Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and good evening. Thank you for joining Sohu's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be the question and answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at any time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Huang Pu, Investor Relations Director of Sohu. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Thank you for joining us to discuss Sohu's first quarter 2022 results. On the call are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Charles Zhang, CFO Joanna Lv, and Vice President of Finance, James Deng. Also with us are Changyou CEO, Dewen Chen, and the CFO Yaobin Wang. Before management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you of the company's safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed on this call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current plans, estimates, and projections, and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.
For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent annual report on Form 20-F. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dr. Charles Zhang. Charles, please proceed.
Thanks, Huang Pu. Thank you everyone for joining our call. In the first quarter of 2022, despite the negative impact of COVID-19 and the challenging macroeconomic environment, we continued to focus on product requirements and improving operational efficiency. Thanks to the excellent performance of our online game business, we delivered better than expected bottom line performance and achieved profitability for the quarter. For Sohu Media Portal, we carried out product upgrades and improvements in the overall quality of our news and content, all of which continued to draw users to our platforms and keep them engaged. For Sohu Video, continuous execution of our Twin Engine strategy, we proactively extended our live broadcasting to a greater number of scientific fields. We also focused on user acquisition for our key mobile products and explored ways to improve monetization for both Sohu Media Portal and Sohu Video.
For Changyou, our online games performed well during the quarter, with the revenue exceeding the high end of our prior guidance. I'll go into details about each of these businesses in a moment, but first let us look at a quick review of our financial performance. For the first quarter of 2022, total revenues were $193 million, down 13% year-over-year and flat quarter-over-quarter. Brand advertising revenues, $24 million, down 23% year-over-year and 29% quarter-over-quarter. Online game revenues, $158 million, down 11% year-over-year and up 10% quarter-over-quarter.
GAAP net income attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $3 million, compared with $32 million in the first quarter of 2021, and $4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. Non-GAAP net income attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $9 million, compared with $37 million in the first quarter of 2021 and $200,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021. I'll go through some of our key businesses. First, media portal and Sohu Video. For Sohu Media Portal, in order to strengthen our visibility and influence as a mainstream media platform, we provided real-time breaking news and hot social topics to users. As well as optimizing algorithms and adding features to provide better user experience and increase user engagement and enhance social distribution. For Sohu Video, we continue to execute our Twin Engine strategy.
The product differentiation and competitive advantages of our live broadcasting have enabled us to extend its scope. For example, in late 2021, we launched Charles Zhang's physics class. You know, I started teaching physics online live broadcasting since late 2021. Now has already more than 40 online episodes since the initial launch. Starting this March this year, we also introduced offline classes as well, with also live broadcasting. Our young audience were enthusiastic and generated robust online conversations.
The recognition given to this IP, supported by our advanced live broadcasting technologies, attracted broadcasters in a variety of scientific fields, ranging from physics, mathematics, chemistry, and aerospace, et cetera, to our platform to engage in scientific live broadcasting. As a result, we have built a solid and credible reputation as a live broadcasting platform in the field of science and basic knowledge, a knowledge-based platform. We will continue to explore innovative ways to create and distribute high-quality content. We also had some new wins with our new own product production house, and for episodes and reality shows.
For original dramas, following the successful broadcast of Mysterious Love, this quarter, we started shooting the sequel, Mysterious Love Two, and also have several original dramas in our pipeline that will be rolled out steadily in 2022, this year. For reality shows, we saw the successful release of the fifth season of On Her Way Home. On Her Way Home was designed to be more inclusive, and to include trending topics, which led to lively conversations with high visibility. We believe the success of the fifth season demonstrated our ability to create a robust and sustainable IP, which also attracts advertiser advertising dollars. On the monetizing side, the first quarter tends to be a soft period for seasonal reasons. Advertising spending was affected also by macro uncertainties and Omicron-driven lockdowns.
