Good afternoon, welcome to E Ink First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be a Q&A session. Today's conference is being recorded. The replay will be available on E Ink's website after today's conference. Joining me today are CFO Lloyd Chen and Finance Director Patrick Chong. I would like to turn this call over to Lloyd.
Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone. My name is Lloyd Chen, I'm CFO of E Ink. Before we start the first quarter earning conference, let's take a quick look at the safe harbor statement. Next page. All right, next page. Okay. I would like to briefly explain the first quarter P&L. The sales revenue was around TWD 7.23 billion. Operating profit, TWD 1.81 billion. Net income, TWD 1.75 billion. EPS was TWD 1.54 . Basically, the sales revenue has been reached the best in the past 12 years. Operating profit, net income, as well as EPS, basically were all-time highs. Next page.
[audio distortion] the screen, operating profit has shown a positive trend of growth since 2019, with a consistent upward trajectory. Next page. For total assets, basically increased from operating growth as well as financial investments, also the growing net asset value per share. Next page. For the cash flow, cash was around $11.6 billion by first quarter. Basically we utilized cash flow from operation investment to further, you know, financial investments and also to CapEx of the paper production lines. So the total financial assets plus cash was increased to around $42.3 billion by first quarter. Okay, next page. Okay.
Let's take a look at E Ink first quarter accomplishments. We were selected for the 2023 S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook and awarded a top 10% S&P Global ESG score. They listed us an industrial mover. We were ranked as one of the top 10% enterprises in the electronic equipment, instruments, and components sector. Last year, we were the first company in Taiwan to sign the climate declaration. Basically, we will achieve RE40 in 2025 and RE100 in 2030. Eventually hit the Net Zero emission in 2040.
Also in first quarter, one of our key ecosystem partners, Philips, [PPDS], they launched the 25.3 inch full color ePaper signage board. They call it Philips Tableaux. They won the 2023 ISE on Best Product Award. It uses our E Ink Gallery Plus technology, which has full color and no power consumption. Through the Philips Tableaux series electronic paper, Kanban, enterprises can achieve sustainable goals with extremely low operating costs. Last but not least, we have always prioritized the cultivation and the development of talent as key objective in our business operations. We are proud to announce our participation in the TALENT, in Taiwan.
Basically, we pledge to adhere to the alliances on six indicators for sustainable talent actions. There are meaning and value, diversity and inclusion, organizational communication, reward and incentive, physical and mental health, and talent growth. In addition, we have also joined SBTN, which focuses on setting science-based targets to reduce our environmental impact without compromising the Earth resources while meeting social needs. This will further facilitate healthy economic development globally. All right, next page. We showcased the latest and greatest on ePaper technology at Touch Taiwan. After the exhibition, we received a lot of inquiry about our color technology. We would like to take this opportunity to explain more on those technologies. The first one is E Ink Prism 3.
At CES, 2023, BMW is using Prism 3 to create a multicolored scheme on their new i Vision Dee concept car. The first use of Prism 3 in automotive applications. E Ink Spectra 6, another our latest color technology. A revolutionary new color product geared for indoor advertising, indoor signage or any paper sign replacement. E Ink Spectra 6 is a full-color product providing a level of color saturation and vividness never seen before in a reflective display. With ability to give visual performance similar to the most advanced paper color printers on the market today.
Spectra 6 will be optimized for up to 200 PPI, depending on the panel size, a typical contract ratio of 30 to 1, and an operating range of 0 - 50 degrees Celsius. Another one is Gallery 3, the full color ePaper technology. Basically, it has entered a mass production. In the past few months, we were very excited, you know, to have several major customer announce their new products featuring E Ink Gallery 3. Basically, that opens up a new chapter in digital reading, offer our customers a full-color enhanced reading and shopping experience for e-books. Also, you know, offering sustainable reading options.
We believe customers who own black and white eReaders will be encouraged to upgrade to a color reading experience with Gallery 3. The last one is E Ink Kaleido 3, especially on the Outdoor. It's based on print color ePaper technology, utilizes an RGB color filter array on black and white ePaper film to create a warm and colorful display, offering more than 4,000 colors. E Ink Kaleido 3 Outdoor offer a vivid color image information and clear text, providing a comfortable and non-irritating color digital content experience with a visual impact close to that of color print-printed paper signage.
