Now we would like to start the Z Holdings Corporation's fiscal 2023 Q1 business results briefing. Thank you very much for joining us today. We are going to use the material which is available on our website. Today, from Z Holdings Corporation, we have Mr. Takeshi Idezawa, CEO and Representative President, and Mr. Ryosuke Sakaue, Z CFO and Senior Managing Corporate Officer. From LINE, we have Mr. Yuki Ikehata, Senior Executive Officer, Advertising and Corporate Business Management, and from Yahoo, we have Mr. Hiroshi Kataoka, Executive Vice President and Managing Corporate Officer, and Mr. Makoto Hide, also from Yahoo, Managing Corporate Officer. First, Mr. Sakaue will present the Q1 business results, then we take questions. We plan to end this session in about one hour. This session is live streamed.
If you have some difficulties in getting the audio or video, if you go back, go to the bottom of the screen, you'll be able to move to another server. Now I'd like to ask Mr. Sakaue to start the presentation.
Thank you very much for joining us. My name is Sakaue of Z Holdings Corporation. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us. Let me now present the overview of Q1 business results. Next page, please. First of all, let me start with Q1 business results topics. Both revenue and adjusted EBITDA renewed the highest record for Q1. PayPay started services 4.5 years ago, and turned profitable in adjusted EBITDA for the first time.
In media business, account ads revenue grew in double-digit, and the search ad revenue also grew by 5.2% year-on-year. Commerce business adjusted EBITDA margin exceeded 20%, with subsidiaries growth as well as profitability improvement through cost optimization. Through the selective focus on key businesses, we'll be reorganizing domestic financial business. This is the agenda that I'd like to follow. Let me start with consolidated business results of the whole group. This shows the group-wide performance, revenue and adjusted EBITDA, both showed a double-digit growth. Revenue growth is mainly due to the PayPay consolidation and media business revenue increase. Adjusted EBITDA increased with lower fixed costs and also PayPay consolidation and turning into the profitable business in strategy business and the selective focus on key businesses. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 23.2%.
It shows the factors of change in adjusted EBITDA. We have been reducing business commissions and increasing efficiency in sales promotion costs. Last fiscal year, we started the selective focus on the key businesses. We are steadily decreasing the fixed costs. Excluding the listed subsidiaries and PayPay consolidation, our Z Holdings adjusted EBITDA greatly improved. In addition to the growth of the ZOZO and ASKUL, the profitability of the PayPay consolidation improved. Adjusted EBITDA increased as a result. It shows the factors of change in operating income. Although depreciation and PPA amortization increased, with the growth of the adjusted EBITDA, the operating income grew 19.3% year-on-year. In April 2023, the AI company business of LINE was inherited to Works Mobile Japan through absorption-type demerger or split. We booked the transfer profit through the business separation, which is included under the others.
It shows the factors of change in adjusted net income. Equity in losses of associates and joint venture improved with business growth and cost optimization. As our equity ratio in Webtoon changed, we booked gain on change in equity interest. Adjusted net income grew by 34.8% year-on-year. Until now, we did not give you the details below the adjusted EBITDA. Now we are giving more details. As a background of that, the improvement of the capital efficiency, we believe, is one of the important management issues. We understand that it is important to streamline the capital, but realizing the continuous profit growth is the most important thing in our mind, so we continue to expand the profit.
Next is selective focus on key businesses. As we start LINE Yahoo, we will promote selective focus on the key businesses, mainly overlapping businesses. Domestic financial businesses, we had Z Financial and LINE Financial, two companies. Through this reorganization, we have consolidated the functions to Z Financial. Below Z Financial, there is a LINE Securities and LINE Credit Corporation. As for generative AI, I would like to talk about the two perspective, including applications in services and increasing work efficiency. First of all, the applications in services. As for flea market, using the ChatGPT, we will start to provide a feature to assist composition of text to explain items, and we are also considering the introduction to Yahoo! Auctions. As for LINE, we started the service to auto-generate visual images using generative AI.
