Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Weibo 's 1st quarter 2023 financial results. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sandra Zhang, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Welcome to Weibo's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Gaofei Wang, and our Chief Financial Officer, Fei Cao. The conference call is also being broadcasted on the internet, and is available through our IR website. Before the management remarks, I would like to read you the Safe Harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. During today's conference call, we may make forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, including statements of our beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Weibo assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statement in this conference call and elsewhere.
Further information regarding this and other risks is included in Weibo's Annual Report on Form 20-F and other filings with the SEC. All the information provided in this press release is occurring as of the date hereof. Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law. Additionally, I would like to remind you that our discussion today includes certain non-GAAP measures, which excludes stock-based compensation and certain other expenses. We use non-GAAP financial measures to gain a better understanding of Weibo's comparative operating performance and the future prospects. Our non-GAAP financials excludes certain expenses, gains or losses, and other items that are not expected to result in future cash payments or are non-recurring in nature or are not indicative of our core operating result and outlook. Please refer to our press release for more information about our non-GAAP measures.
Following management prepared remarks, we'll open the line for a brief Q&A session. With this, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Gaofei Wang. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Today, I'll share with you highlighting Weibo's user product and monetization in the first quarter of 2023. On the user front, Weibo's MAUs reached 593 million, and average DAUs reached 255 million, adding approximately 11 million and 3 million users year-over-year, respectively. In the first quarter, 95% of Weibo's MAUs came from mobile. On monetization. Affected by the uncertain , macro uncertainties, and off-season during the Spring Festival, the overall ad demand was still relatively lukewarm in the first quarter.
Coupled with the high base brought by the 2022 Winter Olympics, our total revenues reached $413.8 million in the first quarter, a decrease of 15% or 7% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. Our total ad revenues reached $355.3 million, of which 95% of our ad revenues came from mobile. Our non-ad revenues reached $58.5 million, an increase of 2% year-over-year or 10% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. This year, we continue to focus on improving operating efficiency, and our non-GAAP operating income reached $128.6 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 31%.
On a constant currency basis, our non-GAAP operating income has nearly returned to the same level versus last year, which decreased 1% year-over-year.
...
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
In the past 3 years, due to the pandemic, users pay more attention to news related hot topics, which benefit Weibo's user and traffic growth. With the reopening, the once suppressed the travel and offline consumption demand have been released altogether, and users' consumption demand for content in vertical areas has increased accordingly. Such changes in the market environment and user demand has brought certain challenges to our product operation strategy. In the first quarter, we quickly adapt to changes in user demand, while maintaining investment in key content verticals. We focus more on the development of content verticals that have a strong user consumption need. With Weibo's advantages of hot topic and KOL integration across verticals, we increase the content supply and diversity to meet users' consumption need and boost user engagement. [0:07:30] Gaofei Wang [CEO] (Weibo) [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Next, let me share with you our progress made in product monetization in the first quarter. In 2023, our product strategy is to focus on user scale growth and improve operating efficiency, to boost traffic growth, and further strengthen platform competitive ad-advantage.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
On the channel front, in terms of this year's collaboration strategy with handset manufacturers, in addition to coverage of Weibo's hot content in core positions of the handset, we are also further strengthening our cooperation on system-level basis, which we focus on driving the user scale and engagement of the mid and mid to high-end smartphone users. In the first quarter, leveraging manufacturer cross-build user reach channel, we continue to optimize our product mechanism, such as push to efficiently send our user reach and recall through Weibo's hot topics and social content. As a result, the average DAU from the handset channel grew double digits year-over-year.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
On social attributes, I'll introduce the highlights of product adjustment. In the first quarter last year, we adjusted the social network product to improve user consumption efficiency and help users build more high quality and real social relations. In the first quarter of this year, we further upgraded the product mechanism and algorithm to incorporate users' social relations and interests. As a result, the distribution efficiency was largely increased for quality content. Now, in the relationship-based feed, users not only can consume and interact with content generated by followed accounts, but can also consume and interact with content based on user's social network and build more relations. This product strategy has driven further growth in the per-user views and engagement year-over-year around the relationship basis.
