Welcome to live conference of SOOP's Q1 2024 earnings. Greetings again. This is [Eun Minxi ], the SOOP Streamer. When you go out to the world, people say that you have to look at the whole forest, not the tree. The forest, it means SOOP in Korea, and it will be a meaningful start. This live conference is open to anyone who is interested in SOOP, but as it is related to earnings, only those who have registered in advance can ask questions in the chat. Today, we have CEO Jung Chan Yong, Ellen Kim, Head of IR, and [Aila Chun], IR Manager. Will you say hi to those who have joined us this morning? How about you? No, starting with you, CEO Jung.
Wow. I'm going to start with those who gave us Star Balloons. Thank you so much. I don't know if Jung Taeyang is the one that I know. Anyway, welcome to SOOP Incorporated, and this is our very first live conference with a new name. We are embarking on a new journey, and we're very happy that we're back with great results from Q1. For the rest of the year, of course, we are preparing many things, and we're putting out a lot of efforts, and we will communicate with you on those efforts.
How about you, Ellen?
Good morning, everybody. Ellen from SOOP. SOOP, the name itself, it's a little bit unfamiliar still, so I'm kind of saying it to myself, too. As CEO said, and also as the streamer said, we would like to look at the whole SOOP, the whole forest, and then we get into all the details of each tree. Thank you so much for joining us for the Q1 results.
How about you, [Aila]?
Good morning. I'm [Aila Chun] from IR. Very happy to be back with good results from Q1, and please look forward to the briefing and also the Q&A. Hope you have very fun and also fruitful time.
Okay. [Aila], how do you plan to proceed today?
Today, we will first present our business performance and results for the Q1 this year, followed by a Q&A session.
Okay. Without further ado, let's go right into it. We're going to get into the briefing of the results. Ms. Chun, take us away.
Thank you. Let me present you our Q1 2024 business performance and earnings. In the first quarter, SOOP has been more proactive than ever in communicating with new streamers and users and helping them settle down, and striving to improve the platform through service updates. The new winds blowing through SOOP have not only expanded the content diversity and scale but also stimulated our community, creating a virtuous cycle that exceeded our expectation. We've seen a significant increase in active streamers, new subscribers and new users, and the number of concurrent streaming show and viewers, as well as an increase in live viewing time, DAUs, and all the other interactive metrics that show the activeness of streamers and users.
At the same time, the remarkable growth in both the number of streamers receiving Star Balloons for the first time and paying user indices is a sign of the healthy ecosystem that adds vitality to our platform, as well as welcomes new communities. We take this a very meaningful step. We also changed our company name, as you know. Prior to the rebranding of our domestic platform in the third quarter, we changed our name from AfreecaTV Corporation to SOOP Corporation at our Annual General Meeting on March 29th, with an aspiration for infinite connections and possibilities. SOOP is also the name of our global platform service and the new name of our domestic AfreecaTV service after the rebranding.
This decision carries great weight and significance as it is the first rebranding in 11 years since we changed our name to AfreecaTV Corporation in 2013, and the first rebranding since the launch of the Afreeca beta service in 2005. We are preparing for the domestic SOOP platform as if it's a brand-new service, not just rebranding, and we're using this as an opportunity to strengthen our domestic service and draw a blueprint for our long-term success. We have been preparing for the global SOOP as part of our long-term growth strategy. It's scheduled to launch beta service in May. The beta service will focus on functionalities and will offer a full range of global services, and the initial version will be available in English, Thai, traditional Chinese, and simplified Chinese.
After launching the beta service, strategically, we'll go through a period of service stabilization while acquiring contents, especially for gaming and Esports live streaming. As such, SOOP is taking in all the positive changes taking place in the domestic platform and preparing to take its first steps as a full-fledged global platform. Building on the company's growth so far, this year will be a milestone year for us as we prepare for another big leap forward. Now our business results in Q1 2024. The Q1 revenue stands at KRW 95 billion, down 5% QoQ and up 31% YoY. Platform revenue recorded KRW 78.7 billion, seeing a 21% growth QoQ on paying user basis. Platform revenue increased by 15% QoQ and 30% YoY. Advertisement revenue in Q1 was KRW 15.2 billion, a 49% decrease QoQ and a 33% growth YoY.
More specifically, platform advertisement decreased 45% QoQ and 37% YoY due to the continued slowdown in the ad market. As the effects of the year-end advertising peak ended, branded contents declined at 57% QoQ but grew 22% YoY. Other advertisement decreased 28% QoQ, but grew 349% YoY thanks to the CTTD sales, which has been consolidated since Q3 2023. Moving on to operating expenses. For the first quarter of this year, the operating expense recorded KRW 66.3 billion, which is a 10% decrease QoQ and a 22% hike YoY. The QoQ decline in operating expense is driven primarily by a reduction in related variable costs due to a decrease in advertising revenue. While YoY upturn is mainly attributable to the rise in employment costs from more hiring and platform revenue growth, which brought variable costs up.
Paying charge, which is a variable cost in nature, totaled KRW 12.5 billion, marking a 16% increase QoQ and a 48% rise YoY due to the growth in platform revenue. Advertising commissions amounted to KRW 7.1 billion, dropping by 53% QoQ in line with the declining trend of advertising revenue, yet increasing by 23% YoY. Content production costs recorded KRW 1.6 billion, declining by 52% QoQ and 46% down YoY due to the absence of large-scale content production such as Esports. Fixed costs included employment costs, which increased by 11% QoQ due to the wage hikes and an increase in the number of consolidated workforce. This resulted in KRW 22.4 billion expenses, a 25% increase YoY, reflecting the impact of employment costs from the consolidated subsidiaries.
For other commissions such as broadcasting rights and others, it decreased by 15% QoQ due to the elimination of the effects of Asian Games broadcasting rights acquisition, yet it surged by 14% YoY to KRW 6.4 billion. As for streamer support, this section recorded KRW 2 billion, marking a 10% increase QoQ and a 53% jump YoY, partly due to more contracts signed with streamers. Dedicated line usage fees amounted to KRW 4.2 billion, escalating by 15% QoQ and 12% YoY due to more broadcasting and viewing activities in this quarter. Finally, in the case of other expenses, one-time expenses related to affiliates were eliminated this time around, resulting in a 19% drop to KRW 4.2 billion, which represents a 22% increase YoY. Now turning to profit. The operating profit for the first quarter reached KRW 28.7 billion, growing by 9% QoQ and 56% YoY.
With the rapid growth in platform sales, operating profit margin was recorded at 30.2%. The first quarter's net profit was KRW 24.8 billion, an increase of 54% QoQ and 50% YoY. This growth is attributable to the increase in operating profit and the elimination of the negative impact of the affiliate's goodwill impairment from the previous quarter. Finally, please refer to the annual financial statement. Thank you all for your attention.
Thank you, [Aila], for that. That was the performance and highlights of the first quarter. If there are any questions, please feel free to write them down. Let's open the questions to anyone who's interested in this. I understand that so far we've already received many Star Balloons, so thank you so much for that. From [As tellal ive], this person became the 336th fan in our fan club. So thank you very much. The first quarter, I believe we did very good, and I want to congratulate you all. Any words?
Yes. When it comes to the operating profit, I believe it was probably one of the best so far. I don't think there were any substantial costs involved in the previous quarter. Not only that, what really matters is that we have seen a great number of paying user this time. There were other streamers that came and migrate to us from the others, and there were already community that had been built previously that have moved to us altogether. Usually, it takes time to have more paying users, but luckily in our cases, they turned into paying users right away as they migrate to us. That was great. After Twitch exited from the Korean market, I believe that we have these new users and new streamers, and they are growing with one another, and that is a great harmony. Thank you very much for that.
A question from Cha Min Uh from Goldman Sachs. It seems like that you have grown the traffic coming from Twitch, and these are the high-quality people. My question is, what is your long tail plan for the casual traffic, and what are some of the efforts being made for you to make sure that these diversified users can really settle in your new platform of SOOP, or rebranded platform of SOOP?
Yes, I think I can answer to that question. We have a platform business, and these are some of the very important traffic, and these indexes are very crucial, as you can see. MUV as well is extremely crucial, which is why we keep on sharing with you. MUV growth, I think is going on pretty solidly at this point. Not only MUV, but one thing that we really pay close attention is all these indexes that shows you the activities. What I mean by activities, it includes DUV and login portion, and also it includes the participation to engagement to gifting and also the time they stay on it, like the retention, the dwell times and all that. If it is not like a community platform like we are, if it is just like a regular community, all that matters is MUV, of course. But we are different.