In terms of work efficiency improvement, in order to improve the productivity of the engineers, we have introduced GitHub Copilot. We concluded an agreement to use all APIs provided by OpenAI. All the employees of the other divisions will be using generative AI to pursue operational productivity and service quality improvement, as well as new service creation. Let me now talk about the new structure after the merger in October. As we announce the business results, we also disclose the new structure. We will streamline the board of directors in order to speed up the decision-making. We will promote the delegation of the authorities, so the company CEO will have authority and responsibility for the management of business domains, and we also promote the product-based businesses. As for the organizational structure, we will have three categories. First, the seven companies, and cross-sectional technologies, and corporate administration.
As MC announced at the beginning, today, I am joined by Mr. Hide, Mr. Kataoka, Mr. Ikehata. They will become the company CEOs of commerce company, media company, and marketing solution company from October. Under this new structure, we will pursue product innovation and profitage improvement. This shows the consolidated full-year guidance. In addition to adjusted EBITDA, we have disclosed the revenue guidance of media business and the commerce business. We'll touch upon this later, we are seeing the signs of ad market bottoming out in media business. Excluding the commerce ad of FY2023, we expect a low single-digit growth of the ad revenue. In commerce business, we plan to start the LYP Premium from November this year, and we expect that the user base to expand.
As our subsidiaries are growing, the FY2023 commerce revenue is expected to be in mid-to-high single digit. Let me move on to a segment, each segment, business results and topics by segment. First, the media business performance trend. In Q1, despite the impact of market conditions on display ads, revenue increased due to recovery in ads on media sections and the consolidation of LINE Music. Adjusted EBITDA is down despite the hiring freeze since the second half of last year, due to new graduate hiring and increased corporate expense allocation to the media business. Next, please. This is group-wide total advertising revenue. Total revenues growth rate, excluding shopping-related ads, is up 1.2% YoY, indicating signs of bottoming out. Next, please. This is factors of changes in display ads.
Revenue of shopping-related ads is down due to the impact of strategic efforts to improve the efficiency of sales promotion expenses in the commerce business. Revenue of reservation ads is down due to the ongoing shift to programmatic advertising. In the short term, we will implement initiatives such as ID linkage and sales team of integration to generate synergies. Integration of the LINE and Yahoo! sales teams is expected to generate upside through analytics across both platforms and a proposal of integrated solutions. In the long term, we intend to increase sales through the integration of advertising platforms and capture the video advertising market. LINE official accounts. The number of paid accounts increased 35.6% year-on-year. To further enhance functionalities and strengthen linkage with the whole Z Holdings services, we have implemented a revised fee plan on June the 1st.
Even after the fee revision, the number of paid accounts continued to increase, and the churn rate did not deteriorate. A positive contribution to the revenue is expected in the mid to long term. Next page, please. Commerce business performance trend.
Reduced promotion expenses at Yahoo! Shopping and the LINE EC led to a significant improvement in profitability, with adjusted EBITDA growing 24.2% year-on-year, and adjusted EBITDA margin exceeding 20% as a result. Next, please. E-commerce transaction value. This is the overall situation. Domestic merchandise transaction value is down 1.9% year-on-year. However, there is a sign of bottoming out. Next, please. Domestic e-commerce transaction value categorized into each area. Domestic shopping transaction value is down 8% year-on-year. However, this represents an improvement from the previous quarter and is in line with our expectations. Domestic reuse business continued to grow steadily, driven mainly by PayPay Flea Market, which is expanding its user base. In the domestic service business, the positive impact of the reopening has run its course, but the travel business still continued to do well. Next, please.
This is profitability improvement and other initiatives in the commerce business, especially Yahoo! Shopping. We are making a steady progress in terms of user retention, product enhancement, and profitability, with continued improvement in Yahoo! Shopping growth margin of 22 points from Q1 last year. We are also enhancing the service offering, essentially resulting in higher ratios of new users repeating in the following month, as well as Blue Ribbon Delivery. As a second half initiative, we are launching LYP Premium membership in November this year, which is expected to increase our commerce service usage by LINE and PayPay users. The improvement in retention rate and profitability prior to the launch of LYP Premium membership should provide a solid base for the growth in the second half. Next, please. Strategic business performance trend. The highlight of Q1 is that adjusted EBITDA of consolidated PayPay turned positive.
