Q & A Highlights

Q: Could management elaborate on the sustainability of the live streaming business recovery and share your view on the longer-term outlook? A: In Q2, our live streaming business grew 5.9% sequentially, with year-over-year growth accelerating to 7.3%, driven by growth in both paying users and ARPPU. Core live streaming paying users grew 3.9% year-over-year. The recovery is driven by revenue growth in developed markets and solid sequential growth in the Middle East, supported by our new voice product portfolio. We are confident that our social entertainment business will achieve full-year revenue growth in 2026 and sustain a steady growth trajectory beyond.

Q: How should we look at the outlook for the third-party advertising business in the second half of this year in terms of growth rate and margin profile? A: Our third-party advertising business sustained strong momentum with revenue increasing 74.1% year-over-year and 9.3% quarter-over-quarter, exceeding expectations. Web-based demand grew 91.7% year-over-year, while in-app advertising spending grew 70.6%. We are highly confident this business will continue to deliver strong growth. While it is still in a rapid expansion phase requiring continued investment, the business has healthy unit economics, giving us confidence we can remain profitable while steadily improving margins over the medium term as we scale.

Q: Can management comment on the 2026 revenue and profit guidance across different business segments? A: For Q3 2026, we expect total revenue growth of 11.4% to 15.2% year-over-year. Social entertainment should deliver moderate single-digit growth, Bigo Ads strong double-digit growth, and Shopline more than 25% growth. For the full year, we expect social entertainment to deliver steady growth, Bigo Ads strong mid-double-digit growth, and Shopline to exceed 20% growth. Based on better-than-expected first-half performance, we now expect full-year 2026 non-GAAP operating profit to grow around 20% year-over-year, up from our previous expectation of teens-level growth.

Q: What is the latest development and growth drivers for Shopline, and what would be the profit breakeven roadmap? A: AI is creating new growth opportunities for Shopline as new traffic and transaction entry points emerge. Revenue from cross-border merchants grew 73.5% year-over-year in Q2, driving overall acceleration. Our business model aligns with merchant success: subscription fees provide stable recurring revenue, while value-added services like payments and marketing allow us to participate in GMV growth. R&D expense has largely stabilized, and continued growth in revenue and gross profit is driving operating leverage. We are confident Shopline will further narrow losses in 2026 and reach operating breakeven by 2028.

Q: What will be the pace of future buybacks, and how does the group balance growth investments versus cash returns? A: Since the beginning of the year to August 21, we have bought back $216 million of shares. There is no inherent trade-off between investing for growth and returning capital. We hold a net cash position of $3.06 billion, and all three business segments are on well-defined growth trajectories. We believe the current share price does not fully reflect our long-term growth potential. We will continue to actively return capital to shareholders, and as operating profit grows, shareholders can look forward to greater returns in the long run.

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript .