Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to JOYY Inc.'s First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the management's prepared remarks, there'll be a question-and-answer session. I'd now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Jane Xie, the company's Senior Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Jane.
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to JOYY's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. Joining us today are Mr. David Xueling Li, Chairman and CEO of JOYY, Ms. Ting Li, our COO, and Mr. Alex Liu, the General Manager of Finance. For today's call, management will first provide a review of the quarter, and then we will conduct a Q&A session. The financial results and webcasts of this conference call are available at ir.joyy.com. A replay of this call will also be available on our website in a few hours. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that we may make forward-looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from our current expectations.
For detailed discussions of the risks and uncertainties, please refer to our latest annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the SEC. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this conference call are in U.S. dollars. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. David Xueling Li. Please go ahead, sir.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2022 earnings call. Let me start the call with an overview of our first quarter results. In line with our previous expectations, as various parts of the world started to emerge from pandemic restrictions, a combination of factors, including macroeconomic weakness, seasonality, and unfavorable foreign exchange impact contributed to drag on our top-line growth during the first quarter. For the first quarter of 2022, our group's total revenue was $623.8 million, decreasing by 3% year-over-year. Among which BIGO's revenue was $534.6 million, decreasing by 8% year-over-year. However, our global business has demonstrated resilience despite the challenging market environment and weak seasonality. Such resilience is mainly attributable to our sustainable growth model and further improvements to our operating efficiency.
When compared to prior year period, we achieved a steady improvement in profitability during the first quarter of 2022. Excluding YY Live, we recorded a non-GAAP net profit of $20.9 million and expanded our non-GAAP net margin to 3.3% compared to a non-GAAP net loss margin of 3.5% in the prior year period. BIGO's non-GAAP net profit grew to $59.9 million, while its non-GAAP net margin improved to 11.2%. In addition, our operating cash flow remained healthy and reached positive $59.2 million in the first quarter. I talked last quarter about some of the increasing macro complexities facing our business. As a global company with worldwide operations, we are not immune to international macroeconomic volatilities.
During the initial outbreak of COVID-19 from early 2020 to mid 2021, we experienced an acceleration in business growth as the online social entertainment industry in general enjoyed greater user engagement and activities amidst prevalent lockdowns. However, as the world emerged into the post-pandemic era, the long-term effect of COVID lingered, and the global economy suffered from anemic growth recovery and significant inflationary pressures. These adverse macro trends damped the global consumers' confidence, reduced their spending power and posed challenges for our business growth in the short run. However, from a medium and long-term perspective, global users diversified individual demand for social entertainment remains high, and the long-term trend of transitioning social entertainment activities from offline to online is still irreversible. As we look further into our key operational regions include North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Our product penetration rates is still relatively low, which creates substantial headroom for us for further penetrate the market. On top of that, I want to share some thoughts on our operating philosophy. First, we remain committed to our globalization through localization strategy, which has been vital to the rapid growth in our global business over the past few years. Globalization and diversification help us minimize our single region exposure, cushioning the blow from cyclical fluctuations in certain regions. We will further localize our operation team by recruiting professionals with international backgrounds to drive our content localization, innovation, and integration. Second, we will grow our user community by offering diverse social entertainment services with rich local and premium content offerings.
At the same time, by continuously upgrading our product and user interface and experience innovation, we seek to further optimize the , the social networking experience of our users. With our reach and the direct content efficiency, content recommendation engine, and products that better nurture users' social networking needs, we should be able to further expand our product reach and ultimately fuel our monetization growth. Third, we will continue to execute our sustainable ROI-driven growth strategy and a balance between growth and profitability in 2022. We believe that under the current market environment, maintaining a strong operating cash flow is crucial to safeguard our needs for long-term growth. As a company established in 2005 and with 10 years of listing history, we have been constantly adapting to evolving market conditions and have achieved significant breakthroughs.
We believe that with our established operation capacity, continuous iteration on our user-centric products, persistent execution on a sustainable growth model, and striving to maintain robust cash flows, we are in a stronger position to navigate the current macroeconomic challenges and find emerging growth opportunities along the way. Let me dive deeper into the progress we made in each of our product lines. Let's start with BIGO LIVE. In the first quarter, BIGO LIVE's MAU grew by 8.8% year-over-year to 31.7 million. As I have just mentioned, impacted by global economic uncertainties, seasonal weakness and multiple local currencies depreciated against the U.S. dollar.