Our platform is based upon the sense of community. That is what sets us apart. These activity indexes are extremely crucial on top of the MUV, I would say. The other services or platforms that do not have this kind of community sense are very different from us, and they cannot succeed in the long term. For us, when we say traffic, it is the MUV and all the other activities that we look at in a broader sense. Like I keep saying, when one streamer comes in, there is about 30 or so in the community. If that can be set, I believe that we can definitely see a strong value as a community. That is an important factor that I would like to highlight. You mentioned diversified user. That is very correct in terms of the age, the genre, and the age.
They are very diversified. In the past, when we had the AfreecaTV as a name, there were some people that would go along this AfreecaTV, but there are people that would also try something new. The harmony between these people are amazing, and we are doing great job already. We want to take it to the next level. That is why, as a platform, we need to put all our efforts. This can be done by all the support programs and the care programs that we have already been supporting, and that is what has set us apart. Not only that, we have the production facilities and the services as a platform itself. This production aspect of it is very important. In fact, we have made a lot of investment just for that. We have not had a production function, as you know.
Back in 2000, I do not know exactly when, but we acquired a production company to us, and that is why we have grown these production capabilities. We have the AfreecaTV studio. We only had one of them before, but we have now in Jamsil and other areas in Seoul. We have expanded ourselves. With the growth of the Esports, the game category itself has really grown because we have more streamers being ever more active with our support in that. This kind of effort will continue to grow and even step up down the road. With Global SOOP, which is slated to be opened in May, actually. It is not going to be any later than that. May is a time for this opening, and with Global SOOP and Korea AfreecaTV are going to create the synergy effect, thanks to the production capabilities that we have here in Korea.
That will be one of our major strategies down the road.
That sounds amazing. You mentioned two main strategies that set you apart. Thank you for that. Samsung Securities, Donghwan Oh gave us a question. Thank you so much for great results. Global SOOP will be launched in the Southeast Asia, where competition is quite fierce. What is your strategy in terms of entering that market? Can you get into the details?
Yes. The Southeast Asian market is quite competitive. It has been quite a long time. About two years ago, when we picked this market as our global market, the competition scale has subdued. Also, not just Twitch, but all other platforms in that region have been downsizing. Even though they have many streamers who are active, there have been some changes to the landscape. Global SOOP has an Esports production, an Esports business, an Esports team, and game-centered platform services are some of our fortes. That gives us differentiation. We are going to take advantage of our assets with Korean team, and we can do many things in collaboration with Korean teams, and it will be very exciting. In terms of competition, we feel very confident that we will not have any problem. Thank you very much.
Next question comes from Kim Dong Jun, from CLSA. Looking at the MUV of March, it seems like the effect from the Twitch exit is minimal after February. What is the trend like in April, and how do you see that happening in the future? CTTD acquisition, the impact to it as for the advertising revenue has been limited, and especially the platform as sales have gone down rather sharp. What is your turnaround expectation?
Yes. It is usually the MUV, if you look at it, the peak was in February because the two major was ISEGYE and Woowakgood. They all began in February. That is why you are right on that. Depending on how you see it, the MUV growth may seem minimal, but I would say that like I just mentioned early on, the focus should not be on MUV only. We should look at other activity indexes. However, if you want to talk about the MUV, the Twitch had the market before, and we are dividing it with CHZZK, the other player. I do not know what happened to the other players. Because they were global users, they will not be using it anymore, or they just kind of organically left the market. I am talking about the users themselves who are not there.
The point is, if you look at the volume, we do not exactly know if CHZZK's number is that accurate, to be honest with you. So MUV, we are actually very conservative in terms of counting the MUV, because we are not even counting the web, the MUV at all, because I understand there is repetitions, redundancies, depending on the base stations, and we want to be very conservative. That is why the numbers may not be as big as it could actually be. We can also apply the login versus non-login when we are counting the MUV. So I think what we are going to do is maybe see what we can do in changing the way we count MUV this time. Maybe we can look at it as an yearly perspective, not monthly.
