Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call March 21, 2023 7:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Cussion Pang - Executive Chairman

Ross Liang - Chief Executive Officer

Tony Yip - Chief Scientific Officer

Shirley Hu - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Alicia Yap - Citigroup

Alex Poon - Morgan Stanley

Lincoln Kong - Goldman Sachs

Lei Zhang - Bank of America Securities

Wei Xiong - UBS

Xueqing Zhang - CICC

Thomas Chong - Jefferies

Charlene Liu - HSBC

Tony Yip

Good evening and good morning. Welcome to Tencent Music Entertainment Group’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Earnings Webinar. TME announced quarterly financial results today after market close and earnings release is now available on our IR website at ir.tencentmusic.com as well as via Newswire Services. Today, you will hear from Mr. Cussion Pang, our Executive Chairman, who will start the call with an overview of our recent updates. Next, Mr. Ross Liang, our CEO; and I, Tony Yip, CSO, will offer additional thoughts on our product strategies, operations and business developments. Finally, Ms. Shirley Hu, our CFO, will address our financial results before we open the call for questions.

Before we continue, I refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in our earnings press release, which applies to this call as we will make forward-looking statements. Please also note that the company will discuss non-IFRS measures today, which are more thoroughly explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported under IFRS in the company’s earnings release and filings with the SEC. [Operator Instructions] And please be advised that today’s webinar is being recorded.

With that, I am pleased to turn the call over to Cussion, Executive Chairman of TME. Cussion?

Cussion Pang

Thank you, Tony. Hello, everyone and thank you for joining our call today. Looking back on 2022, firm execution of our dual engine content and platform strategy build a solid progress in a fast-changing macro environment. With a keen focus on high-quality growth and product innovation as well as our highly effective cost optimization measures, we led the industry in the rebound of bottom line growth and delivered steady growth in online music subscriptions throughout the year.

Our diversified suite of monetization tools expanded and made progress during the year such as ad-supported mode, long-form audio, as well as audio live streaming and our international expansion, among many more. With our confidence in the long-term prospects of the company, we had completed the $1 billion share buyback program approved by the Board in 2021. Looking ahead into 2023, as we are repositioning ourselves to better capture future growth areas, we currently expect our quarterly revenues from online music services will exceed those from social entertainment services at some point within this year. Meanwhile, with our relentless focus on executing our growth strategies and operating efficiencies, we are confident to achieve year-over-year growth in total revenues and profitability as well as continuous improvement in user quality in 2023 while fueling the thriving music industry