Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the JOYY Incorporated third quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. I would 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 third 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 webcast 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'd 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. dollar. 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 third quarter 2022 earnings call. Let me start with an overview of our quarterly results. Despite global macroeconomic uncertainties, we recorded $586.7 million in revenues, including $483.3 million of revenues from BIGO, in line with our previously guidance. Our decisive and proactive optimization measures to improve our operational efficiency have been proven effective. During the third quarter, we generated a non-GAAP net profit of $76.9 million as the group level with a non-GAAP net margin of 13.1% when excluding YY Live. The BIGO segment recorded $84.1 million in non-GAAP net profit with non-GAAP net margin of 17.4%. More importantly, our operating cash flow remains strong, reaching $117.1 million for the quarter.
As present, increasing global macro uncertainty continues to impact our short-term monetization growth. Ongoing inflation and unfavorable exchange rates are adversely affecting users' purchasing power and discretionary spending. Meanwhile, as international travel restrictions in some regions are lifted and reopening trends continue, users' time and spending are being further diverted to offline activities. Since the first half of 2021, we have been comprehensively and constantly reviewing the cost structures and management process of our core business. At the same time, we undertook a series of operational adjustment to enhance product synergies, improve operational efficiency, and ultimately ensure the health and the sustainability of our business. Our forward-looking strategic plans and effective execution of our optimization measures to the above stated goals have equipped us to better navigate through the current macro challenges.
As a result, we achieved full-year profitability in 2021, and further expand our profits and improved our operational cash flow during 2022. Even as global macro conditions deteriorated during the first three quarters of 2022, our BIGO segment expanded its non-GAAP net profit to $230.4 million, up to 193.3% year-over-year. Given the current macroeconomic environment, we will continue to prioritize sustainable high-quality growth while further enhancing our operational efficiency. Going forward, we are confident that our increasing business resilience will position us to better capture long-term growth opportunities. Despite near-term macro headwinds, we remain focused on our long-term product strategy of delivering value to our users and creators. Our efforts have yielded positive results.
Bigo Live MAUs increased by 13.2% year-over-year in the quarter, reaching a new historic high of 35.4 million. Sequentially, growth was also encouraging with the scale of growth comparable to that we witnessed during the pandemic period. This is particularly impressive considering such growth as achieved in the period of disciplined marketing spending, demonstrating the increasing efficiency and effectiveness of our user acquisition strategy. Looking ahead, we will continue to cultivate diverse premium content, innovate interactive product features, and organize activities tailored to local market. These initiatives will further improve our user experience and ultimate facilitate the growth of our user community and monetization. Two facts that correlate positively with user satisfaction over time.
Our diversified operations across all number of regions include North America, Europe, the Middle East, the Southeast Asia, and have given us greater overall flexibility and allow us to mitigate the risk that arise from relying on any single market. As markets and governments employ differing measures to contain the pandemic and tackle current macro challenges, we will closely monitor shifting market conditions and devote more resources towards underperforming markets. Compared with a single market focus, this refined strategy of dynamic adjustment will enable us to generate a higher ROI against the backdrop of macro volatilities. Going forward, we remain committed to our globalization strategy. We will continue to enhance our international and localized operational capabilities by further strengthening our local talent teams, technological experience experts, global vision, and local knowledge. Now, let's take a closer look at the developments in each of our product lines.
We will start with Bigo Live. Despite the macro headwinds and monetization challenges, Bigo Live maintained its user growth trajectory thanks to effective local operations and product features upgrades. During the third quarter, Bigo Live's MAUs increased 14.2% year-over-year to 45.4 million. Notably, MAUs in Europe and in the Middle East increased by 9.8% and 7.8%, respectively. While MAUs in Southeast Asia and other emerging markets increased by 19.2% year-over-year. We also observed a recovery trend in Bigo Live's number of paying users across various regions. As the number of paying users in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, and Southeast Asia assumed sequentially growth this quarter. During the quarter, Bigo Live further cultivated in its content ecosystem by emphasizing localized operations and developing diverse premium content.