As for the advertisements, compared to fourth quarter, the platform, yes, the platform sales from the advertisements did go down sharp, but there is always a trend depending on which quarter you are looking at. The second quarter is getting better than the first quarter. As for our ads business, we have to stay focused. We know that there are outside environment that impacts us no matter what. But we have this branded content that really sets us apart, and I think we can utilize this and leverage it for a turnaround. But I do understand that there is not any groundbreaking type of change because we are not free from the market situations, and that is why I want to be conservative here when we talk about this. But let us say maybe this end of this year.
Thank you all very much. Yeah, it will be wonderful if you can stay tuned for the second and third quarter. Another question from Shinhan. Chinese commerce companies are entering the Korean market very aggressively, and the target is quite young. Can SOOP get advertisements from those advertisers?
Yes, we have been talking to them quite recently. We cannot really say anything about the scale itself. The scale is not something we can disclose. But Chinese commerce companies are very eager to do large size campaign, marketing campaign, they told us. But there is nothing that has been confirmed in terms of how much that we can get advertisement from them. But of course, in the beginning, it will be kind of like a testing the water type of advertisement, and then in the long term, we can hope for early growth.
Your answers are very clear and expressed very well. Another question is from Kim Dong Jun again from CLSA. Mr. Kim Dong Jun sent us a question again. You changed your name, which has been there for a long time. I see the strong commitment from executive levels for the rebranding. But I understand still, there is a heavy dependence on certain categories in your overall business. Any plans for your rebranding in the future?
Yes. When it comes to the dependency you are talking about, that is true. I cannot really say no to that. The question is, different interpretations are available. I personally think that these categories that we have high dependence on is amazing, and I am very grateful because it has been the very basis for us to have this kind of growth. Also globally, that dependence. This can be also interpreted as stability, the basis, the foundation of our overall other businesses. I know that we can utilize it as a stepping stone for us to even go into different areas and utilize other opportunities. Now, the question about the rebranding, it is not simply about conceptual changes. What I mean is that, I probably said it previously, the Global SOOP is based on the Korean AfreecaTV, but the back end is completely different.
We have the FRICH, our own protocol here in Korea, but globally, we use the OAS basis, more of a public one, and that is the basis of the back end for the Global SOOP. In the long term, I believe the Korean AfreecaTV can also be integrated into the broader back end. That is one idea as well. We had this live streaming for AfreecaTV so far, and we will be able to make and infuse changes to this with this new back end. We are transitioning now, and maybe this dependency will be dwindled a little bit, and as we expand, we may see a newer and a broader horizon. This new branding is not just simply changing our brand. It is really completely changing our services. In other words, if you look at the industry that we belong to, what industry is it?
Over about a decade, we have had this upward trend the whole time, and me and all the others in AfreecaTV have worked hard, but that is not the only driver. The industry, it is a streaming industry, the platform industry, social media industry, and these three things are not in its full maturity yet. We are growing. When these markets reach that maturity, the full maturity, in that scenario, our platform will be something that is undefined by what we know now because it will be infinitely great opportunities, and that is why we have rebranded ourselves for this new, unlimited future. Thank you.
Analyst [Yoo Jung] gave us three questions. One, could you elaborate on PU trend of Q1? Secondly, since you mentioned activity indices, can you share some related KPIs? Number three, what are your plans for rebranded UI and UX?
Mr. Yoo, I have been telling him, I think he gets it. He knows what kind of questions that he wants, because Ellen is ready.
In terms of the paying users, as CEO said, of all the activity indices, the most significant index is paying user, and it has gone up quite high. The platform sales was very big, and in terms of the paying user, 21% growth is the growth that we saw since QoQ. If you see the overall trend, 21% growth is quite remarkable. The paying rate has gone up 1%. 1% point has gone up. All the activity indices have gone up, especially DUV, 8% growth QoQ. There is another index that we see is the viewing time of the users. Daily average viewing time, we saw 18% height. The monthly user engagement has also gone up 18%, so this is very significant. Active Twitch streamer, the number of them has gone up quite high, 9% growth QoQ.
On the streamer side, the number of streamers who receive the balloons have also gone up quite high. In terms of the long tail strategy, was one of those questions that we got. Those strategies that we had implemented have been quite effective, and this is the result. The number of Star Balloons that the new streamers receive have also gone up, too. I would like to also elaborate on Twitch. The activity indices on the Twitch streamers who have come to SOOP, we studied those. As of end of January, we did the February call. On SOOP, there is a number of active Twitch streamers, ATS, used to be in February, about 2,800, but now that ATS, active Twitch streamer, has gone up to 4,700 people. Active means that the Twitch streamer had at least one hour of show.