We are also pleased to see stronger user intention to form new social relationships and interact on our platform, with the number of new relationship build, tripled year-over-year. Also, around 70% of the incremental user interactions around the relationship they see, was generated through content of unfollowed content creators. In particular, users were more willing to interact and follow with mid-tier KOLs. The product adjustment for relationship-based feed also play a positive role in promoting the content generation by KOLs, and a suitable development of content ecosystem. In the second quarter, we will continue to optimize product and recommendation algorithms, based on user engagement level and focus on accounts in key verticals, to help content creators to achieve higher social value and further stabilize Weibo's core social competitiveness.
...
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
On the content front, the consumption needs for entertainment and lifestyle verticals were growing rapidly. As user attention shift, the average daily traffic volume and the number of users who interact grew significantly year-over-year for key verticals such as entertainment, digital, and automobile in the first quarter. For the entertainment vertical, the movies and TV series scheduled during the Spring Festival, such as The Knockout and Three-Body, etc., has improved the traffic trend of the entertainment sector, with the quarterly average traffic volume and the number of users who interacted grew double digits compared with the same period last year. The growth trend continues in the second quarter. For the automobile and digital verticals, as the offline users consumption has improved, Weibo was able to capture more ad budget, leveraging our advantages in hot trend and KOL marketing, even when the offline consumption is still to recover.
In terms of other content verticals that also have high consumption needs, such as tourism and fashion, and cosmetic verticals, we are also accelerating investment in product operations and improving the content ecosystem. On the one hand, for operation, we will leverage our platform's advantages in cross-vertical KOLs integration and quickly enrich content ecosystem for related verticals. On the other hand, for product, we will utilize recommendation and hot search traffic to distribute vertical hot trends and high quality content to targeted users, which will strengthen the recovery of users mindset in key content verticals and encourage KOL's willingness to generate content. For example, since March, there has been a significant increase in activities in the entertainment and fashion verticals.
For example, the Beijing International Film Festival and the luxury brand shows during the period, we have organized celebrities, makeup artists, stylists, and KOLs in fashion vertical and KOLs in the humanities and art, and popular science vertical to create content around fashion-related hot topics. As a result, in March, the effective views in the fashion vertical and the number of users who interacted with related content increased double digits compared with December last year, with an ongoing growth trend in April and May. We believe with the strategy adjustments and our implementation during the first and second quarters, the traffic will increase significantly and the user consumption mindset will recover as well.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
On the top content creators, in the 1st quarter, we completed the transaction to increase shareholding of In My Show Digital Technology. We upgraded the V Task Platform system and went online in April with a new evaluation mechanism for the top KOLs. The platform now shifts its evaluation mechanism for top content creators from traffic value only to traffic plus social value, putting more emphasis on KOL's capability to interact with fans and monetize on social assets. Upon the upgrade, we have screened top KOL that have sound influence and a high social value, and will further reinforce our traffic operations and monetization mechanism in the next 1 and 2 quarters to promote a healthy KOL ecosystem.
According to the data in May, the traffic and interactions of top KOLs increased double digits compared to that in March, and the ad revenue from 微任务 also resumed double-digit year-over-year growth since March.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Lastly, let me introduce the key application areas for AIGC technology on Weibo. Since last year, we have been exploring suitable scenarios for AIGC on Weibo, and have made solid progress on improving our product and operational efficiency recently. As we continue to collaborate with AIGC partners, we plan to launch some tools in the second quarter to better assist the content creators in the content generation, and to improve the efficiency of creative ad solution. Some large model companies are also using Weibo's open platform to provide users with relevant services. Going forward, we will keep a close eye on the development of AIGC and explore new application area to create greater value for users and content creators.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Next, let me share some color on the monetization front. In 2023, leverage the gradual economic recovery post the pandemic. We are pleased to see many verticals start to beef up investment for future in the first half of the year, with accelerated paces in brand building, especially new product release versus last year. Our overall monetization strategy will continue to focus on enhancing the marketing combo, which centers around media and celebrities, supported by KOL distribution across verticals, well underpinned by traffic contacts featuring strong exposure and mindset cultivation. In particular, we will beef up Weibo's unique culture and IP, and the new product launch ad offerings, aiming to earn recognition from more industries and customers, and thus further strengthen Weibo's core competitive needs in the ad market.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
Based on Weibo's performance in the first quarter, our overall ad business exhibited gradual recovery trend month-over-month. To elaborate, due to pandemic and the high base of last year's Winter Olympics, advertising revenues in January and February decreased year-over-year. Since March, ad revenues has already returned to a positive growth trajectory on an annual basis. In terms of industry trends, we saw divergent trends among different sectors in the first quarter. For certain sectors such as automobile, handset, and luxury products, we are encouraged to see that clients demonstrate strong confidence in 2023, and have picked up their investment in new product and branding.
