本,事实上也代表了MMO这个品类进化的一个方向,也就是更好的画质,更好的代入感,开放世界的更新的玩法,给我们的游戏用户带来更加具有体验感,更好的内容体验。魔域4手游也是我们在研发上重点投入的一个方向,能够代表我们在MMO这品类上更高的一个水准跟水平。 接下去是介绍一下我们下一个游戏的MMO IP,就是我们的征服。它其实也很有亮点。它的一个方面,是在我们整个的用户的稳定性上来讲,征服IP的用户,事实上忠诚度也是非常高的。同时,我们在海外的单一市场,我们的征服游戏在埃及这个国家,其实已经成为一个国民级游戏。它不但是一个游戏,同时它形成了一个游戏平台,包括一个代币的平台。同时在上面我们尝试了很多的新的商业模式,也获得了很好的成绩。 我们对征服这款IP的后续发展也充满了信心,因为它能够把我们无论在其他MMO,尤其在魔域的一些成功的案例,尤其是内容产出的方式跟方法,包括我们在移动端上的很多的策略,带到我们的征服IP。同时,征服IP在海外的成功经验,也可以有效地复制到其他国家。除了埃及之外,菲律宾、印度尼西亚跟马来西亚这些国家,我们将会在2021年持续地推广跟扩大我们在征服IP上的影响力跟收入级别。 好,接下去是我们的英魂之刃IP。在2020年,在我们的英魂IP上,它持续受到了年轻人的喜欢。与前面的征服跟魔域最大的不同是,整个英魂之刃的用户结构是非常年轻的,它也是深受年轻人喜欢的一种游戏类型,基本绝大多数的用户都是在25岁以下。在过去一年,我们持续地跟一线IP的一些联动,也为我们带来了高质量的二次元用户。这些二次元用户为我们的用户构成、活跃性跟付费带来了良好的基础。同时,我们在跟IP联动的过程中,也吸引了一大批的新用户的导入。当然也是因为这个原因,在2020年,英魂之刃IP也受到了防沉迷跟实名制的一些不利的影响。但是从下半年开始,这些趋势以及基本上能够趋于稳定。 在2021年,我们认为我们会持续推出我们已经受验证的核心的一些成功的做法,包括了一些更一线的IP联动,尤其是在赛事的部分。随着我们过去几年的探索,在直播赛事这些商业模式上,它不仅能够带来更大的用户的活跃,同时它也是一个非常正向的商业模式,已经可以做到盈利,而不是过往的一个烧钱的模式。同时,MOBA作为一个大品类,它实际上有大量的用户基数,在这个品类上的研发的投入,包括新的玩法的融合的尝试,也可以为我们带来一个很大的机会。例如像自走棋的这些模式,就是基于MOBA这样的玩法。在未来我们也会在这方面加强我们的探索跟研发的实力。 这里可以给大家看到的是我们整体新游戏的布局。第一个特点是,我们会持续在我们的IP上,无论我们的英魂IP,还是我们的魔域IP,还是Neopets,在这些既有的IP上,我们都会不断地推出我们的新产品。像魔域,在2021年,我们的魔域手游2跟魔域传说都会推向市场。像英魂之刃,也会有融合玩法的创新存在,它推出的形式可能是在游戏内的内建,也有可能是APP,这些都是一些有机会的玩法的尝试。在Neopets这个IP上,我们也有三消跟Island Builders这些游戏的推出。同时我们在2021年,包括2020年,其实也增加了我们在研发上的投入,包括我们的终焉誓约,包括我们的仙侠、GameZ,跟代号刀剑。这些新游戏主要也都是围绕我们核心擅长的点展开的。无论是我们的MMO加我们的二次元的融合,包括我们一些融合玩法,都事实上能够把我们一些成功经验去跟我们一些新的玩法做融合,产生一些爆款的可能。这些都是我们在研发上不断投入跟持续投入的一个结果。 接下来我可以为大家介绍一下我们的一些新品的一些亮点跟特点。像终焉誓约,它是我们跟B站合作的一款二次元的MMO的游戏。事实上我们也花了更长一点的时间在打磨这款产品上,因为二次元这个品类,我们还是比较希望能够去打造一个精品,尤其是B站在这点上给我们也提供了很多帮助。希望在这个精品的打磨下,我们在今年可能推出也可以获得一个更好的成绩。 这个是我们的魔域手游2,魔域手游2也很有特点,它是属于我们在我们的传统衍生上的一个版本,它可以用我们更新的引擎技术跟画面表现去还原,给我们的IP用户带来更加原汁原味的魔域的体验。同时,它也会在今年进行上线。 这款是我们的魔域系列的魔域传说,它的最大特点,它是一个H5的版本,事实上它是基于经典的魔域IP,它在玩法上做了一些更好的一些进化,它更加适用于我们的一些泛用户。同时H5的特点,可以把这个游戏去触达更多的我们的历史用户,跟一些泛用户,甚至说一些破圈的用户。魔域H5也是我们在用户破圈上一个很重要的尝试,它也是会在今年Q2进行上线。 接下去会看到的是我们的Neopets Island Builders这个新品,事实上它在玩法上也是很有特色的,包含了我们大世界的建造,包含了我们探索的部分,尤其是Neopets这个IP,这20多年以来,我们积累的整个的世界观跟故事线,包括我们庞大的用户群,我相信这款的新游也会对我们的IP用户带来一个很大的、新的、不同的体验,能够也使我们的Neopets IP再上一个台阶。 从总体来讲,大家可以看到,我们在海外市场上,也在过去几年也有比较好的成绩。在新的2021年,除了我们现有的四款的产品可以发行海外之外,我们其实有更多的产品在2021年会推向我们的海外市场,包含了我们的魔域系列的产品,包含我们Neopets的产品,相信在2021年,海外的收入也会继续保持增长。 这里看到,其实对海外的增长策略来讲,我们会有一些我们独特的一些的品类的优势,跟在地区上的优势,我们会不断加强我们在海外地区的运营上的发行投入。另外一部分其实也可以看到,中国的游戏公司在海外部分出海做得也是相当的不错,我们也会去在这里汲取一些成功的经验,复制在我们的游戏上。这些都会使我们在2021年海外获得更大的增长。 整体2021年来讲,在我们看来,我们在游戏IP、在游戏品类上的持续耕耘,跟我们在新游戏的研发上的不断投入,会促使我们的游戏业务更加健康,跟有效地增长。从不同的IP线来看,从我们的魔域IP,到我们的征服IP,我们的系列化产品都是非常有效地能够推向市场,才能带来我们的在2021年收入的一个继续的、持续的增长。这些增长可能在2020年的下半年,包括今年的1、2月,已经体现出来一个良好的增长的势头。我们的英魂之刃其实也摆脱了一些去年遇到的困难,也能够继续恢复增长。同时,我们在我们的新游戏、新IP上,也会带来我们收入的增量。所以基于过去我们在游戏IP上的很多持续的努力,我相信在新的2021年,我们的游戏业务会获得更大、更好的成绩。好的,谢谢大家。