The Kaleido 3 Outdoor operating temperature range is between -15 degrees Celsius to 65 degree, which allow it to operate in extremely cold or hot areas without the need for expensive, high energy consuming heating or cooling devices, reducing additional power consumption. Okay, Next page. As I just mentioned, previously, E Ink Spectra 6 featured an enhanced color spectrum and advanced color imaging algorithm to provide full colors to improve marketing advertising performance. And basically, we also won the Technology Excellence Gold Panel Award in 2023. All right, Next page. I think ePaper is a very unique technology, and we are dedicated to building and managing the ePaper ecosystem.
We have established an ecosystem of partners that spans IC design, module system integration, and application development. The number of members, member companies, that have joined the ePaper Industry Alliance that we established two years ago, has exceeded 150 members already. You know, building a complete ePaper ecosystem is one of our important business strategies for expanding our business and promoting ePaper products. In first quarter, we have three newcomers in our new ecosystem. Two from IC design. As you can see from the screen, IROHA. And another one is Chipone. Also, one from the TFT backplane, HKC, as you can see from the screen. Right. Next page. Right.
We'd like to share the very exciting study. The study from Harvard School of Public Health comparing the adverse effects of the blue light from displays shows the benefits of E Ink's ePaper on eye health. This study, Harvard study, shows how ePaper is up to three times healthier for your eyes than LCD screens. To be specifically, our device with our front light do not emit any blue light to stress retinal cells. However, if the front light, our unique front light is called ComfortGaze.
If the ComfortGaze is front light being installed, even with the front light, it's up to three times less stressful for retinal cells than LCD devices, as I just mentioned earlier. All right, next page. All right. I think every quarter, we share the achievement and accomplishment in terms of the ESG. Few things we'd like to share. In first quarter, one of the leading magazine in Taiwan is called CommonWealth Magazine. They basically have the ESG corporate sustainability. We are being honored with a comprehensive performance award under the category of electronics and technology sector.
Additionally, we have also made a debut in the top 5% of OTC-listed company in the 11th corporate governance evaluation in Taiwan. Basically, demonstrating our strong commitment to ESG governance and management. Also, good news about credit rating for E Ink. We've received a long-term issue credit rating, twA-, from Taiwan Ratings Corp. The analyst basically in their report pointed out that E Ink revenue scale has significantly increased. In other words, our expense ratio, you know, has decreased accordingly. E Ink has a leading position in the ePaper market with a steady profitability and financial capabilities.
It is expected E Ink will continue to benefit from stable market as its transition toward ePaper. E Ink is the only company in Taiwan in the optoelectronic display industry with a long-term issue credit rating of twA- . Also, there is some very big event organized by a Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan, is called National Industrial Innovation Award. We have been honored just two days ago as a distinguished enterprise innovation. That was quite big honors. That's what I would like to share for the first quarter. We can move forward to the Q&A session.
Yeah.
Thank you.
We now proceed with the Q&A session. At this time, we will open the call up for session for questions. To ask a question, please press raise your hand icon on the sidebar. When we take your question, please remember to unmute yourself. The first question from Max Media.
Hi, Max.
Hey. Thank you very much for taking my question, and congratulations on these great results. I just quickly want to ask if you could share more details on the progress of the capacity expansion and also maybe what demand looks like from customers, especially for the consumer segment in Q2 right now.
Right. Right. Okay. Okay. Max, for the capacity expansion, I think, you are quite familiar with our expansion. We did the expansion last year, so four production lines were involved. The very last one, the fourth one, basically, was completed in the first quarter this year. Everything is going well. The production line is ramping up, we believe, in the third quarter it can start, the contribution. Apart from those four production line in our first expansion, we are planning for the second expansion. Another production line is in process. We placed the PO and basically it should be ready, next year.
That's basically what is all about for the production line. For the outlook for the second quarter, in terms of the sales revenue, I think the second quarter sales revenue should be slightly better than the first quarter. We believe third quarter will also be better than the second quarter, but just, you know, slightly increased. We just had the, you know, the first quarter earning conference in Mandarin one hour ago. The guidance we just gave for 2023, basically, the year-over-year growth still remain the same, lower single digit, in terms of the YoY growth.
Okay, great.
Yeah.
Perfect. Maybe just then a quick follow-up question on this. If you're saying you remain your guidance with low single digit year-over-year growth, which is great. Can you maybe also share last, the last earnings call for full- year 2022, we were talking a lot about the gross margin that you're considering lowering ASP to penetrate the market more quickly. Can you maybe share an update on that?