Revenue grew significantly year-on-year, driven mainly by the growth of PayPay and PayPay Card. Adjusted EBITDA improved year-on-year and QoQ due to the improved profitability of PayPay and impact of selection and concentration initiative, including finance business reorganization. Going forward, we will improve profitability by optimizing costs and reviewing loss-making businesses, in addition to the growth of PayPay. This slide shows a PayPay business overview. Consolidated revenue continued to grow by more than 40% year-on-year, allowing consolidated EBITDA to turn positive for the first time. Consolidated GMV continued to grow significantly, driven by increases in the number of users as well as in the number of pay, payment transactions. Going forward, we will continue to promote integrated management with PayPay Card, offering seamless payment experience centering on smartphone apps to further expand and diversify our business. These are PayPay Card's major KPIs.
The number of active card members is growing steadily, partly thanks to the synergy with PayPay. Also, with an increase in unit price per transaction, transaction volume grew significantly by 28.2% year-on-year. Next is PayPay Bank's major KPIs. This is the last slide. PayPay Bank is also improving its KPIs steadily, thanks to synergies with PayPay. The number of accounts is maintained double-digit growth due to acquisition through PayPay Mini Apps. Deposit balance is growing steadily, along with the increasing number of accounts. Lastly, business efficiency improvement, one of the management policies this year, is progressing well on both fixed cost reduction and the selection and concentration, contributing to the improvement of Q1 earnings, with PayPay resulting in positive EBITDA.
The other policy of the group of building a foundation for renewed growth from FY2024 onward will be addressed with ID linkage starting in October and LYP Premium membership starting in November. Preparation is going on smoothly so far. We are off to a good start in FY2023, in line with our plan. With a sign of bottoming out in the advertising market. This concludes my presentation. Thank you.
Now, we'll take questions. Please use Raise a Hand button in the Zoom. We'll call your name, the moderator will call your name, and then please unmute and ask your questions. The moderator will call your name, and then you would unmute, and then ask questions. We will limit the number of the questions to two questions per person.
Please ask two questions. Now we are taking questions. First from JPMorgan Securities Japan, we have Mori-San.
Hi. Thank you. My name is Mori of JP Morgan. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I have 2 questions, if I may. First question is about the Q1 adjusted EBITDA results. In comparison to your expectation, how was it? I think that the progress has been pretty good. If it exceeded your expectations, where did it come from? Could you talk about different segments or item of cost reduction, if you can give us some more details. For the SG&A, JPY 10 billion reduction is what we see.
The JPY 30 billion reduction of the fixed cost is what you mentioned at the beginning of the fiscal year, and LINE Securities and Bank have been excluded, and the effect of that have been big. Vis-à-vis your target of the cost reduction, probably you'll be exceeding that JPY 30 billion. If you can talk about the details in Q1. My second question is about advertising. You mentioned that the signs of bottoming out are being seen. These are signs, or as a background of this sign, market factor and also your initiatives, could you talk about those two to let us know what have been happening? In Q2 and onwards, the market could recover further. Is that something that we can expect?
As for the initiatives, LINE account, the fee revision, we will start to see some effect of that. In comparison to Q1, probably the market and your initiatives will go to the next level. Is that something that we can expect? Sorry to be long, a Naver engine, the integrated commerce engine is being introduced. Could you give us some update on that? Advertising, including advertising, if you decide to do so, what would be the potential? What are the expectations in the medium term? Thank you.
Mori-san, thank you very much for your questions. The first question is about the Q1 EBITDA factors and where they came from, and the second is about advertising, market, and our initiatives, and the background of the bottoming out, and what will be happening in Q2 and onwards.