Despite these headwinds, we took advantage of the dual platform advantages of Sohu Media Portal and Sohu Video, as well as our advanced live broadcasting technologies. This gave us the opportunity to explore the promotional needs and advertisers, and work closely with them on their marketing plans in order to attract and capture their advertising dollars. Next, turning to game business, Changyou. During the first quarter of 2022, Changyou's online games revenue exceeded our prior guidance. This was thanks to the sound performance of TLBB PC. In our business line for PC games, looking first at regular TLBB PC, we launched a variety of holiday-related quests and promotional events, and adjusted the relative strength of different clans based on player feedback. With TLBB Vintage, we launched rich content around the time of New Year and Spring Festival.
We continue to optimize the game based on player feedback to increase players' satisfaction. With mobile games, we launched a variety of holiday events and promotional events for Legacy TLBB Mobile, whose revenue remained steady on a sequential basis. Next quarter, we'll roll out new content for TLBB PC, Legacy TLBB Mobile, Little Raccoon: Heroes and Other Games. We'll also launch TLBB Vintage on the WeGame platform as we look to bring more back long-time TLBB players by way of new channels. In our game pipeline, several key games are under development, and we are in the process of fine-tuning them. We look forward to bringing them to players soon.
Against an ever-changing environment, Changyou will stick to its top game strategy by promoting innovation, building the capacity of its team, and rolling out more high-quality mobile games in a variety of categories. Now I turn the call over to Joanna, CFO, who will walk you through our financial results. Joanna?
Thank you, Charles. I will now walk you through the key financials of our major segments for the first quarter of 2022. All the numbers are on a non-GAAP basis. You may find a reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures on our IR website. For Sohu Media Portal, quarterly revenues were $40 million, down 22% year-over-year, and 27% quarter-over-quarter. The quarterly operating loss was $44 million, compared with an operating loss of $31 million in the same quarter last year. For Sohu Video, quarterly revenues were $50 million, down 25% year-over-year, and 36% quarter-over-quarter. The quarterly operating loss was $21 million, compared with an operating loss of $13 million in the same quarter last year.
For Changyou, quarterly revenues, including 17173.com, $160 million, down 11% year-over-year, and up 10% quarter-over-quarter. Changyou posted an operating profit of $83 million, compared with $99 million in the same quarter last year. For the second quarter of 2022, we expect brand advertising revenues to be between $22 million and $25 million. This implies annual decrease of 32%-40%, and a sequential decrease of 7% to a sequential increase of 5%. Online game revenues to be between $150 million and $160 million. This implies annual decrease of 1% to annual increase of 6%, and a sequential decrease of 5% to a sequential increase of 1%.
Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited to be between $15 million and $5 million. GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited to be between $18 million and $8 million. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we would now like to open the floor to questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll now begin the question and answer session. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong from Jefferies. Please ask your question.
Hi. Good evening. Thanks management for taking my question. I have a question regarding the Q2 guidance. How should we think about the low end and the high end of the guidance, given that we are seeing a negative Q-on-Q and a positive Q-on-Q growth? On that front, may I ask about the advertising momentum in the month of April and so far we are seeing in the month of May. My second question is about if there's no pandemic in Shanghai, how does our second quarter would look differently from before? Are we actually seeing more people spending time playing games recently? Thank you.
Yeah, in terms of advertising, I think in Q2 is quite impacted, you know, by the lockdowns and not only Shanghai but also other cities. With your question without the COVID lockdown, I think we should be looking at another probably $5 million more or in terms of even more, right? Up to $6 million more in revenue in advertising. For online games are, you know, people spending more time playing?
We're not seeing any influence caused by the pandemic outbreak in Shanghai. We think that Shanghai accounts for a little part of our total players. Also during the pandemic time, people have to shop online and also they have some time to do COVID testing.
Got it. Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you. The next question comes to the line of Eddie Leung from Bank of America. Please ask your question.