Sure. Sure. Yeah. Max, I think I can add more color on that, you know, on the YoY growth, that lower single-digit. I think the CE basically this year, the whole year still remain relatively weaker, you know. We are still expecting ESL will be growing. Net-net, you know, it turned out to be a single-digit year-over-year growth. That's the first thing I would like to add. The profit sharing scheme you are referring to, I think the purpose of doing it is basically just try to, you know, open up the e-paper market share, you know.
With the scale up, basically, we can save in terms of the, you know, operational efficiency or those, you know, component savings. We like to contribute those savings back to our partners in our ecosystem. That's what it's all about, you know. I think it's going well. This scheme we want to implement basically will be on specifically on our new technology or new products. It will be gradually implemented. It hasn't really affected our gross profit margin overall.
If your question is relevant to the lower gross profit margin in the first quarter, I think I can take this opportunity to answer this question. Basically, lower gross profit margin, 48 point something percent, that was mainly caused by, you know, for IoT sectors, we also shift the ESL module for our customers. That portion in first quarter was relatively higher. Simply speaking, we ship more module than material. That's the main reasons for the lower, you know, gross profit margin in first quarter. It has just a little bit to do with that, you know, profit-sharing scheme.
I think in last session, Mandarin session, someone also ask the gross profit margin in second quarter. I think the product mix in the second quarter, I think we should be shipping more material, yeah, in second quarter. That gross profit margin would be improved a bit if you compare it with the first quarter. Yeah.
Perfect. Great. Overall, we can say that the profit-sharing scheme does not materially impact the gross profit margin.
We don't think in that way. I think product mix would affect-.
Mm-hmm.
The gross profit margin. However, even if it does, under the condition of, you know, opening up the e-paper market share. Overall, the gross profit will still be increased even with the lower gross profit margin. I think you get my point there.
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Thank you very much for this very extensive answer.
All right. Thank you. Thank you.
Next question from Guido.
Hi, Guido.
Hello. Hi. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to ask a couple of questions. One is just about.
Sure.
The gross margin point that we just talked on. You said that an important part is the mix between modules and materials. How should this trend, you know, over the long term, should we expect significantly more material, or will the mix stay basically the same, or will there be more modules?
Okay. How about I mean, let me answer your first question first. Okay. Is that okay? Let me answer your first question first.
Yeah.
Okay?
Thank you.
All right. Right. I think in the long run, E Ink trying to be a material company. We never meant to, you know, increase the additional module capacity, you know. That's why we would try to, you know, invite a lot of module maker joining into our ecosystem because we believe the ePaper market share will be, you know, massively increased. As long as our new customer system integrator, they need the new module capacity, you know. Those, you know, partners, they can provide. Coming back to your questions, in the long run, since we are aiming to be a material company, more and more ePaper material sales will...
would be, you know, expected. However, during the transition, you know, our new customers always want us to help them to do the module for the new product first, you know. Whenever it's, it gets matured, we hand it over to the module maker. Sometimes, for example, first quarter, more module we manufactured. That led to the relatively lower gross profit margin. I think it will still be happening now and then, but I think in the long run, we are aiming to be a material company.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Yeah.
May I just ask one more question, please? Which is that.
Sure, sure.
another company in this sort of ecosystem is the French-listed company SES-imagotag. They recently announced that Walmart will be rolling out the ESL shelf labels across, I think it was 500 stores in the U.S.
Right.
Two questions or a few questions. Firstly, are you the exclusive supplier to that in terms of the ePaper? Secondly, was that already baked into your expectations? Thirdly, to what extent do you think that Walmart deal will now trigger other tier one supermarkets and retail players to sort of accelerate their ESL strategies? Thank you.
Right. Right. Right. Guido, normally, we don't comment too much on our customers, you know, even end customer. I can give you a bit flavor of it. For the strategic relationship between Walmart and SES. That was under our expectation, you know. That's why we spent efforts on the capacity expansion. However, I think this good news in terms of the shipment, I don't think it will be affect that much this year because the total installation from that news is around 60 million to 80 million, and it takes some time, you know.
I would say more contribution will be happening not this year. I think it should be for next year and going forward. Whether this trigger other first-tier retailers, you know, to install ePaper, we believe so, you know. Hard to comment when it will be happening. We definitely see this positive impact along with this good news.
Okay. Excellent. Just last one. Were you able to comment if you're the exclusive supplier to that or can you not comment?
If you are talking about the ESL ePaper tag, this perspective I believe, we should be the only one who can supply the ePaper tag to SES-imagotag. Yeah. Even, the rest of the key players in this industry. Yeah.
Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you, Guido. Have a nice day.
Next question from Kenny.
Hi, Kenny. Yeah, Kenny, feel free to ask questions.
Kenny, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Maybe Kenny is fixing up the system issue.
Maybe we can pass to next one.
Yeah. Pass it to next one. Whenever Kenny is ready, we can, you know, come back to him. No problem.
Next question from Thurston.
Hi.
Hi. Can you hear me? Hi. Hi. Can you hear me?
Very well.
Oh. Thank you. This is-
Very well.
Thank you. This is Thurston from GSAM. very appreciate the opportunity to speak. Just two questions on my hand. one is I wanna go back to the 1st quarter, your commentary about doing more module business for the ESL tags. I'm just a bit confused. why was there the need to do more module business for the ESL when you Was it the decision just to backfill your module capacity, or this is by requirement of customer for you to do more module, even though essentially that's something that you don't really have to do, you can just do, you know, the material.
Right.
-if you wish. So I think it's just the-
Sure.
The reason behind that. I think in terms of the... I think 2Q you guided that the module part of the ESL tag will be lower. I think, moving forward in general, what is the, you know, the rule of thumb that for the proportion of module for the ESL tag? Thank you. That's my first question. I have another one.
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah. Thurston, I think that's a good question. I also want to take this opportunity to explain further. Yeah. Basically just keep talking. Let me just leave the CE business aside. For the IoT or ESL reason, we want to do the module, you know, when... Let me take ESL, for example. Whenever our system integrators, they want to launch a new ESL product or new ESL technologies, they always want us to help them to work on the module manufacturing first. Because we know ePaper. You know, so we can take care of the module assembly very well. So they want us to do it when it get more matured and hand it over to their module maker.
That is the reason behind. Coming back to your question, it is not that we intentionally want to do more ESL modules. Basically, that's a requirement from the customer.
Okay. Sorry, if I could just clarify, when you said new product ramp, did you mean that, when customers are moving from, for example, from three-color to four color, or do you mean, when customers are going from no ESL to ESL adoption?
That's one of the example. Also, retail signage.
Oh, okay.
is getting popular. Apart from, the, you know, one- inch, two- inch, small size, you know, price tag.
Okay.
They are planning to use, for example, you know, seven- inch, five- inch, nine- inch, that sort of, you know, retail signage, that sort of things. Yeah.
Okay. To follow up on that is whenever a customer want a total solution from you at the beginning, or at least when, or when they go into mass production. For example, in the case of Just for example, like the Walmart, that kind of where there's a 60 million-80 million shipment ramp up, does that mean that you at some point you are forced, you have to be forced to expand module capacity more, since you probably, you know, you're tied up with the Walmart customer, and then you have more other customers that also want a total solution when they're ramping up as well.
Of course, we have the right to choose. We won't be really forced, you know. And I think the requirement is not directly from Walmart.
Okay. Okay.
It should be from the system integrator's choice, you know.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Very clear. My second question is, to your point on the profit sharing schemes not yet kicking in, if I could just ask if there is a... What is the evidence or what is the turning point or what is the catalyst that makes you that's gonna have you push out the profit sharing scheme? For example, let's say Is it something like, let's say customer wants to migrate from 3- color to 4- color, but they wanna keep the final, the cost of the tag the same.
That's kind of the situation where you will push the price sharing scheme to customers where for 3- color to 4- color, you'll keep the price will be the same, so that's, you kind of give that back. Is that the kind of the situation where we should think about it?
Yes. For example, if a customer is thinking to switch from the 3-color to 4-color ESL tag, you know, we will consider the profit sharing scheme, you know. As long as a more 4-color ESL tag would be used, which means we are in a better bargaining position in terms of the volume procurement. The more new product we manufacture, the better operational efficiency we can achieve. Those saving and all that, we are happy to contribute back to our customers. It would work like that, you know.
We basically, we'll not apply the profit sharing scheme to the old products or old technology because we try to encourage our new customer to adopt, to consider our new technology in order to grow the total market share of existing product.
Okay. Sorry, just one minor follow-up on that. I guess the gross margin, long-term 50% gross margin probably doesn't sound like it's the best metric to measure. If I consider the mix of, you know, the existing capacity that's fully depreciated versus the new capacity that's adding in with depreciation.
