While Promethean expands our ecosystem within the classroom environment, we have made strong progress in extending our presence into the "home" with our online learning community platform Edmodo, which has seen unprecedented increase in active users and new registered users since the outbreak of the coronavirus. The remarkable increase in adoption, with DAU currently over 4 million, is due to Edmodo's clear differentiation with its freemium model, emphasis on sharing and community building, as well as its globally reputable brand as a reliable and secured platform for online and mobile learning. Recently, Edmodo was also selected as a UNESCO-recommended distance learning platform, due to its wide reach, strong user base and evidence of positive impact on learning. And in March 2020, Edmodo became Egypt's designated national K-12 online learning platform, as we work towards deployment of Edmodo across the whole of Egypt to create for a positive transformation of education at a country level. Meanwhile, we are also starting to lay the foundation to monetize our user base with a SaaS model as we soft launched AskMo, an online homework help service, in the fourth quarter.
In China, our strategy focus is to both expand user coverage and work towards monetization via a SaaS model. We have started large-scale penetration of our Promethean offerings with multiple tender wins in Fuzhou during the year. Our platform user adoption in the classroom environment has also continued to pick up traction, as the number of monthly active installed base of our flagship software platform 101 Education PPT has exceeded 1 million. Separately, our One-Stop Learning platform, which enables teachers and students to communicate, teach and learn after school, has seen MAU increase by more than 20 times in China since the coronavirus outbreak. With our fast-scaling coverage of active users in both classrooms and at home, we are well on track to build our ecosystem towards monetization. In December 2019, we signed a partnership agreement to partner with National Center for Educational Technology (NCET) to rollout the NCET VLAB Teaching Service System, a virtual laboratory platform, nationwide to high schools across China, which is expected to generate revenue based on a SaaS model at the school level.
Last but not least, as schools continue to shut down around the world due to the outspread of coronavirus, NetDragon is upholding its corporate social responsibility by offering online learning tools, resources and platforms to teachers, students and parents worldwide to support "continuous learning amid school suspension". As noted above, our education platforms have seen significant surge in user traffic and activities, and we are committed to serving teachers, students and parents during this challenging period, and to enhance their teaching and learning experience not just during the outbreak, but also when school learning comes back to normal.
Looking forward, we are excited with the outlook of our education business in 2020, thanks to rising traction in tender business, surge in user traffic, as well as growing online monetization opportunities. We believe the unique differentiation of the ecosystem that we have built, as well as our technologies, will enable us to fulfil our mission to transform education at a global scale.
Management Conference Call
NetDragon's management team will hold a conference call and webcast at 10:00am Hong Kong time on 1 April 2020 (Wednesday) to discuss the results and recent business developments.
Details of the live conference call are as follows:
International | +852 2112 1700 |
Mainland China | 4008 428 383 |
HK (China) | +852 2112 1700 |
US | 1 877 301 4670 |
UK | 0800 068 8163 |
Passcode | 6237526# |
A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of NetDragon's website at http://www.netdragon.com/investor/ir-webcasts.shtml. Participants in the live webcast should visit the aforementioned website 10 minutes prior to the call, then click on the icon for "2019 Results Conference Call" and follow the registration instructions.
About NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited (HKSE: 0777) is a global leader in building internet communities with a long track record of developing and scaling multiple internet and mobile platforms that impact hundreds of millions of users. These include China's number one online gaming portal, 17173.com, and China's most influential smartphone app store platform, 91 Wireless, which was sold to Baidu for US$1.9 billion in 2013 as the largest Internet M&A transaction in China.
Established in 1999, NetDragon is one of the most reputable and well-known online game developers in China with a history of successful game titles including Eudemons Online, Heroes Evolved and Conquer Online. In recent years, NetDragon has also started to scale its online education business on the back of management's vision to create the largest global online learning community, and to bring the "classroom of the future" to every school around the world.
For investor enquiries, please contact:
NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited
Ms. Maggie Zhou
Senior Director of Investor Relations
Tel.: +852 2850 7266 / +86 591 8390 2825
Email:
maggie@nd.com.cn
Website:
ir.netdragon.com
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF PROFIT OR LOSS AND OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME | |||
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2019 | |||
| |||
| 2019 |
| 2018 |
| RMB'000 |
| RMB'000 |
|
|
|
|
Revenue | 5,793,075 |
| 5,037,539 |
Cost of revenue | (1,937,823) |
| (1,990,298) |
|
|
|
|
Gross profit | 3,855,252 |
| 3,047,241 |
Other income and gains | 137,323 |
| 118,189 |
Impairment loss under expected credit loss model,
| (26,491) |
| (11,717) |
Selling and marketing expenses | (915,754) |
| (697,871) |
Administrative expenses | (883,083) |
| (853,180) |
Development costs | (1,075,400) |
| (922,867) |
Other expenses and losses | (305,356) |
| (150,308) |
Share of losses of associates | (4,936) |
| (1,370) |
Share of loss of a joint venture | (3,370) |
| (1,717) |
|
|
|
|
Operating profit | 778,185 |
| 526,400 |
Interest income on pledged bank deposits | 3,181 |
| 3,607 |
Exchange loss on secured bank borrowings and
| (1,052) |
| (10,030) |
Fair value change on convertible preferred shares | 110,697 |
| 60,659 |
Net loss on disposal of property held for sale | - |
| (68) |
Finance costs | (24,742) |
| (12,415) |
|
|
|
|
Profit before taxation | 866,269 |
| 568,153 |
Taxation | (163,214) |
| (91,349) |
|
|
|
|
Profit for the year | 703,055 |
| 476,804 |
|
|
|
|
Other comprehensive income (expense) for the year,
|
|
|
|
Item that may be reclassified subsequently
|
|
|
|
Exchange differences arising on translation
| 5,517 |
| 4,332 |
Item that will not be reclassified to profit or loss: |
|
|
|
Fair value gain (loss) on equity instrument at fair value
| 878 |
| (9,366) |
Other comprehensive income (expense) for the year | 6,395 |
| (5,034) |
Total comprehensive income for the year | 709,450 |
| 471,770 |
|
|
|
|
Profit (loss) for the year attributable to: |
|
|
|
- Owners of the Company | 807,212 |
| 545,573 |
- Non-controlling interests | (104,157) |
| (68,769) |
| 703,055 |
| 476,804 |
|
|
|
|
Total comprehensive income (expense)
|
|
|
|
- Owners of the Company | 813,456 |
| 541,430 |
- Non-controlling interests | (104,006) |
| (69,660) |
| 709,450 |
| 471,770 |
|
|
|
|
| RMB cents |
| RMB cents |
Earnings per share |
|
|
|
- Basic | 152.68 |
| 102.42 |
- Diluted | 152.17 |
| 102.27 |