$奇虎360(QIHU)$ Qihoo 360 Reports Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2014 Unaudited Financial Results
PR Newswire
BEIJING, March 9, 2015
BEIJING, March 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. ("Qihoo 360" or the "Company") (NYSE: QIHU), a leading Internet company in China, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2014.
Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights[1]
-- Revenues were $431.2 million, a 94.6% increase from $221.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. -- Net income attributable to Qihoo 360 was $76.8 million, compared to $16.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. -- Non-GAAP net income attributable to Qihoo 360[1] was $109.4 million, compared to $96.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2013. -- Diluted earnings per ADS[2] ("EPADS") attributable to Qihoo 360 was $0.58, compared to $0.13 in the fourth quarter of 2013. -- Non-GAAP diluted EPADS attributable to Qihoo 360[1] was $0.75, compared to $0.70 in the fourth quarter of 2013. Fourth Quarter Operating Metrics
-- Total monthly active users of Qihoo 360's PC-based products and services reached a record 509 million in December 2014, compared to 475 million in December 2013[3]. -- User penetration of Qihoo 360's PC-based products was 96.1% in December 2014, compared to 94.6% in December 2013[3]. -- Total smartphone users of Qihoo 360's primary mobile security product[4] reached a record 744 million in December 2014, compared to 467 million in December 2013[5]. -- Monthly active users of Qihoo 360's PC browsers reached 361 million in December 2014, compared to 354 million in December 2013[3]. -- User penetration of Qihoo 360's PC browsers was 68.1% in December 2014, compared to 70.4% in December 2013[3]. -- Average daily unique visitors to the 360 Personal Start-up Page and its sub-pages were 132 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 119 million in the fourth quarter of 2013[5]. -- Average daily clicks on Qihoo 360's Personal Start-up Page and its sub-pages were approximately 685 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, compared to 681 million in the fourth quarter of 2013[5]. Fiscal Year 2014 Highlights[1]
-- Revenues were $1,390.7 million, an increase of 107.2 % from $671.1 million in 2013. -- Net income attributable to Qihoo 360 was $222.8 million, an increase of 123.5% from $99.7 million in 2013. -- Non-GAAP net income attributable to Qihoo 360[1] was $341.5 million, an increase of 50.9% from $226.3 million in 2013. -- Diluted EPADS[2] attributable to Qihoo 360 were $1.69, compared to $0.77 in 2013. -- Non-GAAP diluted EPADS attributable to Qihoo 360[1] were $2.43 compared to $1.74 in 2013. "We are pleased to report our sixteenth consecutive quarter of robust growth as a public company and deliver another full year of solid progress in operations," said Mr.Hongyi Zhou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Qihoo 360. "As we continued to maintain our leadership position in key product categories, such as PC security, PC browser, mobile security and mobile app store, we made significant progress with new product initiatives, particularly those related to mobile Internet. We exceeded our year-end PC search traffic share target and further established our search service as a strong alternative to the market leader. Our mobile search continued to gain traction with innovative product features and new branding initiatives. We are well-positioned to capture additional market share in China's massive PC and mobile search market. In December 2014 we formed a strategic partnership with Coolpad to enter the strategically important smartphone market. We firmly believe that the combination of software and hardware ecosystems will play a critical role in the future of Chinese mobile Internet. Although still in its nascent stage, our endeavor in selective IOT (Internet of Things) categories also achieved a solid start. 360 Kids Guard, 360 Family Guard, and 360 Secure Router were all well received by the market."
"While we made significant progress financially and operationally, there are still areas need to improve. We are determined to address these issues directly and proactively. Over the past few months we have realigned our product development efforts, streamlined our monetization operations, and adjusted our organizational structure. We believe these efforts will significantly improve our operational efficiency, accelerate product development cycles, and optimize monetization potential. We are very confident that we will achieve our full year operational goals in 2015," concluded Mr. Zhou.
Mr.Xiangdong Qi, President of Qihoo 360, added "We are happy to surpass our internal revenue and profitability targets for both the fourth quarter and the full year. We continue to see robust growth in key areas of our business. Online advertising grew 81% in 2014, supported by continued strong ramp-up in search monetization. Internet value-added services once again outpaced the market with revenue growth of 142% in 2014, with strong ramp-up in mobile games being the main driver. Both search and mobile app store businesses more than tripled and have ramped up faster than expected. They will continue to be key drivers of our growth for the foreseeable future.
"While we have achieved robust revenue growth every year since our public listing, we realize there are still many unturned stones and underutilized capacities in our ecosystem. We are streamlining our monetization system into a fully integrated structure that seamlessly covers PC and mobile, and web and apps. We believe these efforts should drive accelerated revenue growth down the road. Meanwhile, we will continue to make proactive investments in product and technology development in order to strengthen our leadership position and expand our footprint, particularly in mobile Internet and search technology where we see tremendous opportunities for future expansion. We believe these investments will further strengthen our foundation, support sustainable growth and drive long-term shareholder value."
Fourth Quarter 2014 Results
Revenues
Revenues were $431.2 million, representing an increase of 94.6% from $221.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and an increase of 14.6% from $376.4 million in the third quarter of 2014. The robust year-over-year increase in revenues was mainly due to strong performance in both online advertising and Internet value-added services, driven by strong ramp-up in search and mobile monetization. The solid sequential growth was mainly driven by seasonal strength in online advertising. In addition, better than expected ramp-up in enterprise security supported incremental growth.
Online advertising revenues were $243.2 million, up 70.8% from the same period last year and 20.5% from the prior quarter. The strong year-over-year and sequential increases were primarily driven by continued ramp-up in search monetization and incremental contribution from mobile advertising.
Internet value-added service revenues, which are mainly derived from game platform operations, were $167.4 million, up 112.2% from the same period last year and down 3.1% from the prior quarter. The robust year-over-year growth was driven in part by the strong ramp-up in mobile games as the mobile game industry continued its upward momentum. PC game operations performed weaker than expected primarily due to the soft secular trend in the web game industry and lack of attractive contents
During the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company started to provide fee based enterprise security products to institutional clients. The enterprise security business performed better than expected, driven by strong early uptake of these products and robust seasonal pattern.
Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues were $103.0 million, compared to $30.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $85.4 million in the third quarter of 2014, representing increases of 241.4% and 20.7%, respectively. The year-over-year and sequential increases in cost of revenue were due to strong revenue growth and change in revenue mix.
Operating Expenses
Operating expenses were $225.2 million, compared to $184.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $225.5 million in the third quarter of 2014. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $201.2 million, compared to $109.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $200.1 million in the prior quarter.
The year-over-year increase in non-GAAP operating expenses was mainly driven by increased marketing expenses, personnel-related costs, and bandwidth and equipment depreciation expenses, as the Company continued to enhance its technology and product development capabilities, and strengthen its brand and market position.
Operating Income
Operating income was $108.1 million, compared to $8.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and operating income of $ 68.0 million in the prior quarter.
Non-GAAP operating income was $132.0 million, compared to $84.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $93.3 million in the prior quarter.
Operating margin was 25.1%, compared to 4.0% in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 18.1% in the prior quarter.
Non-GAAP operating margin was 30.6%, compared to 38.0% in the fourth quarter of 2013 and 24.8% in the prior quarter.
The year-over-year decline in non-GAAP operating margin was mainly due to an increased level of spending in channel promotion, marketing and product development. The quarter-over-quarter margin improvement was driven by the leverage from revenue growth and incremental cost efficiencies.
Net Income attributable to Qihoo 360
Net income attributable to Qihoo 360 was $76.8 million, compared to $16.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $ 57.7 million in the prior quarter.
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