OK, [Foreign language]. Hello, good morning, good evening. This is Ben. I'm going to present to you our financials for the full year. First of all, as Simon mentioned in the very beginning, 2020 has been a year of challenges and opportunities. I think if you translate that message into the financials, while we believe the opportunities will enable us to grow in a much faster pace in the coming years, I would say that the challenges do have some impact on the revenue growth in 2020. As you can see here, if you can turn to the next slide. As you can see on this slide, our revenue growth for gaming was 4% and education was 2% for the year. For the investors who have been following us for quite some years, this growth rate is lower than our typical rate.
But I would like to point out that this is actually something that Vin and Lin Chen have also mentioned, is that our second half revenue in 2020 has sequentially increased at a much higher rate. In fact, if you look at our education business, the overall revenue in the second half increased by 14.7% compared to the first half. Our gaming revenue in the second half also increased by over 8% half-over-half. Overall, that's a momentum that we're pleased to see, and we do expect that that momentum will continue to carry forward into the new year. If you look at the cost side of the equation here on this slide, we've also continued to manage with discipline and operational excellence. We've seen our gross margin percentage increase in Promethean as a result of robust cost management.
That translates to a higher rate of gross profit growth here at 8.2%, as you can see here, which is higher than our revenue growth rate. On top of that, we have been managing our cost very effectively on the OPEX level as well. As you can see, the sales and marketing expense and also the general administrative expense on this chart here decreased as a percentage of revenue in 2020. In terms of the bottom line, the net profits increased by 18% over 2019. If you look at EBITDA and also non-GAAP operating profits, these also saw significant year-over-year increase. Cash flow continues to be strong. Our operating cash flow increased by 13% to $1.3 billion. Simon also mentioned this in the beginning.