For example, in the automobile industry, the number of new car released at the Guangzhou and Shanghai International Auto Show in the first half of the year increased by 40% compared to the same period last year. Leveraging Weibo differentiated the automotive new product launch model. Nearly 100% of the OEMs with ad budget for new model launch in the first quarter chose to cooperate deeply with Weibo for promotion. Meanwhile, the first quarter was also a period of intensive release for luxury goods shows, with the number of luxury goods shows in a single quarter, reaching almost a half of last year. Leveraging the hot trend effect around these shows, we achieved nearly 90% coverage of business cooperation with client show in the first quarter.
On the flip side, certain industries were still in the course of gradual recovery, such as beauty and personal care sector, mainly due to 2 reasons: First, some clients in the beauty and personal care industry had relatively weak pipeline for new product due to industry competition strategy and their own business headings. Secondly, intensified competition landscape of the advertising market across media platform also dragged this recovery pace. Our first priority is still to quickly restore our competitiveness in the respective content ecosystem post the pandemic. We will continue to amplify our monetization model featuring hot trends and new product marketing, while empowering clients to achieve better long-term growth in the market.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Entering into the second quarter, with further pickup in offline consumption, we expect to see a more meaningful recovery in the demand side of the advertising market, driven by ongoing recovery of various consumer markets. There'll still be divergent trends among different industries. In light of such trends, we will actively embrace the market opportunities brought by the June eighteenth Mega Shopping Festival. Leveraging our positioning as a leading social media platform, we will amplify Weibo's differentiated competitive edge in the hot trends and content marketing, in the hope of capturing incremental ad wallet gradually released into the market.
With that, let me turn the call over to Fei Cao for a financial review.
Thank you, Gaofei. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Weibo's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Let's start with the metrics. In March 2023, Weibo's MAU and DAUs reached 593 million and 255 million, respectively, representing a net addition of 11 million users and 13 million users on a year-on-year basis, with ongoing execution of a business and the China investment strategy. Turning to financials. As a reminder, my prepared remarks will focus on non-GAAP results. All monetary amounts are in US dollar terms, and all comparisons are on a year-on-year basis, unless otherwise noted. Let me walk you through our financial highlights for the first quarter of 2023. Weibo's first quarter 2023 net revenue was $413.8 million, a decrease of 15% or 7% on a constant currency basis.
Operating income was $128.6 million, representing an operating margin of 31%. Net income attributable to Weibo reached $111.2 million, representing a net margin of 27%. Diluted EPS was $0.47, compared to $0.56 last year. Let me give you more color on the first quarter 2023 revenue performance. Weibo's advertising and marketing revenue for the first quarter 2023 was $355.3 million, a decrease of 17% or 9% on a constant currency basis, reflecting conservative ad budget amid the reopening, as well as the seasonality factor compared with first quarter last year with Winter Olympics related ad budget. Mobile ad revenues were $336.4 million, contributing approximately 95% of total ad revenue. The industry.
Our largest of three verticals were FMCG, 3C products, and e-commerce. In terms of growth, we are delighted to see solid growth in 3C and automobile sector, underpinned by clear wins of an eventful product launch period, as well as strong sales execution in these vertical industries. Customers in this sector embraced our full spectrum of social ad combo to market hype of strong consumption power. On the flip side, our largest vertical, high comp , coupled with relatively conservative ad budget by our clients in the early stage of the opening. The ad product, Promoted Feeds was the largest, followed by social display ads, and topic and search.