BIGO LIVE's live streaming revenue and the paying users in the first quarter decreased by 9.6% and 1.5% year-over-year, respectively. Geographically speaking, our operation in Europe was less affected when compared with prior year periods. During the quarter, both our revenue and the number of paying users from Europe sustained their growth momentum and increased by 10.4% and 3.1% year-over-year, respectively. During the first quarter, we continued to diversify our localized premier content offerings on BIGO LIVE, driving improvement in its user engagement. For example, we hosted the Europe Talent Champions League, inviting streamers from various countries to produce local themed interactive content for European users. In Malaysia, we partnered with WeTV to offer our users exclusive access to streaming television dramas and reality shows on BIGO LIVE.
Thanks to our diversified premier content, our user engagement improved and as evidenced by the 9.9% and the 2.1% sequential increase in the average duration of live streaming sessions and the average viewer time spent respectively. BIGO LIVE has always been dedicated to fostering engaging and inclusive community. It has been an important venue for global users to connect with others with similar background or interests. In March, we launched a community feature which is a space enabling users, especially new European users, to establish and join different interest groups and quickly connect with like-minded people within each community. User can interact with friends, video post, and join their live sessions, thereby significantly improving the efficiency of social interaction.
Since this feature launch, various interest-based communities have flourished with themes such as fitness, pop dance, dining, and others, thus enhancing the diversification of our user content production, as well as promoting the consolidation of our real-time and non-real-time content pools. Next, let's turn to Likee. Following our proactive adjustment of Likee's marketing strategy, Likee's MAU fluctuation continued in the first quarter, and its MAU reached 61.8 million in the first quarter. Due to the proactive adjustment coupled with macro uncertainty and seasonal fluctuations, Likee's live streaming revenue declined by 11.9% year-over-year. However, its live streaming revenue in the Middle East region turned out slightly better than that in other markets, recording a year-over-year increase by 29.4%.
Likee continued to cultivate a diversified and vibrant content community by nurturing talented creators through our comprehensive support program. In the first quarter, Likee focused on equipping creators with additional interactive tools and localized operational services. Following the introduction of Super Likee and Super Follow features, we launched a personal voice chat feature in certain regions on Likee, encouraging additional real-time and direct interactions between creators and their fans group. In South Asia during the local wedding season, Likee's local operations team launched a number of wedding-related challenges to encourage creators to showcase traditional wedding culture, featuring local wedding dresses, makeups, and ceremonies, attracting millions of page views. Thanks to our comprehensive creators support program, the number of Likee certified creators increased by 8.4% sequentially in the first quarter.
To meet users diversified social interactions need, we also launched a friend feature to allow user to create their own private community groups and exclusively share their personal content with designed, designated, groups, enabling individualized social experience on Likee. We believe that the trend, the feature will help merge Likee users offline, online social networks, and reduce their psychological barriers to produce and share their own content online. During the first quarter, as Likee continued optimization of its short videos and live streaming features and enhance integration between the two. User engagement with Likee live streaming improved with average viewer time spent on live streaming growing by 45.6%. Likee's live streaming DAU penetration rate increasing by 10.9% sequentially. Next on Hago.
During the first quarter, Hago maintained its monetization growth trajectory as its live streaming revenue increased by 24.2%, and the number of paying users grew by 40.5% year-over-year. Based on our product team's deep user insight, Hago upgraded several product features to explore new innovations in multiplayer social interaction and further enhance user social experience. This quarter, Hago launched a new feature called Hago Space, allowing users to create their own 3D digital avatars and interact with others in virtual 3D screens. Users can engage in a variety of activities in their 3D avatar, including voice chat, coloring, gaming, and gifting. Shortly after the new feature was launched, we observed positive impact on users' social activities and the feature's channel penetration.
In the following quarter, Hago plans to further enrich users' Hago Space experience by introducing more 3D virtual screens, virtual items and casual games. Finally, some updates on capital return. In the first quarter, we continued to enhance return to shareholders and protect their interest through share repurchase program. In the first quarter, we bought back accumulated 80.2 million of our shares. As of March 31st, we have repurchased in total 350.8 million of our shares out of the previous announced repurchase program of $1.2 billion. Taken together by capitalizing our diversified global product metrics and continuous operating efficiency improvements, our global business demonstrated resilience amidst challenging external environment during the first quarter. We remain confident in the middle to long-term growth prospects of the global social entertainment market.
We will continue to prioritize the cultivation of our content and social ecosystems and seek to maintain a strong cash flow while seizing emerging business opportunities along the way. We remain committed to delivering long-term value to our shareholders. This conclude my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call to our General Manager of Finance, Alex Liu, for our financial updates.