We also maintain a very strong financial position as our net cash amounts to close to $4 billion at the end of the year. Next slide, please. Now on to the segmental financial highlights. Again, the highlight of the year for both businesses would be the sustained revenue growth despite the challenges and with effective cost planning and management which enable us to keep costs under control, both on the cost side and also on the OPEX side. Specifically for the education segment, I also wanted to highlight that as you can notice here, our core segmental loss for education increased by over 10% during the year.
A big part of that is actually due to the increased server hosting cost that's actually related to substantially higher user traffic for our Edmodo platform, which in turn is because of the COVID-19 and also especially in Egypt where we have started to implement a countrywide rollout. As I talked about before, we have seen significant increase in the MAU and the DAU in various countries, especially in Egypt. The way we look at it in terms of the segmental loss increase, is that there's a bit of mismatching between the timing of cost and also the revenue, especially for Egypt. While we saw a hosting cost increase last year because of the increased user traffic, we're actually expecting to see our Edmodo revenue to come in this year. Simon will talk more about this in the country rollout part of our presentation.
The other thing to note here on the core segmental loss is that as you can see on the bottom right box here on this slide, our second half core segmental loss narrowed significantly to slightly above RMB 200 million compared to RMB 377 million in the first half. That is attributed to our continued cost management effort and also higher revenue, higher gross profit in the second half. As I look forward to the new year in 2021, we do expect this narrowing of core segmental loss to continue in 2021. I think the second half core segmental loss, as you can see here, RMB 208 million, would be a good benchmark to forecast into 2021.
I think that is the end of my part of the presentation, and I will pass it back to Simon, who is going to take us through the country rollout as well as the outlook.
Okay. Thank you, Ben. Before I do that, I really do want to make a couple of comments on the cost side of the equation for our education business. In addition to managing the cost and everything, we also managed to cover the tariff issue, because if you remember, there was a tariff imposed on all the product going into the U.S. So Vin Riera and his team has actually done a marvelous job in managing that and then continue to drive up the margin. That is actually a good thing. The other point I want to make on the education business is actually in terms of market share.
While we continue to go after number one in the market, we will not do it at any cost, which is actually something that Vin Riera and his team are very good in doing, is actually while we are increasing our market share, we do not allow our margin to get impacted. That is why we see year-to-year growth in terms of margin. If you really take the business and separate it into two, it is actually the developing market and the developed market. Our developed market margin is actually very healthy while we are going after the market share, for example, in Egypt or in Italy. It is actually congratulations to Vin Riera and team in doing a great job on that one. With that, I want to go into country rollout very quickly. I am very conscious of the time.
You heard us talking about is actually the vision, the blended learning vision for the entire country or the entire district. Basically, in Egypt, we are working with them on many different projects to really help them to revamp the entire education system. Case in point is actually, I really got to admire Dr. Tarek Shawki, who is the Minister of Education in Egypt. Really took advantage of COVID, it does not sound good, but he did. He is actually revamping the entire education system using basically all our platforms, both hardware and software. Here, just give you a snapshot of that. We are in the middle of implementing it, and we are also looking at what we can help them in terms of learning after school. That is why you see our online tutoring platform on the bottom left.
The other thing which is quite important, we also work with partners to address the issue. You see Zoom being there, and also we are working with Microsoft Teams, by the way. It is actually Office 365. We have a lot of wonderful partners that we work with. The next page is actually just a repeat. With our vision, we can support a school, a district, or a country. Actually, we are quite flexible in terms of how we can support them. This one is just a pictorial way to tell you based on what we do, we can build up a very interesting SaaS and subscription and licensing model going forward. Also we work with partners to bring in revenue opportunity for us based on the community we build.
If you look at the countries, we work with the likes of Egypt, Thailand, Ghana, which is in Africa, and Russia, and also districts in the U.S. Miami, by the way, is actually one of the largest, if not the largest school district in the U.S., which we have a lot of our presence in. This is just talk about growth, because it is actually once you start working on countries, you start building it up. This is actually where the SaaS revenue, recurring revenue concept will be very powerful. This is actually different stages of what we do. Give you a view of we are not just working on one country. Let me go to outlook very quickly, and then we will go into our Q&A. We are very confident about 2021, both in the gaming business and also in the education business.
We are seeing a lot of funding going into education because of blended learning. That is why we see the market momentum is actually with us. We also see a lot of synergy between our businesses. We are taking a look at how we can leverage in our different businesses and maybe even integrating the businesses to get better synergy out of it, both from a go-to-market standpoint and also from a cost standpoint. Country strategy is actually one great example that all the companies are working together. The last but not least is actually we will continue with fiscal management. In this one, we will continue to focus on generating cash. Of course, the P&L is one thing, but I do want to say and tee it up, I did talk about integration. I did talk about synergy.
We are going to take a look at our cost structure of our education business very closely. Actually, we have started that late last year. You will see some results. I am not in a position to take you guys through it, but I think the result will be quite encouraging for our investors. With that, I want to make one final comment. When I look at our stock and when I look at our P&L, when I look at our balance sheet, I think we are very undervalued at this point. With $700 million of net cash, with a market cap of $1.4 billion U.S. dollars. Good news for the investors. With that, I am going to stop, and we are going to open it up for Q&A. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you very much, Dr. Leung and the management. Now it is time for our Q&A section. You are welcome to raise questions in the following two ways. First, if you would like to raise questions through the teleconferencing system, you may press star one on your keypad and our operator will bridge you through. Second, if you would like to raise questions via our webcast platform, please click the question mark on the left-hand side of your screen and type in your question in the Q&A box. Now, we also welcome questions in both English and Chinese. Let us welcome our first question.
No. No question?
我希望能够问到关于游戏方面的一个问题。公司目前有三个旗舰的IP,不知道目前这三个IP在2020年的用户量,DAU、MAU、ARPU和流水方面的数字大概是怎么样的?谢谢。
我请Ben或Lin Chen来回答这个问题。
我觉得可以回答我们的数据,因为刚刚在PPT里面,我们已经分享了我们的核心的游戏数据。那事实上来讲,从英魂,也就是这一页,大家其实可以看到,我们的整个MAU跟注册用户量都在稳步持续地提升,包括我们的收入跟流水。因为大家可以看到,我们整体上魔域这整个业务线,其实我们很多是自发行的,包括尤其是我们端游,所以它相对来讲收入的比例是比较高的。接下去,征服也是这个比例。接下去是因为我们的英魂之刃,英魂之刃在海外,我们把我们的发行从我们的代理商回收到我们手上,我们希望我们其实对海外的英魂也有更大的信心。所以整个海外的流水,其实我们会有更高的流水比例,收入比例在这里。所以整体的话,我们看到我们的核心的MAU这些经营数据在2020年其实都是一个比较良好的状态。谢谢。
OK,next。
谢谢。接下来我们邀请一道来自于电话会议系统的问题。
谢谢。问题是来自海通的费雅。费雅,请开始。
管理层好,感谢接受我的提问,也恭喜公司业绩不错。我主要是有两个问题,一个是关于游戏的。因为刚才看到也介绍了我们有一个虚幻魔域的游戏在管线里面,然后看到是用UE4去打造,所以想知道这款游戏的一个目标用户群体大概是什么样子的,跟之前的魔域在玩法上面有什么区别?这个游戏的话,我们的研发周期是什么样?我们用多大的团队在做这么一个游戏?另外一个就是关于教育的。教育的话,主要还是想知道,看到我们教育的loss ratio确实也是在下半年有了一个比较好的收窄。我们看到同比应该是flat,如果是环比应该是收窄比较好。所以想了解这个更多的是一个季节性的问题,还是说是因为我们在营销上面有了一些策略的改变?然后如果我们看到2021年,教育这块业务的loss ratio应该是个什么样的趋势呢?就这两个问题,谢谢。
Lin Chen,你先回答游戏的问题好不好?
首先是说虚幻魔域从目标用户来讲,我们还是希望说有一部分,至少是一半是我们的IP用户。其实另外一半,我们还是希望面对现在年轻市场跟年轻用户。因为关于虚幻引擎,说实话不是第一次使用这个引擎,因为过去在虎豹骑上我们其实用的是UE3的引擎。所以在这个引擎投入上,我们在引擎上的规模的整个研发团队目前可能已经到了100人以上的规模,而且它会持续地投入。我们预期希望整个的UE虚幻魔域可以在一到两年的研发周期能够推向市场。在这部分的话,我们在玩法上来讲,刚才其实也提到了,我们提到的是开放世界的玩法。因为整个在魔域,它有幻兽养成、大世界这些经典的元素,其实我们会融合年轻人更加喜欢的开放世界的一些模式,作为一个更好的融合,能够获得更多年轻人的欢迎,这个是我们的规划。谢谢。
我来回答一个教育方向性的问题,要是有数字,Ben可以回答。第一个就是,因为本来教育的,特别是在图米方面,客户购买的季节是Q2跟Q3。但是你看去年,因为去年前半年是疫情的问题,所以很多事情就会比较慢了一点,所以把这个季节也推到后面。所以回到亏损的事情,就是说为什么去年跟前年有点不一样,这个就放向性。另外一个,我在刚才总结的时候我也大概讲过。第一,我们现在非常清楚我们在教育方面,我们所谓的blended learning的方向非常清楚,我们country rollout也是非常清楚。所以我们第一,就看现在我们有什么所谓的synergy,无论是在产品上,因为现在的产品就是Edmodo跟图米都有很大的synergy在里面,所以我们在看怎么去利用我们的产品的synergy来帮我们争取更多的合同。另外,我们也可以在成本方面看看有什么synergy。另外一个,我们总体来看,我们也重新看一下,因为我们那么清楚的方向,所以有一些项目我们可以考虑我们需不需要继续下去。所以从两方面来讲,我们在2021年第一,对教育的收入的发展是信心很大。另外就是在我们所谓的bottom line,我们会有很大的进展。Ben有没有补充的?