We continued to diversify our ad inventory and build up our integrated social marketing offerings to drive performance ad goals in the hope of better monetizing our traffic resource. Ad revenues from Alibaba for the first quarter were $18.3 billion, a decrease of 30%, or 23% on constant currency basis, primarily attributable to its own conservative marketing strategy, a recent reopening, and subdued shopping festivals in the last e-commerce season. Before turning to VAS segment, let me share some preliminary color on the trends entering the second quarter. On the upside, advertising market has been bottoming out month-on-month, with many factors rebased since the second quarter last year. Leveraging normalization in offline activities and gradual consumer pickup, our team will beef up sales execution and work relentlessly to capture pent-up budget during the e-commerce shopping festivals in second quarter.
That said, a full recovery of consumption sentiment in certain discretionary categories might be more drawn out than expected upon the aftermath of pandemic weighing on consumer confidence. In light of the volatile macro landscape, we are closely monitoring opportunities in those relatively resilient sectors, which benefit from secular growth tailwind and strong product pipeline, such as automobile and handset sector, while tailoring our content marketing offering to fulfill customers' brand/performance campaign goals. Leveraging our full spectrum of social ad offerings, we remain confident in our monetization opportunities that our unique value proposition and a diversified content ecosystem will unlock. Value-added service, VAS revenue, was $58.5 million in the first quarter, an increase of 2% or 10% on constant currency basis. The increase of VAS revenue was mainly attributable to incremental revenue from e-commerce business. Turning to cost and expenses.
Total cost and expenses for the first quarter were $285.2 million, a decrease of 17%, demonstrating ongoing execution of our efficiency initiatives. The decrease was mainly attributable to lower personnel-related costs and disciplined channel investments. Entering into 2023, we have emerged with a more focused team and a leaner cost structure, positioning us on a visible path to operating earnings growth. Operating income in the first quarter was $128.6 million, representing operating margin of 31%, compared to 29% in the same period last year. Turning to income tax and other GAAP measures. Income tax expense for the first quarter was $21.9 million, compared to $11.7 million last year. The increase was primarily resulting from changes in deferred tax liability related to fair value change of certain investments.
Net income attributable to Weibo in the first quarter was $111.2 million, representing a net margin of 27%, flat compared to last year. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow items. As of March 31, 2023, Weibo's cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $2.78 billion. In the first quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $180.6 million. Capital expenditures totaled $18.2 million,depreciation expenses . Before turning to the financial section, I would like to share and color our newly announced special dividend. Reflecting our healthy profitability and strong balance sheet, we are pleased to announce that our board of directors has approved a special cash dividend of $0.85 per ordinary share, or ADS, to our shareholders.
The aggregate amount of the dividend will be approximately $200 million, with payment date expected to be in mid and late July. Looking ahead, we will continue to embrace long-term growth opportunities, while focusing on financial discipline, with commitment to returning value to shareholders and boosting market confidence. Besides, I would also like to provide update on our ESG initiatives. In April, we released our second ESG report, outlining the company's progress and performance in ESG areas for fiscal year 2022. The ESG initiatives described in the report speak to our long-standing commitment to sustainable development, powering impact to users, content creators, employees, business partners, and other stakeholders. We are dedicated to the vision of making the world a better place with the power of Weibo.
As part of that vision, the company's 2022 ESG report showcases our efforts in various areas such as cybersecurity and privacy protection, content quality, and employee development, social responsibility, and green operations, just to name a few. Looking ahead, we will continue to optimize our ESG governance and further integrate ESG initiatives across our daily operations, in the hope of creating value for society and work towards a sustainable future together with Weibo's community. You may visit our IR website to obtain more information of our ESG disclosure. With that, let me now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session. Thank you.
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, you can press star one and one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Thank you. We'll now take our first question. Please stand by. First question is from the line of Miranda Zhuang from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]Thank you. My question is about AIGC. Can you elaborate more on your plan for the AIGC area?
What would be the main applications and what are your product plans? Thank you.
Got it.
Yeah, thank you for your question. First of all, you know, as a social media platform, we are looking at our own competitors, especially among our users and also, in terms of commercialization, two kind. One is actually a social platform like Weixin. Another one is like those Douyin and also Xiaohongshu, those kind of a recommended base, you know, social media platforms. Of course, you know, in Weibo, we confronted actually two kinds of creators. One is, of course, the content creator of media or by the media, another one is the we media that are having uncertain . Okay.
