香港,2024年8月30日 — 全球领先的数字内容资产保护与交易服务提供商阜博集团有限公司(“阜博”或“集团”,股份代号:3738.HK),发布截至2024年6月30日止中期之未经审核综合业绩。
2024年中期业绩摘要
- 总收入为1,181百万港元,较2023年上半年的1,003百万港元增长17.7%,不考虑汇率变化,同比增长20.3%。
- 订阅服务收入为545百万港元,较2023年上半年的467百万港元增长16.8%,占总收入比例为46.2%;增值服务收入为635百万港元,较2023年上半年的536百万港元增长18.5%,占总收入比例为53.8%。
- 中国业务地区收入为605百万港元,较2023年上半年的560百万港元增长8.0%,不考虑审计汇率影响,同比增长10.1%;美国及其他业务地区收入为576百万港元,较2023年上半年的443百万港元增长30.1%。
- 毛利润为504百万港元,较2023年上半年的393百万港元增长28.3%,毛利率达到42.7%,较2023年上半年提升约3.5个百分点。
- 淨利润为46百万港元,较2023年上半年的34百万港元增长36.5%。
- 经调整淨利润为64百万港元,较2023年上半年的58百万港元增长10.7%。
- 经调整EBITDA为196百万港元,较2023年上半年的181百万港元增长8.3%。
业务回顾
2024年,我们继续推进高质量发展战略以应对经济环境等因素的影响,保障现有发展并坚定局未来。报告期内,我们在主要业务区域继续拓宽数字内容服务的规模与品类,构筑AIGC领域的业务基础,并在新的市场区域展开卓有成效的业务探索。稳健的业务基础和卓有成效的业务创新拓展,让我们在不断变化的产业环境中不断取得优异的业绩表现。
在美国市场,阜博保持强劲增长势头,我们的客户数量和管理的社交媒体活跃资产数量持续增长。我们进一步加深与大型内容方的合作绑定关係,不断提升内容方在社交媒体平台的内容管理数量和质量。我们已经顺利完成对某大型全球视频平台水印技术应用的技术测试,并进一步推进商业化部署。同时,阜博深化与大型音乐厂牌客户的合作关係,大幅提升管理的音乐资产数量。
在中国市场,阜博的业绩表现和品牌影响力均实现优异增长。通过与中国最大的电视网客户以及短视频平台的合作,阜博为巴黎奥运会节目的转播和传播提供全面的版权保护服务。内容出海方面,阜博通过构建全方位媒体矩阵和本地化运营策略,帮助中国内容方大幅提升日活跃用户数量,提升内容和品牌的国际影响力。此外,我们与广电大型客户共建的版权保护与交易平台也已进入试运营阶段。
在粤港澳大湾区,我们把握融合发展的趋势,加大在大湾区的人才和投资部署,深度参与区域版权生态建设并在其中承担关键角色。
在日本及欧洲地区,我们通过增加知名音乐、动漫公司客户群,成为地区关键性贸易组织和协会成员等方式,加强与本地IP版权方的联络与合作,为后续推进在当地业务的规模化落地做好准备。
订阅服务
以订阅服务为基础的商业模式长期稳定服务于全球顶级内容方和平台。阜博通过自主研发的影视基因数字指纹和水印核心专利技术,帮助内容方追踪侵权,保存有力的侵权证据,并根据向客户提供的服务规模收取订阅费。同时,我们为线上视频网站和平台提供内容识别服务以及溯源能力,赋能平台客户。
2024年上半年,我们的订阅业务取得了突破性进展。随著服务能力扩展到更多版权品类,客户数量持续增长,内容库的渗透率稳步提升,实现全品类版权内容的服务覆盖。阜博加强了与重要内容方的合作,扩大了对大型客户内容库的服务范围和类型,并重点拓展了微短剧、电商、音乐、有声书、播客、图片等新内容领域。
报告期内,阜博为头部行业机构建设“中国电影全媒体出版营销平台项目”;完成了广电系统共建平台项目阶段性建设并进入试运营阶段;通过与头部短视频平台的深化合作,为客户提供包括短剧、小说、音乐和体育赛事在内的全业务覆盖;通过提供API服务对接,为大型短视频平台及大型音乐平台提供涵盖站内和站外的版权监测保护服务。
预计随著全球市场对版权关注度的持续提升、阜博对多样化内容的覆盖能力不断拓展以及版权平台方需求不断增加,我们的订阅服务将继续保持良好的发展趋势。
增值服务