For example, in Malaysia, Bigo Live launched BIGO Gagaga, an all-new online variety show featuring entertainment content, including gaming and stand- up comedy. The show starred Bigo Live's most popular streamers and some of Malaysia's top radio broadcasters, and combined elements of live streaming with preexisting forms of mainstream media to create a fresh and unique viewing experience. In the Middle East, Bigo Live once again collaborated with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang to stream one of the largest fall professional tournaments in Middle East and North Africa region. Bigo Live also held a world tour for its mascot, Dino. The 16-foot-high, 8-foot-wide mascot visited landmarks in dozens of countries across the global, including Singapore, Thailand, the U.K., Italy, Germany, France, and the U.S., appearing at a series of on-site events to interact with local users.
During the tour, Bigo Live invited popular local streamers to host a number of performances for local audience. This helped stimulate interest in our product and promoted brand awareness among local communities. At the same time, Bigo Live launched a number of tour-related videos and online challenges, encouraging local users to join the festivities and meet their friends at these events. These efforts combined to create a unique, memorable experience for Bigo Live's users, bringing online and offline interaction. Our iteration of the community feature and the localized creator support continued to contribute to content diversification and user engagement. Improvements in the BAR channel. Sequentially, the volume of BAR video content increased by 14.5%, and its average views per user increased by 16.4%. Let's turn to Likee.
As mentioned in previous quarters, for products that are currently still loss-making, such as Likee and Hago, we continue to focus on the steady improvement of their respective monetization capabilities and or organic growth. We aim to stick to disciplined sales and marketing strategies and optimize their local structures in order to steadily narrow their respective operation loss and ultimately achieve self-sufficiency. In the third quarter, in line with our expectations, we made further progress in narrowing Likee's operation loss. Likee's operation loss in the first three q uarters this year was reduced by 86% compared to the same period last year. On the product update front, following the trial launch of the Loop feature in the U.S. and Europe in the second quarter, Likee officially introduced Loop to other regions around the world.
This feature has helped users with similar interests better connected to share content and has further improved the quality of Likee's user interactions. As a result, the number of user videos shared per user per day in the anime community increased by 379% sequentially, while in-app instant messenger user growth by 7.1% in the same period. Overall, average user time spent on Likee increased by 21.5% sequentially. In addition to its regular localized activities, Likee expanded its operational efforts to include activities that have a positive impact on local communities. For example, after flooding in some Southeast Asia countries, Likee launched the dedicated page for local users to share information on government relief, emergency response, and other breaking details of the disaster in real time.
Separately, as a number of Likee users are currently facing an energy crisis, Likee partnered with 10 Minute School to launch a campaign aiming to raise public awareness of energy conservation. During the campaign, teachers from 10 Minute School and other creators post the videos about power saving tips and the importance of conserving electricity, providing users with convenient access to important and useful information. The campaign attracted the participation of more than 1 million users. We can turn to Hago. During the third quarter, Hago's live streaming revenue and the number of paying users both increased year-over-year. Its operating loss further narrowed substantially over the previous quarter, thanks to enhanced monetization and disciplined spending. Hago launched a one-on-one voice chat feature and upgraded its user loyalty benefits, which promoted user interaction and improved the loyalty of its paying users.
Both initiatives drove growth in long-tail users spending. Hago also introduced the further updates to its new feature, Hago Space. User were granted greater freedom in defining the appearance and the costumes of their 3D avatars and gave the opportunity to engage and interact, new 3D virtual things such as karaoke. Both updates contribute to an increasing initiative, innovative, immersive, and interactive experience. Thanks to these upgrades, Hago Space penetration rates and average user time spent both improved significantly over the previous quarter. More importantly, revenues from Hago Space increased by 409% sequentially. Although Hago Space revenue contribute to is still relatively small, we seeking to bring more innovation, innovative, innovations to the feature to further improve its user experience and further diversify Hago's monetization streams. Some updates on capital return.
During the third quarter, we bought back an additional $14.1 million of our shares. As of September 30, we have purchased a total of $342 million of our shares. Out of the previous announced repurchase program of $1.2 billion, our Board has extended the expiry date of the program, under which we may repurchase up to $800 million until November 2023. We will continue to actively utilize our share repurchase program in order to reward the long-term support of our shareholders. To conclude, the combination of our forward-looking strategic planning and effective execution of our optimization measure drove further improvement in our profitability during the third quarter. In spite of the volatile macroeconomic environment.