AIGC Weibo [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Got it. So, first of all, you know, in terms of application of AIGC, we have two areas, and one is that, you know, on our platform, we have a lot of top-notch we medias, and also we are going to help them to enhance their efficiency of creating more personalized and also individualized content. By having a fine-tuning our big models, we are able to help them to leverage this capability to enhance the efficiency of the content creation and generation.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Weibo[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] AIGC [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Got it.
Second of all, it is going to help us to optimize and also help those, you know, long tail accounts to have a better creation of content. Now, you know, on our platform and on Weibo, we have actually those top-notch accounts that are having a very strong capability in doing so, but actually, it is relatively weaker for those, you know, medium level and also the long tail accounts. By applying the AIGC very effectively, this is going to be enhanced.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]Weibo [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] 2022 [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] GPT-3 [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Got it.
Let me talk to you about the application. Nowadays, you know, given the strength of the total AIGC capabilities, it is not, you know, easy for us to say that it is going to actually replace the top-notch we media. Let me talk to you about some of the trials and also applications. Before the mid of 2022, you know, last year, we were primarily adopting the GPT-3 model, it was not as capable as to mitigate or simulate the interactions with the users. We used the GPT-3 model back then for the purpose of learn and also try to, you know, keep up with the certain solutions in terms of the anti-internet violence, etc., so that we're going to enhance operation of the internet-based business.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Second of all, starting from the second half of last year and also the beginning of this year, we are using more advanced, you know, the model of GPT and also the other AIGC relative models. It is now able for us to actually, you know, simulate the personnel-based interactions, but actually it is not able to generate the user's content by its own. The AIGC is primarily used as assistance for those top-notch creators. We are starting already this particular campaign since Q2 of this year.
In the next 1 or 2 years of time, with the advancements of these AIGC models and also the AI models as a whole, we believe that it is able for us to, you know, use to generate the content, replacing those original content generated by the mid-level content creators. For those top-notch content creators, which have very strong personality, I still believe that it's challenging for us to use the model to actually replace the content creation process. Overall speaking, I believe that the AIGC and also the relative technologies are actually, you know, very good to be used to really enrich the content created on our ecosystem and platform, and also enhance our competitive edge as a whole. Okay.
from [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] As a conclusion, talking about this, particular technology, now, the collaborative model is pretty much based on the collaboration with those open source, and also open source models.
Primarily speaking, you know, we are just, you know, having the adoption and also fine-tuning our model, not necessarily proprietary innovate, and also invest into the development of the LMM model. As a result, it is not going to enhance a lot of internal R&D investment in this front, and also it is going to help us to improve our commercial efficiency, while at the same time, reduce the cost related to content creation. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I will now take our next question. Please stand by. This is from the line of Alicia Yap from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Hi. good evening, management. thanks for taking my questions. Can you hear me okay?
Yeah. Yes.
Okay. All right. Thanks.
Uh,[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Um, so my questions is related to advertising.
Can management share with us the view on the latest advertising market recovery so far, especially in April and May? What is your expectation for the ad revenue growth in the second half of this year? If you can elaborate the performance by the industry category as well. Also, as we look forward, what is the company ad product and marketing strategy that you can think about to be able to improve the competitiveness in the market? Thank you [0:48:23] Operator [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Go ahead. Um, uh, thank you for this question.
As we have stated in the script, we have already seen that in Q1, the kind of recovery and also the growth trend of the advertisement industry in our company is actually pretty much weak due to the post-COVID. I mean, the release of the, you know, restrictive policies, as well as the weak season or peak, low season in the Spring Festival season. In Q2, you know, as we have already stated, after March, we have been seeing that the growth of the advertisement business has been on the positive track, but still, you know, the growth rate-wise, it is still smaller than the same period of our last financial results of the same period.
...