伴随业务的持续发展以及客户的多元需求,我们在加强订阅服务的基础上进一步提供多样化的增值服务,以帮助客户实现内容价值最大化。我们通过提供丰富的变现方案以提升对客户内容的渗透率和盈利能力,并通过分账模式获取收益。2024年我们延续了与大型内容方的合约升级趋势,实现了对头部内容的更大规模覆盖,为增值服务业务的增长提供了保障。
2024年上半年,阜博深化了与主要社交媒体平台的合作关係,并就提高内容在平台上的收益能力进行积极探索。我们在YouTube旗下短视频平台Shorts上运营内容的观看量大幅提升,实现了对社交媒体变现能力的进一步拓展。我们提供变现服务的内容也更加丰富多元,活跃资产数量持续提高。业绩期内阜博不仅加大了对大型内容平台方的内容库渗透,还汇聚优质微短剧内容形成创新的产品体系,为微短剧的版权保护和全球传播提供服务。
随著科技创新为数字内容产业发展带来的重大影响,内容的交易变现方式正变得更加轻量化和多元化,我们将继续局创新的技术和产品服务,为内容方客户提供更多样的增值服务选项。
技术研发
阜博通过构建数字内容资产保护与交易的技术基础设施,有效提升产业生态链的价值传递效率。当前,大型内容方和AI大模型平台逐步达成关于版权内容使用的规则共识,各主要经济体的相关立法也在迅速推进。阜博为内容方提供全方位版权服务的能力,将是确保行业规则有效实践的关键。
我们进一步加强与美国佛罗里达大学的合作,尤其在人工智能领域的探索。阜博创始人王扬斌先生入选佛罗里达大学电气与计算机工程首届名人堂,彰显了阜博在计算机工程领域取得的卓越成就。阜博拥有业内顶尖的技术团队,并与佛罗里达大学、浙江大学、香港科技大学等全球多所知名院校展开紧密合作,持续提升技术能力。同时,我们正与全球最领先的芯片和平台公司进行沟通合作,共同应对AIGC领域日益複杂的版权挑战。
阜博推出了多样化的水印技术解决方案,并已做好进入商业应用阶段的全面准备。通过商业化部署,我们能够将水印技术快速融入客户现有的流媒体工作流程,提供高效、低成本的解决方案。
我们持续升级内容识别和确权技术。通过增强AI算法的应用和部署,大幅缩短内容确权的时间。同时通过扩大直播内容的实时服务规模,进一步强化在社交媒体平台如YouTube、Facebook上的内容保护能力,确保及时下架侵权内容。
通过这些技术升级和储备,我们不断提升内容识别的效率和服务覆盖能力,为应对AIGC时代日益複杂的版权环境做好充分准备,为内容版权方和AI科技企业打造更加健康高效的产业生态做出贡献。
战略展望
- 把握AIGC时代战略机遇,拓展AIGC领域服务能力
- 通过平台型业务升级实现规模化发展,将服务拓展至中小型内容方
- 把握数字经济发展机遇,深度参与数字贸易生态建设
关于阜博集团
阜博集团是全球领先的数字内容资产保护与交易软件即服务(SaaS)提供商。阜博基于影视基因数字指纹和水印核专心利技术开发的系列软件服务,保护电影、电视、流媒体等数字内容资产的权益并提升发行收益。集团致力应用AI技术赋能数字文化产业,并面向第三代互联网(Web3)提供数字资产保护和交易相关的数字基础设施服务能力,通过订阅服务和增值服务两种商业模式为客户提供效高专业的解决方案。
基于持续积累的数字确权与交易核心能力,阜博全力打造数字内容资产保护和交易的必要技术基础设施,提升产业生态链价值有效传递。创意内容始终是影视产业最核心价值所在,创意内容的保护和交易是支撑产业价值链的基础。随著生成式AI技术的兴起及其对内容生产和发行格局的影响,阜博集团继续强化在数字确权与交易服务领域的核心竞争力,以帮助我们的客户在不断变化的内容时代保持其数字内容资产的核心价值。我们致力于服务全球内容创作者,让创意更有价值。
Hong Kong, August 30, 2024 — Vobile Group Limited ("Vobile" or the "Group", Stock Code: 3738.HK), a leading global provider of digital content asset protection and transaction software as a service (SaaS), has released its unaudited consolidated interim results for the period ended June 30, 2024.
Summary of 2024 Interim Results
- The total revenue was HK$1.2 billion, reflecting a YoY increase of 17.7% compared to HK$1.0 billion in 1H 2023, or a YoY increase of 20.3% without considering the impact of foreign currency rate volatility.
- The revenue from subscription services was HK$545 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 16.8% compared to HK$467 million in 1H 2023, accounting for about 46.2% of the revenue. The revenue from value-added services was HK$635 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 18.5% compared to HK$536 million in 1H 2023, accounting for about 53.8% of the revenue.
- The revenue in Mainland China was HK$605 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 8.0% compared to HK$560 million in 1H 2023, or a YoY increase of 10.1% without considering the impact of foreign currency rate volatility. The revenue in the United States and other regions was HK$576 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 30.1% compared to HK$443 million in 1H 2023.
- The gross profit was HK$504 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 28.3% compared to HK$393 million in 1H 2023. The gross margin has achieved 42.7%, up 3.5 percentage points from 1H 2023.
- The profit for the period was HK$46 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 36.5% compared to HK$34 million in 1H 2023.
- The adjusted net profit was HK$64 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 10.7% compared to HK$58 million in 1H 2023.
- The Adjusted EBITDA was HK$196 million, reflecting a YoY increase of 8.3% compared to HK$181 million in 1H 2023.
Business Review
In 2024, we will continue the high quality growth strategy to respond to the impact of the economic environment and other factors, ensuring existing development and firmly laying out the future. During the reporting period, we continued to expand the scale and categories of digital content services in our main business areas, building the business foundation of the GenAI field, and successfully exploring business in new market areas. A stable business foundation and effective business innovation expansion allow us to constantly achieve excellent performance in a constantly changing industry environment.
In the United States market, Vobile maintains strong growth momentum, with our customer base and the number of active assets continuing to grow. We have further deepened our cooperation and partnership with major content providers, continuously improving the quantity and quality of their content management on social media platforms. We have completed technical testing of watermarking technology applications on a large global video platform and are further advancing commercial deployment. At the same time, Vobile deepened its cooperation with large music label clients, significantly increasing the number of managed music assets.
In Mainland China market, Vobile’s performance and brand influence have achieved excellent growth. Through cooperation with China’s largest television network client and short video platform, Vobile provided comprehensive copyright protection services for the broadcast and distribution of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games program. In terms of global distribution services, Vobile has helped Chinese content providers significantly increase the number of daily active viewers and enhance the international influence of content and brands by building a comprehensive media matrix and implementing localised operation strategies. In addition, the copyright protection and transaction platform that we have jointly built with our large broadcasting and television customers has entered the trial operation stage.
In the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau, we grasp the trend of integrated development, increase our talent and investment deployment in the Greater Bay Area, deeply participate in building the IP Ecosystem in local regions, and play a key role in it.
In Japan and Europe, we strengthen our contact and cooperation with local IP rights holders by increasing our well-known music and animation company client base, becoming key trade organisations and association members in the region, and preparing for the subsequent scale landing of local business.
Subscription Services
A subscription-based business model has constantly provided long-term stable services to the world’s leading content providers and platforms. With our essential proprietary VDNA digital fingerprint and watermark technologies, we help content owners trace infringements and preserve timely and powerful evidence, and we charge subscription fees based on the scale of services provided to customers. At the same time, we provide content identification services and traceability capabilities for online video websites and platforms, empowering platform customers.
In the first half of 2024, our subscription business made significant progress. With the expansion of service capabilities to more copyright categories, the number of customers continues to grow, and the penetration rate of the content library steadily increases, achieving service coverage of copyright content in all categories. Vobile has strengthened its cooperation with important content providers, expanded the scope and types of services for large customer content libraries, and focused on expanding new content areas such as micro-dramas, e-commerce, music, audiobooks, podcasts, and images.
During the reporting period, Vobile constructed the ‘‘China Film All-Media Publishing and Marketing Platform Project’’ for top industry organisations. We have completed the first phase of the construction project for China Media Group and started testing operation. Through deepening cooperation with top short video platforms, we provided customers with full business coverage including short dramas, novels, music, and sports events and provided copyright monitoring and protection services covering both on-site and off-site for large short video platforms and large music platforms through API service integration.
It is expected that with the increasing global focus on copyright, Vobile’s expanding coverage of diverse content, and the growing demand from copyright platforms, our subscription services will continue to maintain a good development trend.