Thanks, David. Hello, everyone. Now let me go through the details of our financial results. Please note the financial information and non-GAAP financial information disclosed in our earnings press release is presented on a continuing operating basis, unless otherwise specifically stated. As the sale of YY Live was substantially completed on February 8, 2021, with certain customary matters to be completed in the future, we have ceased consolidation of YY Live business since February 2021. During the first quarter of 2022, due to increased macroeconomic uncertainties, seasonality and some depreciation of certain currencies against U.S. dollar, our total net revenues for the first quarter decreased to $623.8 million from $643.1 million in the same period of 2021. In particular, our live streaming revenues for the first quarter was $590.1 million.
Other revenues in the first quarter increased by 16.3% to $33.7 million. Cost of revenues for the first quarter decreased by 4.6% year-over-year to $422.6 million. Revenue sharing fees and content costs was $279.9 million in the first quarter compared with $282 million in the same period of 2021. Bandwidth costs decreased to $20.9 million from $29.5 million in the same period of 2021. Primarily due to the company's improved efficiency in bandwidth usage, partially offset by the increased bandwidth usage as a result of continued user base expansion of BIGO LIVE .
Gross profit increased to $201.2 million in the first quarter, with our gross margin improved to 32.2% from 31.1% in the same period of 2021. As we continued to enhance our operating leverage and execute a prudent marketing strategy, operating expenses for the first quarter decreased by 28.1% to $200.6 million, from $279 million in the same period of 2021. Among the operating expenses, sales and marketing expenses decreased to $104.4 million from $137.4 million due to disciplined sales and marketing spending on certain products, including Likee and Hago. As a result, we continued to achieve a steady expansion in our GAAP and non-GAAP profitability for both BIGO segment and the entire group.
Our GAAP operating income for the first quarter was $6.3 million, compared to operating loss of $73 million in the same period of 2021. Operating income margin for the first quarter was 1% compared to operating loss margin of 11.4% in the same period of 2021. Our non-GAAP operating income for the first quarter, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, amortization of intangible assets from business acquisitions, as well as impairment of goodwill and investment and gain on disposal of subsidiaries and business, was $33.3 million in this quarter compared to non-GAAP operating loss of $29.7 million in the same period of 2021. Our non-GAAP operating income margin for the first quarter was 5.3% compared to non-GAAP operating loss margin of 4.6% in the prior year period.
GAAP net loss from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY in the first quarter of 2022 was $27.5 million, compared to net loss of $87.3 million in the same period of 2021. Net loss margin was 4.4% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to net loss margin of 13.6% in the corresponding period of 2021. Non-GAAP net income from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY in the first quarter was $20.9 million, compared to non-GAAP net loss of $24.1 million in the same period of 2021. The group's non-GAAP net income margin was 3.3% in the first quarter of 2022, compared to non-GAAP net loss margin of 3.7% in the same period of 2021.
Notably, BIGO's non-GAAP net income expanded to $59.9 million in the first quarter, with its non-GAAP net income margin improved to 11.2% from 1.6% in the prior year period. Together with our improving profitability, we have maintained a strong operating cash flow as well for the first quarter of 2022. We booked net cash inflows from operating activities of $59.2 million. Importantly, we have continued to enhance returns to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase. In accordance with our previously announced quarterly dividends plans approved in August and November 2020, we will be distributing a dividend of $0.59 per ADS for the first quarter of 2022.
This is expected to be paid on July 6, 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on June 23, 2022. Additionally, in September and November 2021, our board of directors have authorized additional share repurchase plans under which the company may repurchase up to $1.2 billion of its shares in total. In the first quarter, the company had repurchased an additional $80.2 million of its shares under these programs. As of March 31st, 2022, the company had in total repurchased approximately $315.2 million of its shares under these programs. These efforts demonstrate our confidence in the company's long-term growth and profitability prospects. We will continue to actively utilize share repurchase to create value for our shareholders and current market conditions.
Going forward, as David just mentioned, while we prioritize investment into the cultivation of our content and social ecosystems, we will continue to execute our sustainable ROI-driving growth strategy. We plan to continue to enhance our operating leverage, improve returns for each of our products, and seek to maintain a strong operating cash flow. This we will believe will provide us with greater financial flexibility to invest in our business and fundamental capabilities. For our business outlook, we have anticipated some negative impacts on user online social entertainment activities from the gradual lift of pandemic-related lockdowns in certain countries. Macroeconomic environment volatilities and exchange rates fluctuations will also continue to pose uncertainties for our global business. We expect our net revenues for the second quarter of 2022 to be between $579 million and $600 million.
We currently have limited visibility surrounding the macroeconomic environment, COVID-19 epidemic's long-term impact, and geopolitical uncertainties on our business and the markets in which we operate. Therefore, this forecast only reflects our current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we would now like to open up the call to questions. Thanks.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. When asking a question, please state your question in Chinese first, then immediately repeat your question in English. Thank you. Our first question will come from Alex Poon at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hey,
My first question is related to the post-COVID normalization and causing our revenue weakness in first half. Can management share with us when do you expect revenue growth to return to positive year-over-year growth? Just now management also mentioned about the weaker macro environment impact on our business. How should we look at the full year 2022 revenue growth? My second question is related to TikTok, which recently has started a subscription business like Twitch.
Also plan to start casual game business in Vietnam. Can management share with us on new monetization strategy? Do we have any new plans? Thank you.
好，谢谢你的问题。我想第一个就是说从去年下半年以来，随着全球用户基本上都开始恢复了线下出行，用户的线上社交娱乐活动实际上是有所减少的。而且，因为疫情带来的经济方面的后遗症，这些问题还在持续。在疫情期间，各个地区，其实全球都采取了刺激经济的政策，还有宽松的货币政策，当这些政策逐渐取消以后，全球经济增长面临的不确定性和通胀压力，对用户的付费信心，还有他们的实际付费能力都造成了影响。当下这个宏观的不确定性，确实给我们的业务增速带来了挑战。但是，我觉得这个挑战，不仅仅是对我们一家企业的，其实全球所有的企业都面临着类似的挑战。但是，我觉得机遇往往也是伴随着挑战的。其实在2020年到2021年的这两年中，存在了各种各样的挑战。但是，我们也把握住了一些增长的机会。通过过去几年的全球市场开拓、运营经验的积累，我们的营收规模不断扩大，从2019年的$9亿的营收规模成长到了2021年的$26亿的营收规模，实现了全球业务的盈利，并且也有了比较健康的经营现金流，这些都赋予我们更多的基础去克服宏观不确定性带来的挑战，然后把握一些未来的增长机会。所以我觉得面临2022年，我们的关键词还是要兼顾增长和利润，因为整个宏观不确定性的增加，使我们会更加审慎，还有紧密地评估市场的变化，坚持可持续性发展，而且要以ROI为导向的增长策略，保持长期的业务韧性。
Thank you, Alex. For your first question, as I just mentioned, since the second half of last year, as global users resume offline travel, there had been negative impact on users' online social activities. Yet we have noticed that the long-term effects of the pandemic on the global economy actually are still continuing in 2022, especially as multiple regions have adopted financial stimulus plans during the pandemic as well as easing monetary policy. As these policies being gradually removed, we see increased uncertainty of the global economic growth and also the rising inflation affected consumers' consumption confidence and also their paying capability. Such adverse macro trends definitely pose uncertainties and challenges for our business growth in the short term. These challenges are not for us alone.
They actually apply to all of the companies with worldwide operations. We also want to point out that opportunities often come with challenges. As you can see, in the past two years, between 2020 and 2021, we successfully navigated multiple uncertainties during the pandemic and captured growth opportunities. Through the years of market operation, our business has reached a meaningful scale. We grew our revenue from $900 million in the year 2019 to $2.6 billion in the year of 2021, and we have achieved non-GAAP profitability since 2021. We also have managed to maintain a relatively healthy operating cash flow. These experiences will all lay a solid foundation for us to navigate the current challenges posed by the macro environment and help us better seize further growth opportunities.
For our 2022 outlook, our keyword remains the same, is to balance growth and profit. Given the rising uncertainties of the macro environment, we'll continue to act prudently and closely track market dynamics as we progress. We will continue to execute our sustainable ROI-oriented growth strategy and seek to maintain the resilience of our global business. Thank you.
好，那个关于第二个问题呢，我是觉得这个新的变现模式我们一直是在努力地尝试和探索的。在以前呢，我们已经做过很多的这个广告服务和会员服务，那么上个季度呢，像Likee呢也上线了一些像Super Follow这样的功能，就是允许创作者发布自己专属的内容，并且呢按月向用户呢收取订阅费。然后最近呢，Hago也上线了这个3D Hago Space这个功能，也会涉及到一些变现模式方面的这个创新。但是呢，我觉得这些创新目前呢，都还是处在早期的功能迭代阶段，更多的是从提升产品品质和用户体验角度出发的。短期来说呢，我觉得对营收的贡献会比较有限。以Q1为例吧，就是我们的非直播收入大概是$3,370万，占这个集团总收入的这个比例略高于5%。所以呢，我们会继续观察用户对这些新功能和新变现模式的反馈，也会继续探索这方面的这个机会，推动我们这个收入的多元化。
On your second question about new monetization, actually if you notice that we have previously already tried to explore advertisement and also membership, and these have been introduced in the previous years. Recently we also have been actively exploring additional monetization tools. For example, Likee launched a Super Follow feature last quarter, and this allows creators to publish exclusive content and charge a monthly subscription fee to their fan groups. The new 3D Hago Space feature recently introduced by Hago would also have some innovations in monetization. However, we would like to admit that at the current stage these features are still in the early stage of development, so they are more targeted to improve product user experience, so their contribution to revenue in the short term would be relatively small.
For example, in Q1, you can see that our non-live streaming revenue is about $33.7 million, accounting for slightly over 5% of our group's revenue. We'll continue to observe user feedback on these new features, and we'll continue to explore opportunities to drive further diversification of our revenue stream. Thank you.
Our next question will come from Thomas Chong at Jefferies. Please go ahead.
早上好，谢谢管理层接受我的提问。我的一个问题呢，是关于我们在海外的市场，在各地的话的竞争格局，出现了什么的变化，然后，再看下半年的话呢，我们应该怎么看我们的业务的趋势？我第二个问题是关于我们的运营的费用，我们看下半年还有全年，我们应该怎么看每一条线呢的趋势的，然后看，新一年的 margin 的话，可以分享一下吗？Thanks management for taking my questions.
My first question is about the competitive landscape across different regions and how should we think about the second half business trend? My second question is about the operating expenses side. How should we think about the expense outlook as well as the margin in 2022? Thank you.
好，谢谢你的问题。我觉得这个竞争格局的变化呢，目前的这个压力主要是来自于宏观环境，然后就如我刚才讲过，就是随着用户逐渐回归线下活动，那么线上活动的娱乐时间呢，这个还有这个engagement time，这个粘性啊，都会出现一些波动。然后呢，对用户的付费呢也会有所影响。所以呢，这个所有公司呢，就需要通过这个更好的产品和服务的体验来应对更广泛的这个线上甚至线下的这些服务竞争，来赢得用户的这个活跃和变现。因此呢，我觉得我们需要回归用户使用产品的初衷，回归产品的本质来思考产品的战略。我们未来还是会继续聚焦产品的本质，耕耘内容和社交生态，围绕提升用户的社交体验，不断地推动产品功能的这个创新。从长远看呢，我觉得全球的社交娱乐市场还是特别巨大的，竞争是一个常态，需要长期的投入与耕耘。在宏观环境不确定的情况下呢，把控风险，确保长期可持续发展是最关键的。正如我刚才所提的，通过过去的积累呢，我们全球化业务已经得到了一定的规模，具备全球多市场本地化运营的能力，而且呢，已经扭亏为盈，有比较健康的运营现金流支撑。我们在把控风险、坚持可持续的增长模式方面呢，也比较有前瞻性，这是我们的一个竞争优势。我相信在充沛的现金流和稳定的这个增长模式的支撑下，我们会好好地把握增长的机会，进一步提高我们市场占有率和影响力。关于下半年的业务趋势呢，第二个季度呢，通常就是这个比较弱的一个季度，属于这个斋月呀，还有这些宏观环境啊的这个持续影响带来的这个增长的不确定性。根据我们这个以往的经验呢，一般在下半年这个业务增长趋势都会好于上半年。随着这个市场的这个全球宏观环境的变化比较大吧，我们还会密切地观察市场的这个动态。
Thank you, Thomas, for your question. Regarding your question on competitive landscape, I think that the main pressure comes from the macro environment. As I've just mentioned, there would be a short-term fluctuation of users' online activity, time spent, and stickiness, and at the same time on their paying capacity as well. This means that for all industry players, we need to gain user engagement and monetization opportunity by providing better products with better service and compete with a wider range of competitors, both online and offline. That's why I believe that we should revisit the original intention of users, what drives them to use these products, and focus on the fundamentals when we are planning our product strategy.