对,所以可能我补充一下,我觉得2021年教育的展望从top line的角度,刚才Simon也说了很多,我们其实会继续增长。一个是普米方面的核心的业务,另外一方面就是我们整个country roll out。然后从cost角度来讲的话,刚才我也在presentation里面提到说,其实我们去年2020年的下半年,整个教育的core fundamental loss,核心亏损是2个亿多一点,2.0几个亿人民币。那这个我们已经是大幅减少,跟上半年去比,上半年的话是3.7个多亿,降低到2个亿在下半年。所以我们预计在2021年,这个趋势会继续,loss的话,我们expect会继续下去的,继续下降的。然后刚才Simon也提到说,其实除了我们整个top line增长去drive loss减少之外,其实在cost方面,我们也有一些integration的一些动作。比如说我们在海外,普米、Edmodo等等,会有更多的一些integration,包括在cost上面的一个层面,我们会更efficient。然后我们在国内方面也会去看我们的项目做评估,我们也会有更多的一些cost management的动作在今年。大概是这样。
好,谢谢。
Thank you very much. Before entering the next question, I would like to remind you how to raise a question via the teleconferencing system. If you would like to raise a question via the teleconferencing system, please press star one. [Foreign language] Our next question is for Promethean. Investor would like to know more about the volume and the ASP and the future trend of the Promethean products.
Vin, I think that one's for you.
Yeah, absolutely. Let's break it into two different areas. From a volume standpoint. There we go, thank you. We did approximately 130,000 units this year in volume. One of the things that's interesting and a trend that we've seen is when customers are using our products for blended learning, they're buying our more premier product, which is our Titanium product. What we saw is a higher mix shift of Titanium product this year than our lower end products, which is very, very encouraging. We've even seen in the market where customers have recently bought lower end panels from competitors that had to replace some of those panels with our panels as a result of that. I guess that addresses both of your questions.
Yeah, well, that's kind of also reflect to what I was trying to say earlier in the meeting, is actually what we want to do is actually run a balance, is actually the ASP and the market share and also the margin. We don't want to go into the price war. That also goes to one of the chart that Vin has, our brand equity and the value and everything. We will grow our volume, but not at the expense of our ASP, nor at the expense of our gross margin. OK, next, yeah.
Thank you very much。我们下一道问题是关于游戏的。投资者希望能了解说我们的《终焉誓约》目前在海外的一个发行策略跟推广策略是如何?那跟我们的一些竞争对手,比如说《原神》,它是怎么样对比的呢?谢谢。
林森。
那首先从我们整个《终焉誓约》的测试计划来讲,我们首先会进行国内的测试,然后接下来才是海外的测试。因为整个游戏的测试还是基于两方面:第一个是整个游戏的核心玩法,第二个是整个游戏的画面表现。那事实上在这点上来讲,我觉得B站也会给我们更多的经验,因为我们的发行方是B站,那我们也会听取B站在这方面更加有经验的发行经验,来布局我们的海外测试。那首先我们目前跟B站的探讨来看的话,首先我们的日式战斗的RPG这类玩法,我们认为说在国内我们可以进行先行测试。那根据我们在国内测试的一些数据跟一些反馈,我们再去优化我们的海外版本,这样子我们相信我们可能会取得更大的一些成功。那甚至像一些《碧蓝航线》,或者说一些我们看到的一些二次元产品,比如说《明日方舟》,我觉得更应该去对标像这个《明日方舟》啊,或者说像这个《碧蓝航线》这样子的二次元产品,而不完全像《原神》这样子的,它可以说是一个MMO品类的ARPG的品类。那我认为说在这点上,我相信B站会帮助我们很多。谢谢。
We are getting a lot of background. OK.