By adhering to our long-term growth strategy, focusing on products updates, and emphasizing localized diverse content offerings, we achieved a steady, efficient growth of Bigo Live's user community. We will remain flexible and adaptive to the macro elements, continue to invest in building our long-term capabilities, and focus on delivering value to users and the creators via our products. We are confident that as we become increasingly efficient and resilient, we will be better positioned to capture long-term growth opportunities and generate sustainable shareholders value. This concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call to our General Manager of Finance, Alex Liu, for financial updates.
Thanks, David. Hello, everyone. Let me go through the details of our financial results. Please note that 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 8th, 2021, with certain customary matters to be completed in the future, we have ceased consolidation of YY Live business since February 2021. Our total net revenues for the third quarter was $586.7 million, compared to $650.5 million in the same period of 2021, primarily due to macroeconomic uncertainties and unfavorable exchange rates, which negatively affect paying user sentiment.
As we continue to execute our sustainable growth strategy and proactively implemented a series of cost optimization measures, we maintained a healthy growth trajectory in our growth and operating profitability. Cost of revenues for the third quarter decreased by 16.7% year-over-year to $366.5 million. Revenue sharing fees and content costs was $245.8 million in the third quarter, compared with $298.1 million in the same period of 2021. Primarily due to optimization of revenue- sharing costs. Other operating costs, such as bandwidth costs, also decreased year-over-year as a result of our continued optimization of operational efficiency.
Gross profit increased to $220.2 million in the third quarter, with our growth margin improved to 37.5% from 32.4% in the same period of 2021. Our operating expenses for the third quarter decreased by 3.1% to $202.2 million from $208.7 million in the same period of 2021. Among the operating expenses, sales and marketing expenses decreased to $96.8 million from $106.3 million, due to disciplined and efficient spending on user acquisition. Our GAAP operating income for the third quarter was $19.8 million, compared to $6.9 million in the same period of 2021.
Operating income margin for the third quarter was 3.4%, compared to 1.1% in the same period of 2021. Our non-GAAP operating income for the third quarter, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, amortization of intangible assets from business acquisitions, as well as impairment of goodwill and investments, and gain on disposal of subsidiaries and business, was $43.1 million in this quarter, compared to $31.3 million in the same period of 2021. Our non-GAAP operating income margin for the third quarter was 7.4%, compared to 4.8% in the prior year period.
GAAP net income for continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY in the third quarter of 2022 was $516.3 million, compared to net income of $7.5 million in the same period of 2021. Mainly due to the one-off remeasurement gain of an equity investment recorded upon the company's consolidation of investee as announced on August 22, 2022. Net income margin was 87.8% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to net income margin of 1.2% in the corresponding period of 2021. Non-GAAP net income from continuing operations attributable to controlling interest of JOYY in the third quarter was $76.9 million, compared to $35.1 million in the same period of 2021.
The group's non-GAAP net income margin was 13.1% in the third quarter of 2022, compared to 5.4% in the same period of 2021. Notably, BIGO's non-GAAP net income expanded to $84.1 million in the third quarter, with its non-GAAP net income margin improved to 17.4% from 8.7% in the prior year period. It means that for the first three quarter of 2022, BIGO segment's accumulated non-GAAP net profit has reached $230.4 million, up by 193.3% year-over-year. Together with our improving profitability, we have maintained a strong operating cash flow as well. For the third quarter of 2022, we booked net cash inflows from operating activities of $117.1 million.
We remain a healthy balance sheet with a strong cash position of $4.28 billion as of September 30, 2022. Importantly, we have continued to enhance returns to shareholders through dividends and share repurchase. In accordance with our previous announced quarterly dividend plans approved in August and November 2020, we will be distributing a dividend of $0.51 per ADS for the third quarter of 2022 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 23, 2022. Additionally, we have repurchased $14.1 million of our shares on our previously announced share repurchase program during the third quarter. As of September 30, 2022, we have in total repurchased approximately $342 million of our $1.2 billion share repurchase programs.