The third is about the commerce search. Ikehata-san will talk about the market in response to your second question. Let me answer to your questions. In Q1, adjusted EBITDA, compared to our expectations, it was better because of the SG&A reduction through the efforts of the employees have gone well. By segment, commerce and strategic segment, those two are the areas that we are seeing the bigger improvements. Relatively speaking, this is something that we are working as a corporate-wide, business commissions and the sales promotions, those two factors, we have been trying to improve the efficiency, and that's something that we have been doing at the company-wide level, and we made good progress.
If I may add, about the LINE Securities, in terms of EBITDA, this is deconsolidated from April, we are currently transferring this. In Q1, LINE Securities' deficit is already booked-- is not booked in the EBITDA, that condition continues to be the same in Q2 and onwards. As for LINE Bank, in the previous quarter, there was a we made a provision to some extent, so Q1 was within the level of the provision. In Q2 and onwards, whether there will be some add-ons, that is not going to be the case. In Q2 and onwards, the forecast, the guidance is that, for the fixed cost reduction, we are making good progress. At the same time, in the second half, LYP Premium and ID linkage, those are planned.
Product quality will be very important, and we need to go in further to build such foundation, but we want to make sure that we manage this well. As for the EBITDA guidance for the full year, we want to make sure that we achieve that target, and that's going to be unchanged. Second part, about the advertising, the initiatives in search, LINE official account and display, we have various measures and initiatives that we are, have been adding. We are building the foundation for growth. In Q2 and onwards, as for the forecast, the low single digit is what we mentioned in terms of range. In Q2 and onwards, the low single digit growth is what we expect for the full year.
The market conditions are still uncertain, so that is what we can say. Now, as for the commerce search, we are testing various things, so we are still evaluating them, and we will continue to do so. We are still in the testing phase. Ikehata-san will answer to your second part of your question. Yes, Ikehata is going to answer to your second question.
The market, the bottoming out, we see some signs, as we said, and as a background, you may, may add, the advertising market as a whole. If I may talk about that, the companies and partners and the agencies, through the conversations with them, the ad budget of one company, going back to the level, is not something that we are seeing.
We are still seeing the, a plateau or the flat situation. I think that the companies are now obliged to more efficiently utilize their budget, and they're more aware of such budget management. More specifically, for example, digital marketing and digital advertising, allocating budget for those is something that we are seeing. In the second half, gradually, the recovery trend is something that we expect. As you commented about official accounts and the fee revision, and that's something that might contribute in the second half. In response to that, yes, that is the case. As we presented, the fee plan revision and the cancellation, we did not see the negative impact.
This plan change, this gives us the continuous revenue to us, so we are working so that we can see the gradual improvements. I'd like to clarify something about the commerce search. In relation to Naver, we have not yet introduced that. About the commerce query, we are considering many things right now. That is our answer to your comment.
Thank you. Just one thing, Sakaue-san, one follow-up question. For this term, I think that the Q1 result was better than expectation, but the guidance numbers are maintaining those numbers. Also, if you have a buffer in the second half, you want to invest that for the future.
Well, in the, for the medium to long term growth, we would like to invest, but we also need to think about the fiscal discipline and the investment efficiency. We are not going to make the wasteful investment in order to achieve our targets. That means that if the investment efficiency is not so good, it is possible that we have a short-term profit, but that could damage the medium to long term, so it's difficult to say. We would like to consider all of those factors.
Thank you. Sorry, I asked three questions instead of two.
Thank you very much. Next question is from SMBC Nikko Securities, Maeda-san. Please unmute yourself.
Maeda from Nikko. Thank you very much. PayPay business and the commerce business, especially regarding commerce, shopping, I have questions. PayPay, consolidated EBITDA was JPY 1.7 billion. Quarter in the previous year was JPY 2.4 billion. What was the factors behind the improvement? Previous year, JPY 2.4 billion, is it with the PayPay Cards as well? Is it included? This year, JPY 1.7 billion, other than PayPay Cards contribution, do we have sufficient profits there within, in JPY 1.7 billion? What is the breakdown? Payments and promotion services and the others, finance services, do you include all of these? There was a positive profit of JPY 1.7 billion. What is the breakdown? This positive profit, is it sustainable going forward?
Sometime in the future, are you going to record expenses and this might fall into negative profit once again? If you could give us those details, that would be great. Regarding shopping, this year, you are prioritizing cost control and efficiency improvement. If you look at your competitors, because of the tough business situation, it seems that they are rather investing. So, so, probably the company can invest rather than protect, given the current situation. At this point in time, even if you spend promotion costs, the structure of shopping itself going forward, for the yield of users, you cannot secure that probably in the future. Is your priority still cost reduction, or is it time for you to turn more offensive on your shopping business at this point in time? What is your stance?
Could you hold on a minute? Hi. For the first question about PayPay improvement breakdown, Sakaue would like to answer. The second question will be answered by Mr. Hide, who's in charge of commerce.
For the reason for the improvement in PayPay revenue, including GMV, there was a huge growth in sales and the revenue that it pushed up the growth margin. The fixed cost has gone up a little bit. However, we have compensated for that with the increase in revenue. There was some acquisition cost, but even after that, we were able to earn enough gross profit. That's why we had a positive profit. In terms of breakdown, the payment business is still the main business there for PayPay, the payment business is the driver actually of the positive profitability. For the positive profit, whether this is sustainable or not, was the question.
Rather than that, we are focusing on the growth of the cashless in market. Therefore, we would like to continue to spend necessary promotion costs, sales promotion costs, while paying attention to the profitability. Hide is going to respond to your second question.
Yes, I would like to address the second question. Once again, whether we are activating the commerce investment or not was the question. As you alluded in a question, at the moment, the cost or investment efficiency improvement is our priority. That's the first and foremost, our priority. After this phase, once again, we would like to promote the regrowth, and once again, we want to promote the growth of the size of the business. In terms of the cost reduction, rather than investing by compensating, compromising our investment, the service quality, product quality, we are focusing on that. This is a new company, so we want to have a good asset level for this company, for the investment.
The first milestone is LYP Premium in November and ID linkage with that. Mainly from the second half, we are promoting the regrowth of Yahoo! Shopping. For that, we would like to actively utilize the assets of the new company. That was my response. Sorry, there was one missing part regarding the first consolidated PayPay EVA. This slide shows the PayPay cards included as well. This slide shows page 22, includes the PayPay cards.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Next, from Goldman Sachs Japan, Munakata-san. Please unmute yourself.
Munakata speaking from Goldman Sachs. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I have two questions, please. First is about strategic business. Another is ID linkage related question. First question is about strategies. The selective focus on the core businesses have been going on, PayPay has turned profitable in Q1. Now, PayPay turning profitable, the position of the LINE Pay, could you explain that? The optimum business structure, what do you think would be the optimum business structure in the future? The second question, in terms of the management of the private information, you mentioned, or the media reported that there are some challenges in relation to that. Could you talk about the current status? In October, you plan to have a ID linkage.
Do you expect some issues or the delay in ID linkage? Thank you.
Thank you very much. About the strategic segment, I'd like to respond, Sakaue. As for the private information related, Idezawa will answer to your question.
About the strategic segment, your question is about LINE Pay. LINE Pay, currently, the digital content online, still use LINE Pay. Discontinuing the service or integrating the entities is not something that we are planning to do. At the same time, we are, have been selecting and concentrating on the different key businesses, and we'll continue that. There are a lot of possibilities that we'd like to pursue. That's my answer to your first question.
Yes, about the ID linkage. As we planned, from the beginning of October, we will start the ID linkage, and we're preparing for that. So we would like to explain to the users in detail, and we'd like to proceed smoothly. Thank you for your question. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
Next is from Citigroup Global Markets. Tsuru-s an, please.
Yes, thank you very much. Congratulations on the very strong performance. First question, this is about strategic focus. ChatGPT and generative AI, in your current situation, what are pros and cons of that? In the chat, you said that, you started to use generative AI. On the other hand, in the search ads, Microsoft, for the overseas markets, I think including Japan, that's where they are taking market share. That's what they are saying. A very wild argument, probably this is, but for the search engine, LINE plus ChatGPT Plus, maybe theoretically, it's possible to switch to that. So what are the pros, pros and cons of these possibilities, please?
Tsuru -san? Ah, you just asked one question.
Okay, I will go to my second question. My second question is about cost reduction. For the last quarter, there was 10 billion JPY SG&A reduction. For the selling expenses, what is the progress so far in cost reduction at the moment, compared with the expectation at the beginning of the year? At the moment, how much progress did you make? Eventually, how much is possible by the end of this fiscal year? Those are the two questions.
Yes, thank you. First question was about generative AI. The second question was about the progress and the outlook on cost reduction. I would like to take up both of the questions. For generative AI, there are pros and cons. In the presentation today, we showed you positive aspects, such as efficiency improvement of our work. This is a very effective technology for that.
In terms of the business, in the industry where we are playing, generative AI can be the driver of various innovations and changes. Therefore, in different services today, we are prioritizing a discussion of the use of generative AI. With that, we would like to come up with new services and user experiences. If we do that, we can promote more use of internet. That will be all positive for our company. Also, for search engine part, there was a question you asked. There are various search experiences, including overseas examples. There are many, so we are investigating into those cases, use cases. In that sense, for the generative AI, does that lead to the UI improvement and also a search engine improvement? We are trying to figure out what will be the benefits.
What kind of energy, engine and technological base should we use? Including that question, we are discussing all these aspects within our company. When the time is right, we would like to give you more details and respond to your questions in more detail. Regarding the second question, cost reduction, the progress is favorable, and it is actually faster than what we had planned originally. In the beginning of the year, we said JPY 30 billion reduction. Regarding this JPY 30 billion, we think we can hit this target expectation. Furthermore, how much more can we go for Q3 and Q3? We would like to wait and see, and we would like to update you on the progress when the time comes.
Anyways, outsourcing e-expenses and other fixed expenses, during Q1, we were able to reduce it to a certain extent. That was a great achievement, we think. That's my answer.
Thank you. May I? Yes. There is a follow-up question regarding cost reduction. JPY 30 billion, you said you have a good progress towards this. What is the run rate? That means for against the annual reduction target, how much did you do so far? Could you give us a quantified answer?
Sorry, this is undisclosed information, but the plan internally is JPY 30 billion. We are on trend as well as some extra at the moment.
Thank you. Second question, regarding search engine. For using generative AI, UI accuracy, you are trying to improve, you are looking at these possibilities. Is it just about AI, or are you looking at ChatGPT as well? Because they are the latest, right? Most advanced. You have HyperCLOVA, but it's still lagging behind, according to Mr. Miyakawa of SoftBank. For ChatGPT, are you including it as one of the candidates for your search engine?
Are you considering that possibility as well? Well, regarding a specific product, we would like to refrain from mentioning specific products, but we are evaluating various different products in trying to figure out the possibilities. At this point in time, we cannot tell you our judgment on which product is good and bad. On this point as well, we would like to give you an update in the future. Thank you very much. Those are all questions from myself. Thank you very much.
Next, from UBS Securities, we have Fukuyama-s an. Please unmute and ask your question.
Thank you. This is Fukuyama of UBS. I have two questions. First, is about ID linkage. Second, is about Yahoo login user number. About the ID linkage and LYP Premium and the advertising and commerce rippling effect, the impact on the top line. In the second half, do you think that you can expect some impact? Could you give us the update in terms of timeline? The ID linkage, you mentioned that several years might be necessary, so what would be the timeframe before we see the effects or impact? As much as possible, please give us some explanation. That's my first question. The login user number, I think that the slight decrease was observed in the past two quarters, so what were the reasons?