Value-added Services
With the continuous development of our business and the diversification of customer needs, we are further providing diversified value-added services based on strengthening subscription services to help customers maximise the value of content. We enhance the penetration and profitability of customer content by providing diverse monetization solutions and earning revenue through revenue-sharing models. In 2024, we continued the trend of upgrading contracts with large content providers, achieving greater coverage of top-tier content and providing assurance for the growth of value-added services.
In the first half of 2024, Vobile deepened its cooperation with major social media platforms and actively explored ways to increase the profitability of content on the platforms. We have seen a significant increase in views of our content on Shorts, a short video platform under YouTube, further expanding our ability to monetize on social media. We also offer a more diverse range of monetization services, with the number of active assets continuing to increase. During the reporting period, Vobile not only enhanced its penetration into major content platforms’ content libraries but also gathered high- quality micro-drama content to form an innovative product system, providing services for copyright protection and global dissemination of micro-dramas.
With the significant impact of technological innovation on the development of the digital content industry, the monetization methods for content are becoming more lightweight and diversified. We will continue to deploy innovative technologies and product services to provide content owner clients with a wider range of value-added service options.
Research and Development
Vobile has effectively enhanced the efficiency of value delivery across the industry ecosystem by building the technology infrastructure for the protection and transaction of digital content assets. Currently, major content providers and AI large-scale model platforms are gradually reaching a consensus on copyright issues, and relevant legislation in major economies is also advancing rapidly. Vobile’s ability to provide comprehensive copyright services to content providers will be key to ensuring the effective industry practice on copyrights.
We further strengthen our collaboration with the University of Florida, especially in the field of AI exploration. Vobile’s founder Mr. Wang Yangbin was selected for the inaugural Hall of Fame for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida, highlighting Vobile’s outstanding achievements in the field of computer engineering. Vobile has an industry-leading technology team and collaborates closely with renowned institutions worldwide, including the University of Florida, Zhejiang University, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, to continuously enhance its technological capabilities. At the same time, we are in communication and collaboration with the world’s leading chip companies and platform companies to jointly address the increasingly complex copyright challenges in the GenAI field.
Vobile has launched a diverse range of watermarking technology solutions and is fully prepared to enter the commercial application phase. Through commercial deployment, we can quickly integrate watermarking technology into our customers’ existing streaming media workflows, providing a more efficient and cost-effective solution.
We continue to upgrade content identification and rights identification technology. We have significantly reduced the time for content rights identification by enhancing the application and deployment of AI algorithms. Meanwhile, through the expansion of the scale of real-time service for live content, we have further strengthened our content protection capabilities on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, ensuring timely takedown of infringing content.
Through these technological upgrades and reserve, we have constantly enhanced the efficiency of content identification and the coverage capability of our services, making sufficient preparations for the increasingly complex copyright environment in the era of GenAI, and contributing to a healthier and more efficient industry ecosystem for content rights holders and AI technology companies.
Company Strategy and Outlook
- Seize strategic opportunities in the GenAI era and expand service capabilities in the GenAI field
- Scalable growth through developing platform-based business to serve more content owners, including the small-to-medium creators
- Seizing opportunities in the digital economy’s development and promoting in the digital trade ecosystem.
About Vobile
Vobile Group is a leading global provider of digital content asset protection and transaction software as a service (SaaS). Vobile develops a series of software services based on its core patented VDNA fingerprinting and watermarking technologies to protect copyrights and increase distribution revenue for digital content asset owners, such as movie studios, TV networks, and streaming platforms. The Group is committed to empowering the digital culture industry with AI technologies and offers digital infrastructure service capabilities for digital asset protection and transaction related in the Web3 era. The Group provides customers with efficient professional solutions through subscription and value-added services.
Vobile continues to accumulate its core capabilities of digital content rights protection and transaction, and is committed to building the necessary technical infrastructure for the protection and transaction of digital content assets, and to enhance the effective delivery of the value of the industrial ecosystem. Creative content is the core value of the film and television industry, and the protection and transaction of creative content is the foundation to support the value chain. With the rise of generative AI technologies and its impact on content production and distribution, Vobile continues to strengthen our core competitiveness in the digital content rights protection and transaction field to support our clients to maintain the core value of their digital content assets in the ever-changing content era. We are committed to serving global content creators, and making creative content more valuable.