Given our current cash position, we should be able to balance between keeping sufficient cash to invest in building our long-term capabilities and enhancing return for our shareholders. We will continue to actively utilize share repurchase to create value for our shareholders under the current market condition. Going forward, we remain committed to delivering value to our users and creators. We will remain adaptive to the macro environment, continue to prioritize investment into building our long-term capabilities, and drive effective and high- quality growth of our community and the global business. For our business outlook, we expect our net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2022 to be between $594 million and $690 million. We currently have limited visibility surrounding the macroeconomic uncertainties of our business and the markets in which we operate.
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. If you do wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star and then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before asking your question. When asking a question, please state your question in Chinese first, and then repeat your question in English for the convenience of everyone on the call. Thank you. Your first question comes from Thomas Chong at Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks, management, for taking my questions. My question is about the Q4 revenue guidance. Can management provide a breakdown among BIGO and other business trends? Also, t he current macro environments as well as the reopening. How should we think about the trend across different geographies? Thank you.
谢 谢 你 的 问 题 。 我 是 David， 就 根 据 我 们 目 前 的 观 察 ， 我 觉 得 来 自 宏 观 的 不 确 定 性 对 付 费 用 户 的 负 面 影 响 还 是 依 然 存 在 的 ， 主 要 是 包 括 国 家 内 的 通 胀 ， 还 有 美 元 对 本 土 货 币 的 币 值 的 升 值 ， 还 有 疫 情 解 封 以 后 的 用 户 出 游 的 这 些 趋 势 也 都 是 持 续 的 存 在 。 我 们 当 前 的 guidance， 尤 其 是 下 限 的 guidance， 反 映 了 一 部 分 来 自 宏 观 的 负 面 影 响 。 第 四 季 度 ， 作 为 我 们 每 年 的 惯 例 ， BIGO 在 各 个 区 域 都 会 举 行 年 终 盛 典 ， 本 土 的 运 营 活 动 也 会 升 级 ， 调 动 主 播 和 用 户 的 积 极 性 ， 预 计 我 们 在 一 定 程 度 上 可 以 抵 消 一 部 分 来 自 宏 观 的 负 面 影 响 。 从 各 个 区 域 的 反 应 来 看 ， 当 下 全 球 市 场 都 有 可 能 出 现 不 同 的 宏 观 挑 战 。 今 年 三 个 季 度 以 来 ， Bigo Live 也 有 很 多 区 域 取 得 了 year-over-year 的 正 增 长 。 比 如 说 ， 部 分 的 南 亚 地 区 、 澳 新 、 菲 律 宾 ， 西 欧 的 国 家 ， 英 国 、 意 大 利 这 些 市 场 来 的 这 些 都 可 能 与 各 个 市 场 的 宏 观 表 现 和 政 府 的 财 政 政 策 、 防 疫 政 策 ， 以 及 各 个 城 市 之 间 发 展 的 差 异 也 有 关 系 。 这 也 印 证 了 其 实 我 们 讲 的 坚 持 全 球 化 的 平 庸 发 展 对 我 们 是 有 利 的 。 我 们 会 继 续 更 密 切 地 追 踪 环 境 和 市 场 的 变 化 ， 动 态 地 调 整 产 品 策 略 ， 将 资 源 投 入 到 更 高 效 的 市 场 中 去 ， 以 便 能 够 实 现 更 好 的 ROI。
Thank you, Thomas. This is David. I will take your first question. From our latest observation, we can see that macro uncertainties such as inflation, aggressive appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies, and reopening trends post lifting of travel restrictions are still negatively affecting users' paying sentiment.
The lower end of our current Q4 guidance reflects part of the negative macro impact. Yet in Q4, as our tradition, BIGO will host its annual gala and together with an increased number of operational activities in various regions around the world to promote user and creator activity, so expect that to offset some of the negative macro impacts. If we are to take a closer look at the respective regions, we can see that each market is currently facing different levels of the macro challenges. At the same time, we could also see that in the first three quarters of 2022, Bigo Live still managed to achieve positive year-over-year growth in some countries, like some countries in Asia Pacific region such as Australia and New Zealand, and also Philippines and also some Western European countries such as the U.K. and Italy.