In order to increase the number of users, the portal itself needs to be more attractive, so UI and UX can be renewed to attract more young users. Maybe you need to innovate the product. As of now, what are the things that you're considering? Could you give us some update? Thank you.
Yes. To your first question about the effect of the ID linkage, and second is ID login user, which is slightly declining, and the reasons behind that, and what are we doing to counter that. I'd like to answer to that, and to the second question, Kataoka-san, will talk about Yahoo login and also media in the wider range.
ID linkage, until now, as I answered, we cannot-- we do not expect everyone to give us consent, so gradually, we would make progress in ID linkage and the number of combined or linked IDs. The media and content targeting can be done, and as a result, ad targeting will progress. ID linkage, as we make a progress, gradually, the media use or ad part will see the positive impact. That's what we expect. More specific numbers and so forth are, are not disclosed. Second question, about the number of login users. Sorry, I cannot give you the answer right away, but login is down to some extent, but there has been some seasonal factors. Kataoka-san can explain further, including the future trends.
Yes, this is Kataoka speaking.
About login, yes, younger users, and attracting them, we believe is necessary. In that sense, LINE, together with LINE, the ID linkage starting in October, and the linking the functions and features and the services, Yahoo login user, we plan to increase the number. Also, high login ratio is in comparison to PC and the smartphone, the apps have a higher login ratio. We want to make sure that we can work with the apps, so that the indispensable functions for the users can be added, so that we can increase the login ratio. When we have the higher login ratio, as Sakaue said, the revenue per login will be higher than those users who do not log in, so that would lead to the top line growth. Thank you.
About the commerce, yes, Hide, Hide can answer to your question.
Yes, this is Hide. LYP Premium impact, how do we expect that on commerce? LYP Premium, by providing it, the biggest thing is that the LINE user becoming premium members. I think that's the biggest thing. LINE will be added to the Yahoo! Premium, and they will become the new LYP Premium members. Those people who have not used Yahoo! Shopping can become the members, and then the, just like the Yahoo! Premium, the commerce point can be provided in the preferential way. That can be used as a hook. That's the structure that we expect. As for the impact, the size of it, it will be linked to the member, a number of members.
Usually, it, first of all, the new user acquisition will increase rather than the overall GMV. From the second half to the next year, we want to make sure that will take root and so that we can eventually increase the GMV. That's what I expect. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your answers.
Thank you. Next is from Nomura Securities, Masuno-san. Please, please unmute yourself.
I have two questions. One is about PayPay, the other is about base cash flow. Regarding PayPay, in PayPay cards, in the quarter, 3 billion JPY or 4 billion JPY positive profit is there. Probably you can go a little bit more. Is that the situation today? For MVA, it is a little bit weak. Can you bring it up? I think that there are many measures that you can possibly take in order to improve it. Also, regarding the card, well, is the gold selling very well? What is the basis for sustainability of the card business? Second, non-financial business. Second question, we talked about the non-financial, but the business cash flow is also important because EBIT ratio is two times.
If it's an internet company, three times or four times leverage would not be a problem at all. In terms of BS and cash flow, what is your basic stance about those BS and the cash flow? That's the two questions. Thank you very much.
The first question was about PayPay, and the second is about BS and cash flow. I would like to take up all of these questions. Regarding the unconsolidated PayPay profit level, sorry, this is not disclosed from the company, that's the answer. Rather than PayPay Card, PayPay growth was the driver of the consolidated profitability, positive profitability. Regarding NPA, the P2P and the friends-to-friends money transfer, that is one area, there are others as well, like merchants and promotions.
You can continue to use the same merchants, so that's how we would like to increase the MTU. For the net increase of cards, major driver is PayPay, and that's what we are guiding users towards and recommending users. When they use PayPay, the PayPay Cards and the new registration or sign-up for the PayPay Cards is likely. On top of that, from, not only, the, PayPay can be used. From April, it became available. For, there are many usage that we are providing. Therefore, there is some contribution to PayPay Cards from that as well. For the BS and cash flow, what you said is correct.