Hey, good evening, guys. Just a follow-up question on the advertising thesis. Could you give us an idea on the key advertiser industries in first quarter, and which industry you have seen better performance and which ones are weaker? Secondly, just a question about the share buyback program. Wondering if there is any update on the share buyback program or how the management thinks about launching another buyback program, given the discounted value of your share price? Thank you.
I think the composition or the distribution of advertisers of industries are similar to other quarters, right? With also the first top category and, you know-
Internet services.
Internet services and
FMCG.
FMCG. Especially, I think, the auto industry are quite affected by the lockdowns in Q2. Also in Q1, I think real estate quite, you know, there's a real estate kind of a meltdown or something.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, also affected. The Q1 is impacted by some of the real estate companies, default, I mean. Share buyback program, any updates? Do we have any updates or?
In Q1 we have repurchased 4.3 million shares at a total cost approximately $74 million.
Basically 75% of the $100 million have been spent in buyback. With this quarter up to this point, we do not have any new plan to buyback. But you know, we'll see.
Got that. Thank you.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from line of Alicia Yap from Citigroup. Please ask your question.
Hi, thank you. Good evening, management. Thanks for taking my question. I have a follow-up on the second quarter advertising outlook. I think, Charles, you just mentioned, some of the verticals that probably been impacted more. When do you expect, some of these ad budgets, to recover? Will the second half, can we see or potentially see some, you know, year-over-year growth, instead of, the declining trend? Any colors, if you can give in terms of some of the outlook. Second question is, on the online gamings. With games approval, resume, recently, any change of the view for the second half gaming outlook for Changyou?
Okay, the first question about advertising. As I said, without the COVID lockdowns, we should have at least, you know, we basically, I think I estimated we lost about $6 million in advertising dollars due to the pandemic or the lockdown in Q2. In Q1, right?
Q2.
Q2, yeah. Q1 is the soft season because of Chinese New Year. For two reasons. One is that these companies, you know, are postponing their marketing plans or their product rollout. Secondly, they spend less. Secondly, especially with Sohu, our unique marketing plan for advertisers is like some, you know, unique event with live broadcasting event. For that, you know, especially with this COVID, the pandemic, these events need a lot of gathering of people and events cannot do it, like the Sohu News Marathon and other. That's also in particular affected, you know, our own monetization ability.
In the second half of the year, I hope that the lockdown will be eased and economy will, you know, regain some momentum. We'll see. You know, we don't know. About online game.
Yes, the license approval resumed issuing from April, and we got the first batch of 25 approvals, so we need to observe for the later on changes. But we believe that the big direction will be okay for gaming companies.
Mm.
Thank you.
Thank you. Can I follow up a couple questions? One is that, can you remind us the game titles that you guys have in the pipeline that are still waiting for the game approval? And then second question on the follow-up is, you know, given these, SEC, you know, HFCAA, this, you know, the delisting list, any plans that Sohu will be thinking about, either the introductory offering in Hong Kong or the secondary listing in Hong Kong? Thank you.
Now we have got the license approval for Sea of Dawn, and we plan to launch it in July this year. It has started the appointments right now. For other games, we haven't got any new license approval so far.
All right. Well, the second question about the, you know, U.S., I mean, Sohu listed on the Nasdaq and delisting. Sure. I think it's still not that urgent yet. It's still like two years time to talk to think about it. We don't have a plan yet to reintroduce, you know, to you know, Hong Kong market.
Mm.
Hong Kong market.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from the line of Ole Jacobson from Private Investor. Please ask your question.
Thank you. To say that 75% of the share buyback program was spent at the end of Q1 or that 75% of the program was spent until today.
75% of the $100 million dollars have been spent since we announced the buyback. That was like in Q-
Q4.
All right. In the last few months we bought back 4 million shares, right? Yeah. What's your question?
Yeah, that was correct. Can I follow up with another question?
Yeah.