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Second of all, in terms of the industrial verticals, now we are seeing, for example, 3C and handsets as well as the automotive industries. After March, we've been seeing actually a recovery trend in terms of our investment into the consumption market. For some of these industries, although we've been seeing some of the decline on their sales, still there is a trend of the consumption upgrade or the competitive edge or competitive market upgrade as well. For the industry of headsets and 3C digital products as well as automotive, we've been seeing a double digit growth in Q1 for this advertisement business. After March, we've been seeing actually, especially March, we've been seeing over 40% of the growth in this area. In terms of the headsets, you know, we do see the kind of a lot of product launch and new product launch were happening in Q1, previously we already said that it is becoming a longer and longer in terms of the mobile phone or smartphone switch cycle. However, still, you know, for most of those headset manufacturers, they're still thinking about launching those new products with a lot of, you know, technologies inside in Q1, in order to enhance the output value of their users. Weibo is actually a must to choose a platform for them to collaborate with. Our next one is for the automotive market. Now we've been seeing a further ramping of the electrification and also the as a new energy vehicle in our top selected advertisement platform, Weibo had a years of experience in terms of the content creation and also the content ecosystem for the automotive market. Actually we are also a necessary choice among the automakers. In Q2, on the overall basis, we believe that it is going to enjoy a much quicker growth, which is out of our expectation. I mean, especially, you know, surpass the budget that we made in the beginning of the year. OK.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
In March, for some of the other industries, you know, we've been seeing some of them actually are back on a positive trend or some of the other verticals are going to recover their growth since Q2. Actually, for some of the other industries that I'm going to talk to you about later, there have been actually a weaker growth rate than the same period previously. For instance, for the e-commerce vertical, for some of the key accounts that they have been adjusting their management strategies and especially their competitive strategies as well as their customer structures. For this, as always, again, we wanted to actually seize the big opportunities. For instance, the June 18th, you know, Shopping Festival or the e-commerce, you know, or a big opportunity. We do actually, you know, have seen a lot of order and also placement of the ad budget in this June 18th of this year, way higher than that of last year. Still, you know, it is still weaker than the previous quarters for the e-commerce business. OK.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] ......
Actually is [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] FMCG, [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] got it.
Turning to the vertical of FMCG, and then in specific, we are talking about the cosmetics and also personal care products. You can see that in Q1, they had actually a very weak performance due to 2 reasons. The first one was that in since the December of last year, during Covid, still we were not releasing the restrictive policies in China. Last year, in December, those advertisers in this big industry were making the budget for the new year, so they were actually intending to be very conservative for the new year of 2023. Second reason was that, you know, for the past 3 years, we had a Covid impact and pretty much.
You can see that the FMCG industry or the cosmetic and personal care industry, is still in the cycle of, you know, consuming their existing inventory, so still take time for them to actually, you know, fully recover the new user purchase of the products. Next, I would like to say is that, especially, for all the customers in this area, they're having a very conservative fashion in making their budget, specifically, we're talking about the new product launch plans. Actually this FMCG industry is actually much weaker than the other industries in terms of their planning of the new product launch. Of course, we've been seeing certain recovery during the 18th Festival.
Still, you know, the recovery speed is actually way lower than the expectation in the beginning of the year. You know, the reason for us to have an overall kind of a slower growth for our total business of advertisement, is because that we have a very high percentage of the FMCG advertisement business accounted for the whole advertisement business. Okay.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
Finally, I'd like to say that, you know, Weibo is a platform that is actually now having everything ready or everything in place, and covering almost all the areas, including the text and images, as sort of videos. Actually we are a quite diverse and also a widely covered platform. In terms of the total nature of distributivity, we are having actually a much better positioning than the other platforms. You know, in terms of the development of our budget, it is pretty much, you know, subject to the new product launch of our external customers, as well as their investment and strength and also mindset into the branding activities.
For instance, if for some of the verticals, they have actually a much diverse plan on their new product launch and also, pretty much, you know, intensive investment on the branding activities, we are going to enhance our competitiveness in those verticals. However, you know, for instance, in the headset and also e-commerce and also automotive verticals, Weibo has years of experience in accumulating the content and creating a very good content ecosystem. That is to say we gain a bigger advantage than the other platforms in this area in terms of the diversity of the content. In terms of the offline consumption-related areas, like the cosmetics or the beauty products, as well as personal care or fashion, you know, we've been actually performing, like, pretty much weak in this area.