If I look at the business from perhaps the ROE and ROI perspective, is the consideration that even for the profit sharing schemes, we will continue to keep ROI or ROE, let's say ROE above 25%, or we are okay with saying, you know, ROE going back down from 2022's 25%, you know, or within the, and to more like a 20% range? What is the rule of thumb, I guess the rule of thumb for how aggressive you will go on the profit sharing and maybe how that reflects on our return on investment in general?
Yeah. First, there are so many moving parts, you know, along with your question, so it's very hard to comment. Once again, those profit sharing schemes, by the time we implement, basically, we will make the best interest of the company and the shareholders. We won't.
Okay.
We won't, you know. Just make a decision and try to affect, you know, the best interest of the company in order to win more market share of ePaper products. We basically would cautiously, you know, make a decision in terms of the profit sharing scheme. Yeah, not to worry too much about it. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you very much. Very clear. I'll jump back in the queue.
All right.
Thank you again.
All right. Thank you. Cheers.
Thank you.
Next question from Saurabh.
Hi, Saurabh. If I pronounce your name incorrectly-
Yeah, yeah.
I apologize.
That, that's okay. I'm used to different versions of it. Appreciate. Just one question. When you said your GPM went down in Q1 because of modules you made for, you know, your new applications, can you give some color, I mean, to say, like, as a percentage of sales, what these numbers were this year versus last year?
Come again. Your question is relevant to the gross profit margin, relatively lower gross profit margin in first quarter?
Right.
Okay. All right. Let me explain the business model for our two main business sectors. The one is called CE, consumer electronics. Basically, when I'm talking about CE, it includes eReader and eNote. The business model is we ship the display e-paper display module to our customers. We are using our e-paper, and we also procure external components, having it assembled, and it turn out to be the display module. As you can imagine, the gross profit margin is relatively lower than the material sales that I'm going to talk about next. Another big business sector is called IoT, you know.
IoT, the majority, the majority of it, basically is the ESL, electronic shelf label. Under electronic shelf label, we only supply the e-paper material to our customers. That's pretty much everything in-house. The gross profit margin is relatively higher. Last year, the blended gross profit margin was around 54 something because we sold more ESL. As you can imagine, more material, e-paper material being sold. The blended gross profit margin was relatively higher. This quarter, the gross profit margin is less than 50%. Of course, we sold CE business that is relevant to module.
Under ESL, as I explained earlier, whenever the customer require us to do the module for the new products or new by using new technology, we also do the ESL module. Not very big, but it happened to be more in first quarter. Module sales, you know, if more module sales relatively lower gross profit margin. That turned out to be the gross profit margin in first quarter was relatively lower. I hope I answered your question, yeah.
Sure. so just let's say if I connected with this, then it's all because of, you know, change in mix. That's why the margins are down. You at a company level have not, you know, kind of taken a decision that we are, let's say, you know, kind of increasing penetration, so we are reducing our prices. That because in last call, even in this call, you know, Sandra mentioned that that was the kind of strategy you were, you were, you know, saying in your previous call. Is there... What's the strategy then, you know? Will we be increasing penetration by reducing prices or that's not the case?
I think that fundamentally, the strategy for E Ink is to increase the market share of the ePaper products and more application being used. That is the goal. In order to achieve the goal, we need to manufacture more ePaper to achieve the goal. However, when we increase or expand our manufacturing capacity, we will focus more on the ePaper production capacity. For the existing module capacity we have, we basically will not increase it anymore. Coming back to your questions, you know. Whenever new products, new application going forward, we will try our best to manufacture more ePaper material. If once our module capacity is being fully utilized, we will ask our, you know, module partner in our ecosystem to help out.
If you are talking about the product mix in the long run, I would say, it should be more ePaper material being involved in whatever business sectors in the long run. I think currently, ESL, we are mainly focused on the ePaper material. For CE, basically, we concentrate on the module sales. In the long run, for example, for the e-signage, we see the potential. I think at the beginning, we still will, we will still help our customer to work on the module at the beginning. In the long run, we will still focus on the ePaper material. Yeah.
Sure. Let's say when we talk about eReader, what is your expectation about, you know, this color eReader taking off? All your, you know, clients, they have come to you and already worked on their test case for launching color eReader, or at this moment, not all of them have, you know, are ready with the product? When do you expect them to be ready?