谢谢林总,谢谢。下一道问题也是来自网络的问题。投资者希望能够问一下我们目前的 blended learning solution 在埃及的进度,还有我们预计埃及这方面的订单可能何时会开始体现?收入规模的想法是怎么样的?另外也想看一下我们在其他不同国家的推行进度是怎么样的?谢谢。
回到刚才那个slide,可能我拨得太快了。第一,你们会知道今年会有多少,因为我们合同有保密的问题,但是今年一定是有蛮不错的收入。另外一个就是其实在这页你就会看得到我们在一些国家我们的进度。当然规模有大有小,有不一样。其实我们也不光是在这四个国家,因为每个国家里边的产品会有一点点不一样,所以每一个的规模都不同。一有机会,我们会跟你们分享我们每一个项目的进展。
谢谢 Dr. Leung。接下来下一道问题是来自于电话会议系统的问题,有请操作人。谢谢。下一个问题来自 Macquarie 的 Frank。Frank,请开始。
谢谢管理层接受我的问题。我有两个关于教育的问题。第一个就是在教育方面,国家这个项目,你们获取新的订单的一些策略和获取新订单的过程是怎么样的?能不能给我介绍一下?我之前了解到你们可能会leverage Promethean的销售网络来获取,来初步了解这些各个国家的意向,但是我也看到Promethean可能更专注于发达国家,但是我们这些抗周期性的方向性大概都是一些发展中国家的市场。我就想知道这两个之间的协同效应到底有多少。然后第二个就是关于教育的利润率的问题。我们看到2020年可能利润率提升是来自于普米的margin improvement,但是我们未来的教育的margin提升的空间会来自于哪里呢?还是会主要依靠普米这边的margin improvement,还是说其他方面呢?以及最后以什么因素会drive我们教育未来来一个break even,或者也取得比较大的一个profit。就这两个问题,谢谢。
我先回答第一个问题。现在你看我们在第48页,其实我们每一个国家进去的entry point是不一样的,所以那个就是我们公司跟其他的公司很不一样的地方。我们比较灵活,因为我们有硬件,有软件,也有工具,也有很多伙伴。举个例子,其实埃及我们先进去,然后把Edmodo带进去,然后把我们很多VOD,也101 Education PPT带进去。这个是怎么讲呢?一个example。另外,其实泰国是用我们另外一个产品,我们叫做English Galaxy,这是我们在香港开发的一个英文的产品。然后我们进去,他们对那个很有兴趣,然后我们利用这个把Edmodo跟普米都带进去了。譬如说是Vermont,就光是Edmodo进去,因为是帮他们支持blended learning拥有软件的平台。而Miami-Dade两个都有,普米跟Edmodo都有。因为他们进去的时候,其实是两个分开的公司,因为我们还没把两个公司买进来,然后我们现在买了,我们可以把它集中在一起,然后给他们更好的支持。所以可能我回答你的问题,就是说我们是非常灵活。然后在收入的问题,我们最终希望是利用普米的好的平台,一个硬件软件的平台带进去,然后我们在上面利用Edmodo那些东西,我们可以建立一个SaaS model,或者一个所谓subscription的model。所以也带到你第二个问题了。回答你第二个问题,我们在未来几年,我们的好处是普米一定会有非常好的增长,也有很大的贡献。然后回到我说为什么有synergy的事情,因为我看得到Edmodo跟普米会融合在一起,integrate在一起,然后我们进去了,我们开始可以build我们的SaaS跟recurring revenue。其实埃及就是一个比较好的例子,因为普米进去,然后我们也把它的2,200万学生也放在我们Edmodo的平台上。所以今年我们会有model在埃及的收入,所以我们是利用我们不同的产品,包括普米,包括其他的软件产品,然后进去build一个recurring revenue。方向去break even跟赚钱是两个方向。一个方向就是在revenue growth,当然普米是一个很重要一部分,但是SaaS revenue也非常重要。但是另外一个我们一起来做,可以加速我们break even,就是我们在cost成本里面,我们今年会看得非常紧。因为第一就是我刚才讲的,方向非常清楚了,blended learning,所以我们在integration方面会做工作,我觉得我们会有cost synergy。另外我们也会看一下我们其他的项目有没有必要继续下去,要是没有必要,我们可以做一个决定。所以两方面会针对成本做事情。
可能我这边也简单补充一下,就是关于Frank你刚才提到普米在developed market可能比较强,好像在emerging market没有看到太多动作。其实刚才你看到那个chart,画的是我们top 10的market,就是by revenue contribution,按照我们的收入的contribution来算的。其实如果你看在emerging market里面的话,其实普米在很多emerging market,我们的channel还是非常强的,虽然它的revenue contribution没有developed market贡献这么多,但是我们在这些market里面也是很强。埃及就是一个很好的例子,因为以前埃及的revenue没有这么高,现在突然就emerge起来,所以这个可能也解答了你刚才的问题。
在这个,我觉得另外一点就是在所谓的开发中国家,其实volume还是蛮大的,就是ASP低。所以你光看revenue,你就感觉我们好像是在developed country。因为你看美国跟Germany两者,因为他们是买刚才Vin Riera谈过的,我们叫做Titanium那个产品,就是我们最高端的。所以可能是volume没有那么高,但是revenue会高。所以有兴趣的话,我们其实也可以详细地跟你们介绍一下。
对,其实我们在很多emerging的发展中国家,我们的市场share都是number one。
埃及是90%。
90% 到 99%。
OK,谢谢。
谢谢Frank,谢谢两位的回答。接下来下一道也是来自网络上的问题,是关于我们游戏方面的问题的。投资者希望能了解魔域的DAU跟MAU 2020年的成长很不错,我们怎么看2021年是否能够保持这样的一个成长水平呢?第二,也想问一下2021年魔域它的资料片推出的计划,谢谢。
林曾总。
首先,在2020年魔域的整个用户活跃取得了很好的成绩,主要来自于第一个,就是我们优质内容的推出。事实上来讲,确实也是投资者提出的,我们在资料片跟特殊内容上加强了内容投放的密度和质量。这个部分是增加我们的整个MAU跟DAU的其中一个原因。在2021年的话,我觉得分成两个方面:第一个,我们会持续地加强我们已经被证明的验证的部分,也就是说刚提到的资料片,我们会继续保持今年推出的速度跟品质。这里的话,尤其是品质,我们会认为特别的重要,因为去年2020年可能在核心用户的增长上面,我们做得非常不错。在新的2021年的话,我们也希望在内容营销跟破圈方面做得更好。也就是说,我们希望在2021年也能够保持这样的增长。当然这个数据的增长可能是一个不容易的事情。我们除了在去年做的部分之外,大家会看到在2021年我们还有两款新的魔域产品的推出,包括我们在内容营销上的持续的破圈。我希望说这两个新增的因素能够使我们保持继续这样的增长。谢谢。
谢谢林曾总。接下来下一道问题也是关于游戏这方面的,也是要请教一下林曾总。公司未来游戏的发行战略,还有目前我们有没有更多的IP授权以及合作计划正在进行中?谢谢。
其实在发行战略策略上来讲,在未来一段时间,我们应该是会保持自发行跟代理发行两种模式。这两种模式最主要的区别还是整个游戏业务的利益最大化,从我们公司的角度如何做到利益最大化。比如说像二次元这些品类,这些赛道事实上有一些非常头部的厂商在这部分有很多的经验,我们可能会继续保持跟B站或者13局的一些合作。另外一个方面,我们事实上会加大我们自发行上面的投入。像我刚刚提到的,整个英魂之刃海外的发行,我们可能重新拿回自己的手上来做。在自发行的部分的话,我们也会加强投入,因为在这个部分我们认为我们有一个很大的机会,可能从财务的报表上来看,其实我们在发行的投入上占的比例还是比较小的。那今年事实上我们也会希望能够更大地加强在自发行上的投入,能够扩大我们整个流水跟收入的规模,这个也是今年驱动我们的收入增长的其中的信心之一。谢谢。
谢谢林晨总. Our next question is also from our webcast platform. It will be on Promethean. Analysts would like to know what is the new product pipeline for Promethean in the next year. Is there any order on hand we can disclose? Thank you.
Vin, I go over to you.
Yeah, great question. We do have new products on the horizon. We will release new products in 2022. What I should mention though, is our existing product, because it is a connected device and we have the ability to do over-the-air updates. We have done over 20 enhancements this past year. We continually upgrade and improve the product and keep it very relevant in the market. The technology is at the point now where when we launch a product, we can leave it in the market for a little bit longer because we can continue to enhance it before we launch a net new product. But you will see a new product in the market from Promethean in 2022.
Actually I could not resist but adding because Vin did give me a sneak preview of our new product. I am very excited about the one coming up, it is actually very different. Actually you will be excited. The other thing I would like to say is we could be kind of in a sense of giving guidance a little bit. But Vin is a very busy guy in Q1, so I will leave it at that. When it comes to the order kind of question, we cannot go into detail. But he has not been sleeping for the last two months.