During the last quarter the number of sessions, they recorded 77 number of accumulated sessions, and that means they are very active. In terms of paying users, we looked at the number of Star Balloons that they have received. Out of all the unique users who give Star Balloons, they are 270,000 and 35% of them gave Star Balloons to the eight active Twitch streamers. This is quite significant because there are many ways that the Twitch streamers get settled down. They can rely on the Star Balloons that they receive, and this is a very good sign. Of the 20% growth in paying users, you can see that the 55% of number of unique gifting users never gifted Star Balloons before, and this is very meaningful.
This is the QoQ. All the indices that reflect their activeness are very high, and usually there is a time that takes, but the transition time was very short. So these are the indices that I can share. You have to answer the number three. Oh, UI/UX. I think you have to take this question.
In terms of Korean SOOP rebranding, our service is 24/7 service, and because of that, UI/UX change cannot happen overnight, and we cannot do that too often. Even the changing from the personalized to my page, that took us quite a long time. Since we are looking into the third quarter, we are coming up with some ways to give changes to the UI and UX. We are going to get rid of the legacy UIs. We want to make our SOOP more trendy and that speak to younger generation, because the new users are quite young. So the recent trend and the cool looking UI will be applied. It would be wonderful if I can show you some of the samples, but we can't. But the direction of UI and UX is that the existing AfreecaTV legacy will be removed step by step.
Thank you for these answers. Next question is from DB Financial Investment, Shin Eun-jung . Two questions. The first one, what's the reason behind the reduction in the content production cost and the guidance for the second quarter to the fourth quarter? The second question, does it say pay ratio? Yes, pay ratio. Let me enlarge this because we have a hard time reading this tiny little font. Anyways, back to the second question. What's the reason for the hike in the paying ratio and the paying user number?
Yes. The second question I think has already been answered. We saw that about 90,000 people have sent the Star Balloons to the ATS, meaning active Twitch. 55% of them have never gifted before. So that's very meaningful. The first question about the content production. In the first quarter, there was no Esports production. It only starts from the February, and that's why not full of it is reflected. If you look at the previous trend, usually it has always been the case, the reduction of the cost of the content production in the first quarter. But there was an issue of the DDoS as you know. The games especially, production was, in fact, a bit hampered because of the DDoS attack.
It's not just us, but the DDoS attack is pretty much everywhere, and usually, of course, like she mentioned, there's a seasonality for the production of the contents, but especially so in this time, first quarter, because of the DDoS attack, as you know. As for the second to the fourth quarter, how do I see that happening? Forward, well, branded contents will maybe drive the expense up for the content production, but as for the DDoS, I have no idea. It has never been a challenging case before, and it's just to the level that we hadn't expected. The game companies and platforms like ours, we've basically done everything possible in terms of the legal remedies. We've made all these cases and actions, but the question is how that's going to unfold. We have to watch and see.
Okay, thank you very much for that answer. Next question is Kim Dong Jun from CLSA. I am concerned because the 2.5-year long decline of PU has shown the limits of the existing ways of business and methodologies. CHZZK also is catching up quite fast, rising as a new competitor, utilizing our negative brand image. So rebranding is a must, at least for ad biz of SOOP. What are your thoughts on catching the two birds of existing ways of business and also rebranding?
Very deep, in-depth question. Can you go up? Oh, yes. Thank you. All right. Okay. So you are saying that rebranding and the existing ways of business, these are two birds that we have to catch. Okay. Yes. So we have to create success based on the existing ways of business.
There are some limitations, because if we stick to the old way of business, then we also have to do the rebranding, which is a different direction. So this is very difficult, two birds that we have to catch, right? That is the question, right?
Yes.
Well, this is what I am thinking. When you do the case studies at a college or something, they do the SWOT analysis. The corporation has to create something new out of an existing business, but then that company cannot follow the new trend and will fall behind. There is another company that will challenge itself and will try to do something new, but then it will also flop because their core business flops. This is kind of the thing that you are concerned about. But what I can give you answer for is that you have to know the context. You have to know the streaming and social media industries, the platform industry. Well, right now it is growing, it is expanding, and within this context, fortunately, we are positioned in a very positive position.