That might sometimes be related to their respective macro environment, the tools that the government has been employing to contain the pandemic, and their fiscal policies. It could be related to the level of development of our business in those markets. Ultimately, we believe that it improves that it's meaningful to remain diversified across different markets. We will continue to closely monitor the shifting market conditions and devote more resources towards those markets that outperform as compared to others in order to generate a higher ROI. Thank you.
谢 谢 。
Thank you. Your next question comes from Alex Poon at Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, 谢谢。管理层接受我的提问。我的问题是关于今年的运营费用的趋势，请问一下2023年我们应该怎么看整个 margin 的 outlook？谢谢。My question is related to margins. Can management share with us the progress on cost discipline and how should we look at margin in 2023? Thank you very much.
你 好 Alex。 谢 谢 ， 谢 谢 你 的 提 问 。 我 是 Alex。 那 个 我 来 回 答 一 下 你 的 问 题 啊 。 呃 ， 三 季 度 我 们 整 体 的 利 润 是 好 于 预 期 的 。BIGO segment 实 现 了 百 分 之 ， 百 分 之 十 七 点 四 的 non-GAAP 的 一 个 盈 利 ， 整 个 集 团 也 实 现 了 百 分 之 十 三 点 一 的 non-GAAP 的 盈 利 。 那 么 单 独 看 BIGO segment 的 话 ， 三 季 度 BIGO 板 块 的 毛 利 率 是 有 所 提 升 的 ， 去 年 同 期 是 百 分 之 三 十 点 五 ， 今 年 Q3 是 百 分 之 三 十 九 点 四 ， 提 升 了 五 点 。 主 要 来 自 于 呢 内 容 成 本 方 面 的 优 化 ， 以 及 渠 道 的 支 付 成 本 和 运 营 人 力 成 本 有 所 节 约 。 另 外 ， 在 市 场 投 放 费 用 相 对 节 制 的 情 况 下 ， 依 然 实 现 了 核 心 产 品 Bigo Live 用 户 高 效 超 预 期 的 一 个 增 长 。那 么 四 季 度 考 虑 到 年 终 送 点 活 动 的 季 节 性 影 响 ， 我 们 预 期 B 股 板 块 的 毛 利 率 non-GAAP 的 利 润 会 较 Q3 呃 ， 略 有 回 落 。 结 合 今 年 前 三 个 季 度 的 一 个 表 现 ， B 股 板 块 二 二 年 前 三 个 季 度 累 计 的 non-GAAP 的 净 利 率 啊 ， 已 经 达 到 了 百 分 之 十 五 点 一 ， 对 比 二 一 年 全 年 是 百 分 之 七 点 八 ， 提 升 幅 度 是 非 常 明 显 的 ， 已 经 大 幅 超 出 了 我 们 原 先 的 一 个 预 期 。 展 望 明 年 啊 ， 我 们 还 是 会 密 切 地 追 踪 全 球 的 宏 观 环 境 ， 保 持 运 营 策 略 的 一 个 灵 活 性 ， 坚 持 高 质 量 的 增 长 策 略 ， 对 成 本 和 费 用 的 持 续 优 化 ， 呃 ， 推 动 整 体 运 营 效 率 的 一 个 持 续 提 高 。 刨 除 这 个 汇 兑 损 益 的 一 个 影 响 啊 ， 随 着 越 来 越 多 的 产 品 实 现 盈 亏 平 衡 ， 我 们 相 信 集 团 将 持 续 稳 步 提 升 non-GAAP 的 盈 利 水 平 。 谢 谢 。
Thank you, Alex, for question. This is Alex Liu. I will take your question. Our profits were better than expected in the third quarter, with BIGO segment achieve a non-GAAP net margin of 17.4%,d and the group achieve a non-GAAP net margin of 13.1%. If we take a closer look at the BIGO segment, you can see that BIGO segment gross margin was improved year-over-year from 34.5% in last year in third quarter to 39.4% in this quarter, up by 5%.