Thank you. Thank you, Vin. We would like to welcome our next question. 我们现在邀请下一道问题,最后一道问题是来自于电话会议系统的,有请。
谢谢,下一个问题来自交银的Bonnie。Bonnie请开始。
大家好,我是Bonnie。我想问一下,可不可以请林总再跟大家分享一下游戏行业?因为现在其实市场竞争越来越激烈,想问一下游戏行业对未来的发展趋势有没有一个预期?以及公司现在在研的一些游戏项目的pipeline以及品类有没有一些什么改变?主要就是这个问题,谢谢。
林晨
OK,那我来回答一下这个问题吧。事实上,游戏行业的发展,我觉得大家也可以看到一些很明显的趋势。我觉得第一个是,每家公司其实都是围绕自己的IP跟擅长的品类在不断地耕耘。先不说比如说腾讯、网易这样子的头部厂商,我觉得从CP的角度,像完美、像游族、像吉比特,其实大家会看到每家公司其实都在聚焦它自己的IP跟品类,在这个过程中,依据它积累的核心沉淀,在这里去做一些破圈跟做一些融合创新。我相信像是原神的产品,也是基于崩坏一二三,它不断积累跟沉淀而最终爆发出来的一个结果。那我相信对于未来的游戏市场来讲,我认为每家游戏公司最重要的就是它的研发投入。这也是我们从去年开始就逐步继续增大我们研发投入的原因之一。因为今年可能和去年来讲,渠道的分成比例已经开始有所松动,其实也是证明了在未来一段时间,游戏这个业务还是产品或者研发是最大的一个核心竞争力。那在这里的话,这就是我们看到的一个趋势。所以说回到我们公司的pipeline,或者说我们的产品线来讲,第一个,所有的我们已有的IP跟已有稳定收入的产品,我们会继续地投入,尤其像我们的魔域的IP,比如说把整个公司的游戏收入,比如说从30亿增长到50亿甚至100亿,那它的其中一个driver,就是一个驱动力,肯定是来自于IP的。所以说我们会至少有一半的投入会继续持续在现有的IP跟现在的产品上持续做投入,这可以保证我们的游戏收入有一个稳定的增长。同时,我们也在这个过程中,希望基于我们的IP的积累跟沉淀,去找新的领域的机会跟一些爆款的可能。我们认为爆款的可能可能是来自于两个方向,第一个方向是内容,因为整个游戏,其实玩家消费的是内容,这时候高质量的内容可能是其中一个很大的爆款的方向。另外一个方向其实是来自于创新,或者说这种融合的创新。我们可以在业界看到一些大品类,比如说MOBA这个品类,它为什么能够成功呢?第一个,它其实有很强的一个核心乐趣跟低的用户门槛。所以在这里,无论是我们已经擅长的MMO,加上新的画面升级的表现,还是MMO品类跟其他品类的一些融合创新,还是我们基于MOBA这个强竞技的属性,在MOBA的品类上去开发MOBA下一个的进化品类是什么,我们都认为这里都存在巨大的机会。所以从整体的游戏业务的健康发展来讲,我们会一部分稳定地持续发展,但持续过程中会找到业界发展的趋势,肯定要去尝试我们爆款的可能性。谢谢。
我可能也插一句,就是游戏。我们另外增长点是在海外。所以刚才林晨也提到的,比如说我们New Born,一些我们有两款新的游戏,基本上都是对海外的市场,所以那个也是我们的增长点。OK。
Thank you very much. Thank you Dr. Leung. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, 林晨总. Thank you, Vin. This successfully conclude-
Can I make a closing comment?
Oh, yes please.
Oh, I thought-
Go ahead.
First of all, thank you so much for joining the conference. Just to kind of repeat, we are very confident about 2021, both the gaming business and also the education business. You know our gaming business quite well, that is why a lot of questions around there. On the education side, we truly believe and we are very confident that we can make progress both on the top line and the bottom line perspective. With that, I think we have very good stuff to invest into, if you look at our balance sheet, let me repeat myself on this one. Looking forward to talking to you guys soon in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you Dr. Leung, thank you Ben, thank you 林晨总, and thank you Vin. This successfully concludes our presentation today. Once again, I would like to thank you all for joining us. If you would like to communicate with the management further, please contact us for one-on-one meeting arrangements. Thank you and we wish you all have a great day.