Covering a broad range of topics,
is focused on humor, stories and other light entertainment content
that delight and inspire. Our content is generally sourced from
professional media under licensing arrangements or uploaded by more
than two million freelancers registered on our platform.
We introduced a separate mobile application,
, in May 2018 which offers users free literature online. We further
introduced
in May 2019, which includes a loyalty program in addition to the
standard offerings of
. They both feature an innovative
model that appeals to the online literature reading population,
especially those who are keen to read but have a low willingness to
pay, who account for the vast majority of online readers in China,
and thus having been turned away by the paid-only model of the
traditional online literature industry. Supported by advertising,
we are able to offer our users a comprehensive selection of
literature covering a wide range of genres for free. While
have been very effective in targeting the existing reading
population,
has drawn in readers having little or no experience with online
literature who subsequently develop a passion for reading.
Therefore, the two applications together have achieved broader
coverage of the market from a product perspective, and form the two
strategic pillars with equal importance in our long-term vision for
the online literature market.
We have successfully diversified our content offerings into online
games and live-streaming with promising
take-up
rates from our loyal users. We will keep improving the quality of
content currently on offer and further expanding into more content
categories, to create a comprehensive light entertainment content
ecosystem. This not only enhances user engagement and retention,
but also diversifies our monetization channels.
We currently generate revenues primarily by providing advertising
and marketing services. New monetization channels such as online
games and live-streaming are still at their early stages, and will
contribute a much more meaningful percentage of revenues over time.
We have maintained a strong focus on R&D since our founding and
materially enhanced our proprietary advertising platform’s
monetization efficiency. This has been achieved by enhanced
algorithms and the conversion to an oCPC system.
Our net revenues have increased rapidly from
RMB3,022.1 million in 2018 to RMB5,570.1 million in 2019,
and slightly decreased to RMB5,285.2 million (US$810.0
million) in 2020 primarily due to our strategy to balance
operational efficiency and sustainable growth. We have made
significant progress on cost optimization and the budgeting process
to improve operating margin. We have incurred net losses
attributable to Qutoutiao Inc. of RMB1,942.6 million in 2018,
RMB2,688.7 million in 2019 and RMB1,104.4 million(US$169.3
million) in 2020.
Non-GAAP
net losses attributable to Qutoutiao Inc., which represented net
losses attributable to Qutoutiao Inc. before share-based
compensation expenses, were RMB990.9 million in 2018,
RMB2,416.7 million in 2019 and RMB641.2 million (US$98.3
million) in 2020.
We primarily deliver content through
, which is our flagship mobile application and means “fun
headlines” in Chinese.
aggregates articles and videos uploaded from content providers and
presents real-time customized feeds to users based on each user’s
profile, behavior and social relationships.
Feeds are presented to users on both the main page of
and topic pages. Both the main page and topic pages are customized
for each user using our content recommendation engine. Topic pages
include, among others, videos, entertainment, humor, anecdote,
relationship, family, health, food and pets. A user may also search
content or follow specific content providers. Users may save their
favorite content pages as well as indicate the content pages that
they dislike.
We promote social interaction among users to engage them more
closely with the content they have viewed as well as with each
other. Users may post comments and engage in discussions with other
users by responding to comments. A user can also share content
through a variety of means, including emails, messaging
applications or social networks.
We launched our mobile literature application,
, in May 2018, which offers users free literature supported by
advertising. Unlike the traditional paid-only model in the online
literature industry which charges users fees for most content
offered, users of
can enjoy their favorite literature under an innovative
model. Our users have access to a comprehensive selection of
literature covering a wide range of genres, including romance,
fantasy, science fiction, history and other genres for free. We
classify the content genres with multi-dimensional reading tags
which our users can choose to follow. We are able to offer our
users free literature as we primarily monetize through
advertisements that our advertising customers place on
. Our
AI-powered
content recommendation engine coupled with our strong data
analytics capabilities also enable us to improve user experience
and increase the time our users spend on
by making personalized recommendation and delivering to them
literature that caters to their interest.
We launched
in May 2019, which combines a loyalty program with the standard
offerings from
. The differentiated product design has led to
attracting an incremental reading population whose needs have not
been well addressed by
previously. As a result, we have observed minimal user overlap
between the two versions.
We have also been exploring opportunities in short videos, which we
offer through both the
application and standalone short video applications. It is a large
and attractive market and an important part of any content
ecosystem. We believe our innovative approach to product design and
development positions us well for moving into this market.