That was mainly due to our continued optimization of content costs, lower payment channel expenses, as well as lowering operational personnel costs. Also, you can see that even when we stick to a disciplined marketing spending in the quarter, we still managed to achieve effective and efficient growth of Bigo Live MAU. For the fourth quarter, considering the seasonality impact of our annual galas, we expect our gross margin and non-GAAP net margin for the BIGO segment to decrease over the previous quarter. Still, if you look at the first three quarters, the accumulated non-GAAP net margin for BIGO segment has already reached 15.1%, up from 7.8% for the full year of 2021. The improvement was quite significant and has profoundly outdone our original expectations.
For the coming year in 2023, we will still remain flexible and adaptive to the global macro environment. We'll continue to prioritize high- quality growth and optimize our costs and expenses to further improve our operational efficiency. We believe that as increasing number of our products are turning self-sufficient, we will be able to steadily improve our non-GAAP profitability on a constant currency basis. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Jasmine Wang at Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
感 谢 管 理 层 接 受 我 的 提 问 。 我 的 问 题 是 我 们 应 该 如 何 看 待 2023 年 以 及 未 来 的 用 户 增 长 趋 势 以 及 驱 动 因 素 。 Thanks, management fo,r taking my question. My question is on the user side. What is the user growth outlook for next year and beyond? What are the drivers? Thank you.
哦 ， 你 好 ，I'm David。 我 来 这 个 回 答 你 的 问 题 。 就 是 首 先 我 们 这 个 看 一 下 Bigo Live， 在 这 个 季 度 呢 ，Bigo Live 的 这 个 MAU 的 同 比 增 速 达 到 了 百 分 之 十 四 点 二 ， 环 比 增 速 达 到 了 百 分 之 八 点 四 。 而 且 呢 ， 这 还 是 在 那 个 产 品 和 市 场 这 个 没 有 实 质 增 长 的 这 个 前 提 下 达 ， 达 成 的 。 这 个 意 味 着 我 们 有 比 较 多 的 自 然 新 增 用 户 ， 整 体 的 这 个 获 客 的 效 率 有 所 提 升 ， 这 个 跟 我 们 稳 步 地 引 进 多 元 化 的 优 质 内 容 ， 以 及 探 索 创 新 的 这 个 市 场 运 营 活 动 是 有 关 系 的 。 比 如 在 刚 刚 演 讲 中 我 们 提 到 过 ， 我 们 在 全 球 十 多 个 国 家 的 城 市 的 地 标 进 行 组 织 活 动 ， 这 个 顺 应 线 下 这 个 活 动 恢 复 的 趋 势 ， 到 这 个 线 下 的 本 土 社 区 去 跟 用 户 互 动 ， 用 这 个 比 较 低 的 成 本 ， 又 贴 近 生 活 的 方 式 ， 提 高 这 个 产 品 的 曝 光 度 。 未 来 呢 ， 我 们 会 继 续 探 索 各 式 各 样 的 这 个 市 场 运 营 活 动 的 创 新 ， 包 括 线 上 的 ， 也 包 括 线 下 的 ， 还 有 产 品 功 能 和 内 容 的 创 新 ， 从 而 呢 ， 能 够 帮 助 Bigo Live 实 现 高 效 的 高 质 量 的 用 户 增 长 。 呃 ， 关 于 那 个 Likee 和 Hago 呢 ， 我 们 首 要 的 任 务 还 是 探 索 变 现 的 增 长 ， 尽 快 实 现 正 循 环 ， 以 及 那 个 要 聚 焦 产 品 的 核 心 ， 提 高 产 品 的 有 机 有 效 的 这 个 获 客 能 力 。 第 三 季 度 呢 ， 这 两 个 产 品 的 亏 损 环 比 都 有 进 一 步 的 收 窄 。 呃 ， 距 离 季 度 的 这 个 盈 亏 平 衡 点 已 经 比 较 近 了 ， 这 两 款 产 品 的 留 存 的 这 个 环 比 也 有 所 提 升 。 我 相 信 等 它 们 的 逐 步 恢 复 接 近 这 个 盈 亏 平 衡 ， 将 有 机 会 在 这 个 用 户 增 长 方 面 迎 来 新 的 拐 点 。
Hi. Thank you for your question. This is David. I will take your question. Firstly, we can look at Bigo Live. We can see that in the third quarter, Bigo Live's MAU increased by 14.2%, with a QoQ increase of 8.4%, achieved without meaningful increase of marketing spending in the product in the quarter. It means that a large proportion of its growth was organic and that our user acquisition strategy has become more effective. That was mainly contributed to our continued cultivation of Bigo Live's diverse and premium content offerings and our continuous efforts to innovate our localized operational activities.