The basic stance is, except for finance business, as you can see in the appendix, for the net leverage ratio, it is from two to three times. That's the internal benchmark we are looking at as a guidance, a guideline. Within that range, we would like to control for the net business and in managing the BS as a net internet company. For the finance business, well, for bank business and payment business, it's different. For the bank business, there is a capital adequacy that we have to watch. Also for the card business, well, payments come before. That's the business model. The liquidation and securitization of the credits is something we are looking at so that we can minimize the cost for securing capital.
For the consolidated PayPay, the charge, and a charged balance payment is still majority, basically, cash conversion is negative because the money is accumulating in the first place. In terms of the funds, for the PayPay unconsolidated, there is no issue with that. Sorry, those were the comments that I can make. Regarding the leverage of three times, maybe another JPY 300 billion is something you can make in terms of the leverage. You can spend JPY 300 billion for something else, please consider this possibility.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okumura-san of Okasan Securities, please unmute and ask your questions.
Okumura speaking of Okasan. Thank you very much. Two questions, please. First, the point of clarification, LYP Premium. ID linkage is done, and this is something that, that is provided to the users who link the ID free of charge? If that is the case, ID linkage might be able to accelerate. Just like the Yahoo! Premium, the monthly billing, is that something that you will continue? That's something that I'd like to clarify. That's my first point. Second point is that the equity investment loss in Q1, PayPay, excluding PayPay, I think that you're improving this. As a breakdown, the content and commerce payment, the business environment, how did it improve, and what would be the future direction? Do you think that the, the current speed of improvement will continue? Thank you. Those are the 2 questions.
Thank you very much. First question, LYP Premium member, when you link the ID, providing this free of charge is not something that we are considering. Attractive point provision is something that the people can use, that we would emphasize that the premium member attractiveness to gain the number of the members. In terms of collaboration with the SoftBank.
SoftBank users can have a, can continue to use the premium membership with higher point provision. As for the second question, the equity investment losses, I think there is still room for further improvement. This time, in the appendix, as you can see, the negative number in others is more than half of it, so those are unspecified companies, so overseas financial business mostly. We, the business expansion is happening, and the red number is being reduced. They might come, as they disclosed, they are trying to become profitable in FY 2025. Equity investment, we believe, can turn to a profit with that.
As we said previously, from 2023 to 2025, internally 2024 and 2025, in FY, we want to make those business profitable. If the businesses are not profitable in FY 2025, if it, is it meaningful to continue or not, we might make a judgment. That's a kind of a guideline that we have. The equity investment number from the red number to the profitable number, we would of course, want to move to the equity investment gains rather than losses. Thank you.
The profitability improvement will continue. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's all.
We, we are getting closer to the ending time, so we would like to take one more question from Kumazawa-san, Daiwa Securities. Please unmute yourself and ask the question.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. One question: in October, there will be ID linkage, and you are consolidating the database, and which is incurring some costs, I assume. Has it been already accounted for? What is the pace of recognition? It, it will be largest in the September quarter.
Thank you very much. Regarding the cost for ID linkage, in Q2, if there is any additional major expenses or not, and no, the answer is no. We already have the assets, we are using them. For the ID linkage, there isn't any specific additional cost or expenses for that. You don't have to worry about that part. Of course, for the ID linkage, in order to promote this, there may be some promotional costs and expenses in the future, which we would like to consider, but that is the limitation. That is, it is limited to that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. With this, we would like to conclude the Q&A session. Finally, Mr. Sakaue would like to say a few words. Mr. Sakaue, please.
Yes, Sakaue speaking. We are now limiting the time to 60 minutes, and we had a variety of questions and many questions. If you need some additional explanation, please ask questions to IR team. As first quarter, I think that we made a good start, so we want to make sure that we grow top line and also generate profit. That is most important thing. We'd like to make sure that we do this at the same time. Thank you very much for your participation today.
Conclude?