We will continue to focus on the fundamentals of our products, cultivate our content and social ecosystem, and continuously innovate our products to improve users' social experience. I still believe that from the long-term perspective, the global social entertainment market has huge potentials, and competition will always be there. It will be a long-term marathon as compared to a short-term game. In such time of increasing macro uncertainty, risk control, and ensuring long-term sustainable growth are more critical than ever. As I've just mentioned, through years of operation, our business have already reached a meaningful scale, and we have established worldwide operational capacity and achieved non-GAAP profitability. Our cash flow remain to be relatively healthy as well.
I believe that we have already gained additional competitive advantage, by being proactive and forward-looking in terms of risk control and ensuring our sustainable growth model. We believe that with the support of our strong cash flow, and also our prudent growth model, we'll be able to better grasp the growth opportunities and further increase our market share. Thank you.
Thomas,
As I've mentioned just now, thanks to our sustainable growth strategy and continuous enhanced operational efficiency, we have achieved steady improvement in both GAAP and non-GAAP profitability in the first quarter. BIGO segment achieved non-GAAP net margin of 11.2%, and the group achieved a non-GAAP net margin of 3.3%. If you look at a comparison between Q1 and the same period last year, both our gross margin was improved and we saw cost saving happening across multiple non-GAAP operating expense items. Given the current macroeconomic uncertainty, we'll continue our sustainable ROI-driven growth strategy, and further enhance the overall operational efficiency and drive the further improvement at each of our product lines.
For BIGO segment, we expect its gross margin will remain stable in the year 2022, and cost savings will be achieved on various items due to further improved operating efficiency. We expect BIGO segment non-GAAP profitability for the full year to be further improved based on the full year level in the year 2021. For the other segments, with few steadily proceeding narrowing losses on various product lines and also improved its operating efficiency. We're also expecting other segments to continue to narrow losses in the year 2022. Thank you.
Our next question will come from Yiwen Zhang at China Renaissance. Please go ahead.
早上好，国泰君安，谢谢！接着我的提问。我这边有关于现金使用的问题啊，就我们看到公司账上现金非常充裕，如果结合公司战略的话，我们应该怎么样考虑那个现金持有的一个优先次序呢？是会在海外业务上面多投入一点呢，还是说会做多一点回购，还是会考虑分红？Thanks for taking my question. I have a question regarding cash usage. We know there's abundant cash on our balance sheet, how should we think about the usage priority?
Namely, how do we balance business investments in overseas, share repurchase or even dividend payout? Thank you.
好，谢谢。我觉得是这样，在资金的使用规划上，我们还是会以比较谨慎的态度，基于这个长期业务的需求进行规划，然后相对来讲应该是一个平衡的，既能保持自身的现金充沛、现金储备的健康，也能够照顾股东的利益。在业务方面，我们会持续保持海外业务的投入，但是我们还是会坚持以ROI的增长为基本的策略。然后在股东回馈方面，为了感谢投资人长期以来的支持，其实我们也有一些积极的行动。2020年我们宣布了总额达到$5亿的分红计划，分三年派发。截止到一季度，我们已经累计派息$2.6亿。2021年的第三季度，我们也追加了$12亿的股票回购计划。到一季度末，我们累计回购了该计划下面的$3.2亿的股票。我们用于股东回馈的投入，占公司市值的比重实际上是非常大的。我也相信从这些实际举措中，市场能够感受到公司对股东回馈的诚意。
Thank you for your question. In terms of cash usage, we will continue to be prudent and plan based on the long term business development needs. I believe that based on our current cash position, we should be able to balance between keeping a sufficient cash flow for our own growth and also enhancing return for our shareholders. In terms of our business, we will continue to invest in our global business to fuel organic growth and also execute.
Continue to execute ROI oriented growth strategy to create more value. In the meantime, to reward our investors for their long term support, we have been actively enhancing shareholder returns via dividends and share buybacks. In the year 2020, we have announced dividend plans with a total size of $500 million to be quarterly distributed in the following three years. As of the end of the first quarter, we have already declared approximately $250 million of cash dividends under such dividend plans. In the third quarter in the year 2021, we have expanded our share repurchase program by $1.2 billion. By the end of the first quarter, we had repurchased approximately $320 million under these plans. So if you look at our overall capital return to shareholders as a percentage of our current market cap, that is a very sizable amount. We believe that our investors can see our sincerity from our actions as well.
And that's the end of our call. Thank you for joining and we look forward to speaking with everyone next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you very much. This does conclude the call today. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.