For example, as I've just highlighted in my prepared remarks, in the quarter, we organized a world tour for Bigo Live with our local teams and live streamers visiting dozens of cities in various countries around the world, interacting with users offline and promoting our brand awareness among the local communities in a cost-effective manner. We will continue to explore innovations in our localized operational activities, both offline and online, together with innovation in our product features and contents in order to help Bigo Live sustain its high quality and efficient user growth. For Likee and Hago, our current priority of these products is still to enhance their monetization capability and to achieve self-sufficiency. At the same time, we'll continue to focus on the fundamentals of these products and improve their organic growth.
If you look at the operating loss of these two products in the recent quarter, we can see that both products' operating loss have narrowed and are one step further to break even at quarter level, and their user retention rates were also improved on a sequential basis. We believe that with both Likee and Hago approaching self-sufficiency, they would be in a better position to revisit user base expansion after the adjustment. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Yiw en Zhang from China Renaissance. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my question. My question regarding the World Cup. This year, it was hosted in Middle East, which is one our important market. Can management comment its impact on our operation, including the user engagement and also user spending? Thank you.
Thank you. This is David. I will answer your question. I believe that the World Cup both have positive and negative impacts on our business. During the World Cup, we expect users to spend more time watching the games through traditional media such as TV or engage in increased number of offline entertainment activities, which will divert some of our users' time spent from mobile products, such as our social entertainment products such as live streaming and short videos. Therefore, there might be some negative impacts on our DAUs, user time spent, especially in the Middle East, where the event is held, and possibly in countries with a participating team. This also could be an opportunity for us to bring in a special content activity for our users.
For example, to help our users better enjoy the World Cup, we have launched a series of special activities related to the theme, such as inviting football KOLs to host World Cup commentary sessions on Bigo Live, and also launching World Cup team-specific and event-specific live streaming rooms, et cetera. Considering that in Q4, Bigo Live will host its annual gala together with an increased number of operational activities to promote user and creator activity, we expect the impact from World Cup on user activity and monetization should be neutralized. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Brian Gong at Citi. Please go ahead.
I will translate myself. How does management view the geopolitical risks to our business and the latest regulatory trend in different overseas markets? Also, can management update any plan on usage of our strong cash on hand? Thank you.
Thank you, Brian, for your question. This is David. I will answer your question. For your first question, on geopolitical risk, I'll say that global geopolitical risk does not just emerge today, but they are always a long-lasting risk for a global company. We would like to say that it's a normal operational risk factor for a global company with global exposure. We would say that it's also created a positive impact for global player as compared to a single market player because of the fact that we have operations in various regions. Usually it means that for some regions there would be growth opportunities, but for some reasons, in some time, such geopolitical risk might emerge.
When you look at the global level, it's actually neutralized and better when it comes to risk diversification, we are in a better position as compared to a single market player in the industry. With regards to our cash usage, given the current macro uncertainties, we have been reviewing and sharpening our focus on a clear set of business priorities and become more selective in our expenditure. We have prioritized investments in our core businesses and also businesses that we believe that will be crucial for our mid to long-term growth.
It's a matter of balancing between making sure that we ensure sufficient capital for our own organic growth of our core businesses, and also making sure that we have enough capital to return to our holders. You can see that from our operating cash flow, we have been very healthily improving our operating cash flow and have a very strong cash position. As a company that is still seeking growth, we have been very generous in enhancing shareholder returns. If you look at the first three quarters, we have already distributed in total $216.7 million via dividends and share repurchases, which is equivalent to 145% of our non-GAAP net profit in the first three quarters.
As of today, we still have a remaining share repurchase program of up to $800 million and dividend program of approximately $150 million, which is very sizable, especially when you compare it to our market cap. To sum up, we will continue to remain financially flexible and strike a balance between keeping sufficient cash to invest in our business and enhancing return for our shareholders. I believe that we have already taken all of the questions. Thank you very much for joining our call. We look forward to speaking with everyone next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you. The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.