Global wise, we are not that bad either. So all the fruits that we can reap from our existing business, we cannot throw them away. We get them, but there has got to be something that we create even more based on that. So we have to stick to our core business, what we can do best, and then we have to do the rebranding. So in terms of the weight, in the beginning, it will be like five to five, existing to rebranding, five to five. But on the long term, it will go to four to six. But we cannot really define on a certain period. There has got to be some events that will become milestones, that will become the driving force for the new business, and we are creating that driving force.
We are doing all the things that we have to change the perception of our business and create such milestones that will drive our business and do the rebranding successfully. We have to do that step by step. The effectiveness, I do not know how effective it is going to be. It is not something that we can show you right away, but industry is bound to grow, and we will have enough time to monitor the trend. I am very confident based on the experience I have and based on the insights that I learned from my experience, I am confident that we can catch those two difficult birds. But then, in terms of communicating to the stakeholders and persuading them and making sure that they understand, I'm sure it will take time.
Thank you very much for that very elaborate answer. Maybe I can ask an additional question. After rebranding, besides the change of the UI, what are the immediate changes that the streamers and the viewers can see right away?
Thanks for the question. Our UI and UX are basically user experience. The experiences on the part of the users are always very important. The users that have been with us, they are very used to this old way. The newer, still newcomers, they need time to get themselves adjusted. So these two groups, the traditional users and these new users, have different expectations and different experiences so far, and we need to coordinate those differences. We have had many shows and channels where we ourselves have gone out to explain and communicate partly. However, within our structure, there are certain things we cannot cover in terms of all full communication. As we rebrand and introduce new services, we want to be able to do better communication and really better coordinate those differences.
It could be Twitch or CHZZK or us. We have different tones and manners, but we also have different functions and features. From the streamer's perspective now, as they stream, there are certain limitations, of course, they face, and you know what I mean. The revenue, the activities, there are different dashboards available. But from you, Minxi, you are the streamer. Every day, you are involved in some sort of a show, and for a whole month, are you able to see the statistics?
Not really, not precisely.
You do not know the demographics of your users, the people that come to see you or the new users, and what are their behaviors. All these details are not able to be given to you in the current dashboards. But in the new services, as a streamer, in terms of managing your channel, you can get better information, better statistics in this new service in a very, very intuitive way. This dashboard will be a great change and benefit, in fact, to the streamers. Now on the user's perspective, depending on their own activities, sometimes they are confined by certain limitations, but we want to free them up. In fact, for us, from any service, when we, let's say, have 6 million users, giving them the same screen UI is not difficult.
But giving a personalized page to all 6 million is extremely challenging because we need to use all sort of data. We need to have a great logic. But that has to go with the back end change, back end upgrade. So from the user's experience and streamer's experiences, in both perspectives, we would just want to give out most optimized service. I hope that makes sense to you.
Yes, it definitely did. That makes sense. So I guess it is a more personalized yet very specialized way of interacting with SOOP, both ways.
Yes, just to add to that, in the long tail, we all interested in that UI/UX upgrade has always been very, very much of a focus, and there are many new features added to it. Not only that, from two years ago, we have already been moving towards this way already. We have been making some upgrades so far. We have introduced personalized services, and that allowed users to skip and filter out the things that you do not want to see. Let us say I want to only look at the game, not non-games, or I want to see only the non-games, I am not into game. In that case, we were able to tailor to those needs already for many months. In fact, from the second half of last year, we have been introducing these personalized services. It was step by step, gradually, already for some time.
As Twitch streamers have really migrated to us in a large scale, we definitely upgrade our features and functions to a great extent. My point is that we have been working towards this already for some time, and this new branding, of course, takes us to the next level, but it also means that we are going to keep our core and add and tweak the new things. I think there will be a great harmony of these two pillars. Thank you.
After the SOOP Korea's rebranding, do you have any exciting events?
Oh, yes, of course. I think perhaps as early as at the end of this year. We changed our name of our company, and we do this conference, and we keep saying AfreecaTV and SOOP kind of all mixed up together. We need some time to get used to those terms. Still, the company name is changed, but then the platform name is still AfreecaTV. The AfreecaTV will be completely discarded, and we will be truly reborn into SOOP will be next year. I think we can kind of boom up the atmosphere with the end-year awards. Some events for the grand opening or grand launching of SOOP will be planned and all these exciting events will happen for sure.