The combination of a huge amount of cash and a very low market cap looks like an excellent opportunity to create a lot of shareholder value. Can you give an update on how you think about the current cash pile? When can we expect to get more clarity regarding how the cash will be used?
Currently we have like $1.5 billion. Yeah, $1.5 billion cash. Well, at this quarter, at this point, we have decided not to have a new buyback program, but that doesn't say that we will not have in the future. We probably will have some buyback program in the future. Also, you know, we see. We still see some promising product innovations that we expect to, you know, to test our products, make sure that it has some potential to explode or to really gain user attraction. Then we'll spend some money on user acquisition to bring more users to our platform.
Actually in Q1, because we're still fine-tuning some of the products and tested the variability of the products, we spent less than we planned or expected. That's why our guidance, you know, we exceed our guidance because we were guiding a loss, right? Because our gaming are performing better and also we spend less on the channel user acquisition, so it's a profitable quarter overall. In the future we will spend, you know. Because Chinese internet market is very competitive, and you have to first of all have the right products and then or the right strategy. Either you know algorithm recommendation based or social network based.
We are probably our products more social network based and we hope that it will explode or but with the product and then you need to spend the money. If you don't spend the money, you don't have bring the users to your platform, then you don't know whether the product is the right one or not. With that kind of cash we'll spend wisely and we'll you know we're not going to just. That's all I think I can think about, either buyback and also spend the money on our product innovation and get users. For this media and social network platform, you have to have the size.
If you don't have the you know a like a critical mass of size, a user you know users you know it's very hard to achieve a profitability. Then some products you know sometimes some products explode. You just think, oh, you have the right business model. You have the right you know the design or the right idea. Actually the product has been they have been refining that product for years and suddenly one day it's exploded and people think that it's just an overnight success. It's actually not. That's why we need to improve the products and then really you know improve user experience gradually and slowly and really very carefully. We are doing that.
Thank you for the answers, Charles. Does this mean that, for example, if you do not think that you can spend all the money on marketing over time, that more buybacks are more likely than, for example, a special dividend due to the current situation with a very low market cap?
Yeah, it's all possible. We also need to look at how the COVID pandemic and the lockdowns and the overall economy and all the world, you know. That's a lot of factors we are looking at. We will not exclude the possibility of buyback, more buyback and the dividend. It's possible. We're, you know, we are still in the game. We're on a media platform. We are still the players on the internet field. We see some good opportunities, especially in the social networking field. You know, people are in China, companies have not stopped.
You know, we have WeChat, but still it's an open field. A lot of user needs are not satisfied. We're still the players. To fight the internet wars, you need a war chest of cash and you need to fight, you know. Unless we just give up and don't do it, you know. We'll just distribute the money and create shareholder value. We believe that we have a chance to win in the end.
Thank you, Charles. Can I ask one more question? There is a upcoming game called Sea of Dawn. Is that game still planned for a fall 2022 release, so it will be released in the second half still of the year?
Yes, July. Yes, we will launch Sea of Dawn in July this year.
Thank you. That's all for me.
Basically, the company has actually in a better position than before. First of all, we have a game business that's making money. After the Sogou deal, we have a pile of cash. Also our media platform and video platform's growth strategy is organic. We do not using. This organic growth sometimes consume less cash. It really you know rely on the right product and the product design. That's why, I think, we are in a pretty good position to really fight the battle. Even in the video, our video business, you know, instead of you know spending huge amount of money buying very expensive content, we have our Twin Engine strategy.
You know, we spend less amount of money than some of our peers and to create you know to create these dramas and episodes. Then we have once you know users come to our platform, or Sohu Video, they find the video networking, social networking and so on, short video clips, they will stay. The user acquisition and also the user you know stickiness is just higher. It's a more cost-effective growth of users than a you know long video long form you know dramas and those content, basically the Netflix model. Yeah. All right. Other questions?
There are no further questions. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect. Have a nice day.