Please come again. I don't quite get your question. I'm sorry.
Okay. Sorry. I was saying when we look at eReader, you are coming up with new product, color eReader.
Right.
I was curious to know, all your clients, they are ready with the color reader, and they are just, you know, waiting to, you know, kind of mass produce it and, you know, launch it into the market? Not all of them are ready? If they all are not ready, when do you expect them to, you know, come to you to, you know, be ready with the new technology?
I would say, some of our customers, they are ready for our, color technology. I think, first quarter and even, second quarter, they have the new, color eReader being launched soon. But for other customers, I think, you have that customer in mind, one of our biggest one.
Yeah.
They are... I wouldn't say they are not ready for our color technology. A lot of discussions being made, you know. Whether how soon or whether they will take our color technology or not is hard to say at this moment. A lot of discussion going on at this moment, and we stay quite positive for this.
Okay. I will discuss-
Because that, yeah, that's so much sensitive. Yeah.
Right.
I only can give you this little color to your question.
Yeah, I appreciate that. This is helpful, actually.
All right.
Very lastly, like you. Just one question, maybe very quickly. When you say ePaper, you know, you want to increase ePaper market share in future. Do you have, let's say, any target in mind? New applications of ePaper are coming in, and obviously, you are engaging with new industries, new clients as well. Can you give me, you know, some color that this is what you think the market size?
Sure.
At this moment.
Sure, sure.
ePaper is much market share. Let's say next 3-5 years, this is what we expect.
Sure, sure. Let me put it this way. Our new color technology, we really want to utilize it to trigger the further growth of the CE business. Let's see whether the company in your mind will be on board or not. Like what I said, I stay positive. Let's wait and see. For ESL, I think the strategic relationship between SES and Walmart, we believe it will trigger other, you know, big guys, to consider the ESL. But how long? I mean, but how soon? When? It's hard to comment, but we do see the potential. For the new application, we basically think outdoor signage has full potential. Why? Few reasons.
I think currently the electricity issue in Europe that really limits the outdoor signage advertisement company, you know, to run their outdoor signage business. Because, you know, there's enough. First thing, there's not enough electricity for them to run the LCD or LED eSignage. Second of all, due to the labor shortage, even the conventional billboard, they don't have enough manpower to replace the advertisement. With our technology, basically it's very power efficient. On top of that, it doesn't produce a light pollution.
Since everything is digitized, you know, so we believe it will be very, very good tool for the, you know, outdoor advertisement company to consider. We do see the potential of this new application.
Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you. Thank you.
The last question from Kenny.
Hi. Thank you, [audio distortion]. Hi, Lloyd. I just got a audio problem. Sorry about that. I have two questions.
Hi.
Hi. Thank you. Hi, I just want to go back to the full year guidance. 2023 now is looking like low single-digit percentage growth. It seems a little bit lower than previous guided at high single-digit percentage. I'm wondering, is it caused by slightly weaker outlook for IoT or actually IoT demand is intact, but it's more because of CE's weaker demand?
I would say the demand from ESL still intact in the long run. The downside is coming more from CE.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much. If I may squeeze in one more follow-up that about the signage.
Sure.
I assume these larger size products entry barrier will be higher, but could you give us some more colors whether it would be due to equipment or materials or any other technology factors? I'm wondering if you have even a greater competitive advantage in such larger sized products compared with small-sized price tags. Thank you.
Kenny, you are talking about entry barrier for the large size ePaper signage, right? Not another competing technology, right?
Yes. Yes.
Okay. Few points. The first one, we need a bigger size equipment for the outdoor signage. That's the first thing, right? Second, not only on the ePaper equipment, but also the module. Because the module equipment we have on hand basically is for the smaller sizes. We need bigger size module machine. Basically, even we expand, it's gonna be the limited expansion. Once again, for the module capacity, we definitely will rely on our module partner in our ecosystem in the long run.
Third of all, one of the very likely for the outdoor signage, the technology would be Kaleido Outdoor, as I mentioned earlier in my presentation. We definitely need a bigger printing machine. I think that though I wouldn't call it obstacles. I mean, those are the main points that we have to consider for the growth of the outdoor signage business. We are I mean, everything is under planning now, and so far so good. We are moving positively. I think that should be the end of our conference.
Okay. Thank you .
Thank you.
Okay. Bye. Thank you for joining us today, and you may now please disconnect your lines. See you next quarter. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone. See you next quarter. Bye-bye.