It is not going to be just for us, but also we are in consultation with some experts so that these events will be meaningful and fruitful to the streamers and users alike. For next year's direction, since we belong to streaming industry and platform and social media, in terms of streaming business, the changes that we are pursuing, it has been going on for a long time. The resolution, the picture quality, and the time difference and whatnot, these are being all addressed. We are strengthening ourselves as the platform and the SNS, the social media will be at the core of all the activities that we carry out.
Thank you. I believe there are additional questions. Okay. It is Mr. Cha Min Uh from Goldman Sachs. You mentioned you count MUV in a conservative way. Can you elaborate on that? To what point would you readjust those MUV counting method? Yes, there is another question. You mentioned the Global SOOP has a different back end. What kind of synergy with the local service can we expect? On MUV, what is the number this time?
5.5 million. In fact, it is. Yeah. 5.5 million is the MUV internally. That is to be shared. But internally, we have never had anything below 6 million. There is about a 1 million difference internally versus communicate externally. I have no idea, in fact. Maybe do you want to answer?
Sure, I will try. What we share on an IR platform format is very conservative. Let me tell you what I mean by that. When we count MUV, there is a peak coming from traffic and traffic coming from mobile. Even within mobile, there is a mobile app versus mobile web. As for mobile web, depending on where you are, it changes the base stations. There is a chance that it is going to be repeated, like double-counted, so we have eliminated the mobile web. We also eliminated some other repetitions or redundancies because we did not want to double count anything.
We are a publicly listed company, but the fact that we have been very conservative, eliminating all these potential overlaps, have maybe communicated a lower number of MUVs. Now, there is a call within our company to harmonize and unify all this method for the indexes, and we need to have some sort of base mark, base point to communicate externally. Maybe from next quarter, we will be able to use new methods of counting MUVs. The trend are not going to dramatically change, but I believe that we will just give you more precise and accurate numbers that can be used in the market externally.
Okay, thank you. It is still the first quarter, so get excited for the second quarter of the IR. Next question that was related.
I would like to elaborate on MUV. Not just me, but the DNA of the whole company, not just me, but all the employees and the executives here are, I think we are just too careful. We are very careful about disclosing MUV, and we do not want to exaggerate. Based on the base station, say, for example, you are seeing something on your app. That means if you move and then if you are detected by a different base station, then it is going to be counted as two views.
Yes. So what is the unit for cell?
Cell unit for the base station. Anyway, mobile web has a lot of traffic, even though with the excluded on our end. I think these days, people give links to each other, or sometimes you look at on the web embedded, and that kind of behavior is on the rise, and the mobile web's traffic has gone up for the last three years. So this has to be reflected into our MUV, definitely, for sure. Thank you.
Oh, and domestically, the synergy with domestic service. In terms of the service, we look at differently. It is like a separate. K-pop, K-food, K-culture can be some of the examples that we can compare to our service that can be exported.
No, it is not going to be exported like that. We are going to create something that is completely localized to Southeast Asia. We are going to, of course, take advantage of the assets like the Esports events. For example, the Faker himself is powerful globally, and also contents himself. Of course, we can tap on that. It is not going to be everything. It is not going to be the only thing that we service to the Global SOOP because there are other assets too, other elements like the contents or the assets can be utilized to be serviced to the Global SOOP. For example, when we do the APAC game tournament happening in the region, and we had those tournaments.
When we hold such tournaments more often, then that can be used on Korean SOOP and also Global SOOP. Also, it's going to take some time for SOOP to get settled down. For example, I would say like two years. During that time, Korea SOOP and Global SOOP can work together to synergize for the production. We have been talking about the studio's infrastructure, and recently the studio infrastructure is being reviewed quite actively internally. The FreecUP Studio or Sangam SOOP Colosseum or Lotte World, these studios have some limitations in terms of what it can do to meet the needs of the new media users. I went to the ASL stadium for the awards, and I saw the physical limitation of the stadium. We have to address that.
