Kuaishou Technol Stock Price, News & Analysis

Kuaishou Technology has secured on-demand and short video rights for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics via a licensing agreement with China Media Group. As a rights-holding broadcaster, Kuaishou will offer its 700 million users comprehensive event coverage and interactive experiences. The platform aims to capitalize on its extensive experience with major sports events, including past Olympics and the NBA. In 2023, Kuaishou engaged nearly 200 million users with sports content and saw a notable increase in sports-related product purchases. For the Paris 2024 Olympics, Kuaishou plans to integrate advanced technology and innovative features to enhance user engagement and commercial opportunities.

Kuaishou Technology has launched its new video generation model, Kling, capable of creating AI-generated videos that replicate complex spatiotemporal motions and physical world characteristics. Kling, built on diffusion-based transformer architecture, can generate videos up to two minutes long with 1080p resolution at 30fps. The model utilizes a self-developed 3D VAE network for synchronous spatiotemporal compression and a full-attention spatiotemporal modeling module for accurate video data analysis. Kling is currently available for beta testing within Kuaishou's video editing app, KuaiYing.

This launch is part of Kuaishou's broader AI strategy, which includes other models like KwaiYii for language generation and KeTu for text-to-image generation. Kling aims to enhance the AI-powered creation and interactive experiences for Kuaishou's users and creators.

Kuaishou Technology has announced a new on-market share repurchase program worth up to HK$16 billion. This new initiative will commence upon the expiry of the existing program on June 13, 2024, following the 2024 AGM. The company has already repurchased 61.7 million Class B shares valued at HK$3.09 billion under the existing program. The new repurchase program will span 36 months, concluding at the 2027 AGM. Kuaishou's Board believes the program will return value to shareholders and reflects confidence in the company's business outlook. Financial resources are deemed sufficient to support the repurchase while maintaining stability. The company will seek annual mandates to continue repurchases in compliance with relevant regulations. However, actual repurchase activities will depend on market conditions and the Board's discretion.

Kuaishou Technology reported robust unaudited financial results for Q1 2024. Average Daily Active Users (DAUs) on the Kuaishou app increased by 5.2% YoY to 393.8 million, while Monthly Active Users (MAUs) rose 6.6% YoY to 697.4 million. Total e-commerce GMV surged by 28.2% to RMB 288.1 billion. Total revenue grew 16.6% YoY to RMB 29.4 billion, with gross profit jumping 37.6% to RMB 16.1 billion, representing a gross profit margin of 54.8%. The company reported a profit of RMB 4.1 billion, reversing a loss of RMB 876 million from the same period last year. Adjusted net profit reached RMB 4.4 billion, a significant increase from RMB 42 million in Q1 2023. Notably, the domestic segment's operating profit increased to RMB 4.0 billion. However, the live streaming business faced an 8% revenue decline to RMB 8.6 billion. The company's overseas segments showed improvement, with a 67.4% reduction in operating loss. CEO Cheng Yixiao highlighted the integration of AI technology and a focus on high-quality user growth and improved commercialization efficiency.