This market is something that we have to further strengthen in the future. Previously, in the past, most of our traffic, or majority of our traffic were driven from the entertainment and also culture industry, etc., but not that much from the offline consumption. This year, our strategy is that, further, we have to strengthen our ability in capturing those opportunities in the offline consumption markets, for example, travel, food, and cosmetics and beauty products, etc., to further gain momentum. Second of all, our strategy is focusing on the application of integrated marketing strategies, so that we are going to further enhance our competitive edge by doing that. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. Please stand by. This is from the line of Thomas Chong from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]capital allocation.[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] dividend [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Good evening. Thanks management for taking my questions. May I ask about the margin outlook for this year? Any initiative on operating efficiency improvement? Separately, may I also ask about our capital allocation plan and also our thoughts on dividends? Thank you.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] margin [FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Go ahead.
I will answer the first question, and second question will be addressed by Fei Cao. First of all, as we have already said in the prepared remarks, that in Q1, on the overall costs and expenses, we have been having a reduction of 17%. In Q1 of this year, you know, we already said that, you know, since Q4 of last year, we've been having the strategies in making the re-organizational restructuring of our organizational structure, so that or on certain kind of a business. In terms of the kind of the impact to the overall margin and also profitability, we are going to see the value by doing that since this year.
Also second is that, you know, we have already mentioned that we have a strategy of a general user acquisition and focusing on that, and also further having the ROI related to channel user acquisition as an appraisal indicator. Of course, in Q1, we'll be experiencing certain challenges in terms of the smartphones, for instance, reduction of the sales of the headsets. So, in terms of the marketing cost, originally, actually, we planned that we might have actually an increase in terms of this particular area, but still, I think that this, due to the decreased sales of the headset, and this marketing related cost, we are gonna keep a flat performance versus last year.
Overall speaking, in terms of the margin, we expect to have a very stable development and also with a little bit increase in terms of the margin of this year.
[FOREIGN LANGUAGE]Go ahead.
Also seems to too, because we have a now fully reopened market after COVID, so we expect to have more organizations of the offline activities. This kind of expenses related to the organization of offline activities are expected to having a growth. For the rest of the quarters, we expect to have the increase on the overall profit and margin.
Okay, thank you for the question. This is Fei. Let me add some color on the margin. Most of our marketing spending, including channel investment, is discretionary, so it's all flexible. We could always manage through dynamic adjustments. As Gaofei mentioned, we have successfully implemented a series of cost reduction and efficiency enhancement initiatives last year, resulting in a more focused team and a leaner cost structure. We will continue these initiatives this year. Our primary challenge is to restore our top-line growth in the second half. Rest assured, our focus on margin remains unwavering. As you can see, that our margin has consistently maintained at a higher level within the industry. Regarding your second question, the capital allocation and the usage of cash. Generally, we follow several basic principles in use of cash.
First, the most important of all, is to support the organic growth of our business, as well as the new business models, such as our social e-commerce and new product investing. The second way we will use cash is to invest through M&A within the industry. Third, in addition to investing in our own business investments and acquisitions, we will consider to return excess cash to shareholders, either by stock buyback or cash dividends. Regarding the announced special cash dividend program, this program demonstrates our commitment to delivering shareholder value and our confidence for long-term development. This commitment is supported by our consistent profitability track record and relatively strong ability to generate operating cash flows. We would like to share our thoughts and the reasons behind the decision. We prioritize long-term competitiveness and financial flexibility, striving to enhance shareholder return within this framework.
As mentioned, Weibo has achieved sustainable profitability and possesses a robust ability to generate operating cash flows. We ensure that we will maintain a nice cash position after this distribution and continue to generate sufficient free cash flow to support the operation of the company. Our commitment to a healthy financial condition enables us to navigate market uncertainty and pursue strategic opportunities while safeguarding our shareholders' interest. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore various ways to reward our investors, including dividend payouts and stock repurchases. These measures will be carefully considered and aligned with our core objectives and subject to our board approval. Likewise, we remain dedicated to delivering sustainable value to our shareholders and maximizing their returns. Hopefully, this addresses your question. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. At this time, I will now hand back to the speakers for any closing remarks.
Thanks, operator, and thank you all for joining our conference call. We'll see you next quarter.
Thank you. This does conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.