While doing so, we have to keep the Global SOOP in mind. For that, we will definitely need to either improve or add more infrastructure for the Global SOOP. We cannot just rent on an old space. We have to have a new type of infrastructure. We have been thinking about this for a while, but this cannot be done that quickly because it's real estate. There are certain spots that we're looking at. When it's shaped, then we will communicate with you. The competitiveness of Global SOOP, that will be reflected into the Global SOOP. I'm going to tell you more about the functionalities in the back end. Let's talk about the simulcast as an example. We have had language barriers, which took us a while to go global.
But recently we have many features and functions that have improved over time, and our development have really focused on that, so we could do simulcast like subtitles, for example. Let's say we can do a simulcast in Korean, and this time you will have the Thai subtitle. It's already tested and it's already available. When we launch in May, it'll be available. The AfreecaTV platform is already there and there are many streamers, and they can maybe apply as an ambassador of a sort to do the simulcast. Once we get the applications, we will maybe give them the IDs given out to each one of them so our platform can be available for the global communication. In the back end, we have the simulcast features available, and that can lead to synergy, I believe.
Thank you very much for that answer. Actually, I had one question. I believe many streamers are curious about simulcast. In order to become a simulcast-equipped streamer, for example, what are the requirements?
We do not have any requirements set at this point. We thought about whether we want to open these capabilities or not. The Global SOOP in the Southeast Asian market should be very well-adjusted and aligned with the market there. It is not simply copy and paste from Korea, which means that the contents from AfreecaTV should not confuse this new one in Southeast Asian market, which is why we wanted to have certain people in the global market that have the power to convince and communicate with the global markets. That is why we cannot use a unified or one-size-fits-all. We cannot have certain standards or requirements that are quantified. We need to make sure that we find people that will be fully aligned with the Global SOOP just by looking at the quality of the content. We cannot give you any specific numbers or anything like that.
Wow, the Star Balloons. We get so many Star Balloons and Ad Balloons. Thank you so much. We also have the 338th member of the fan club. Wow. We are joined by so many people. How was today? I think the questions have come up and if there is no additional question, we can wrap up. Oh, wow, 100 Star Balloons from [Na Hyun Young]. Thank you so much. Thank you. Please ask a question in the chat box if you have a question. Let us wait around a little bit to see if there are any other questions. Oh, thank you so much for the Ad Balloons.
Yeah, there are regular users who joined us for this call, right?
Yes. I think we have about 200 people. Oh, yeah, they came here because they are part of the fan club. Thank you for joining us, everybody. Thank you for your Star Balloons. Why do we get so many Star Balloons all of a sudden? Thank you. [Buchan Sandaramji], thank you. [Kiridu], thank you. As a streamer myself, I have a question. Of the new streamers, there are quite many virtual streamers. Can you tell us about how active they are and what kind of support do you have planned for them?
Ellen, will you elaborate on that?
Yeah. Virtual streamers are a new type of streamers. If you go back two years back, there were no virtual streamers, but they are new, and that means they create new contents, and they are communicated in a very new way. It is very meaningful that they have been quite successful. The new streamers who come on board who are shy and now going virtual, there is no obstacle because they do not have to reveal themselves. There are so many people who are talented, so they overcome their fear, and they can be themselves on the platform. We give them all the necessary support, all the basic supports. In terms of the system and the programs, whenever they have any problem, they get back to us, and we give them all full support.
The virtual streamers content competition is sometimes produced by us, which will boost creation of such contents. This is a very new type of format and it is very exciting to see, and we look forward to the expansion of this market. Thank you.
Yes, for virtual, I think it is a very strong and evident trend, which is likely to expand and grow for sure. I actually think to myself sometimes, the virtual streamers can maybe have a fan meeting in an offline setting, or actually to make it feel very much like an offline fan meeting that we have had for a long time. For VR, it did not grow fast enough because of the contents issues. For virtual streamers, I think we can definitely solve those issues that we face in the virtual world, VR world. So make it very immersive, very real. That is something of a possibility that we are looking at now. Thank you very much.
We want to also thank all these Star Balloons and the last person, [Mendona Calvin], you become the 305th person in our fan club. Congratulations, and we all want to thank you very much. Okay, I do not believe there are any further questions, and we are going to wrap up here. I think there is a bit of a rain and drizzling here and there and in SOOP, the forest. I hope that we can grow as a new brand and really open up a new chapter. Thank you all very much for your attention. Thank you.