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Earnings Calls: 
Shanda Interactive Entertainment Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
Author: Albena Toncheva
123jump.com
Last Update: 4:20 AM EST February 29 2008


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The interactive entertainment media company reported revenue of RMB714.2 million as against RMB470.6 million in the prior year, on 60% growth in MMORPG revenue. During the quarter, the number of active paying accounts for MMORPGs grew 12.7% sequentially to 3.47 million, due to the release of expansion packs and in-game promotions and the launch of new game title, World Hegemony. The firm expects its consolidated net revenues for Q1 2008 to increase 62.9% sequentially.


Investors Question and Answers

 
Sequential Earnings Growth | Quarterly Earnings by Year | Quarterly Earnings Growth by Year

Source: Company filings    Q1:March  Q2:June  Q3:September  Q4:December
 
Grace Wu: In the fourth quarter 2007, casual games account for about 12% of our revenue and for 2007 as a whole it''s only about 13.4%.

Jenny Wu (Morgan Stanley): We see ARPU declined in fourth quarter due to the launch of the new games so in 2008 we would see more games to be launched. Are we going to expect a nice rebound for ARPU in the coming quarters?

Jun Tang: We are very happy about the last quarter''s performance. You see we increased actual paying accounts in the double-digits and the ARPU was slightly down and it was primarily due to the dilution of the new active paying accounts. That trend we''re very excited about that because the whole pool is so huge if you look at the total user numbers and compare to the active paying accounts, only a few percent of that. We do have great room to increase on the active paying account side. On the other hand of the ARPU, if you look at our friends, their ARPU is over RMB 100 and we are sitting in RMB 57 and we still have that room to grow as well. With new games coming up, sometime we may some of it flat in terms of ARPU, or slightly down, but as long as we can increase the active paying account number, that''s something that we are extremely excited about and that''s something we are pursuing.

Jenny Wu (Morgan Stanley): The gross margin declined in fourth quarter. What is the major reason? Can you comment on the future trend?

Grace Wu: The main reason the gross margin has a slight adjustment compared to third quarter is we accrue certain impairments provisions for one of our games, DDO, because the game, ever since we launched, the operation model is different from what was earlier anticipated. Therefore, we took a prudent approach and tried to accrue certain provisions for it. That impacted gross margin in Q4 2007. The related expense is categorized in other under cost of services. We guided for fourth quarter operating margin was 39.1% and we guided for 1Q 2008 to have a similar rate of operating margin compared to 4Q 2007.

Kar Kuwong (Neeman & Co.): The conversion rate for non-paying accounts and paying accounts was 6% last quarter. What was it this quarter?

Jun Tang: We had 17.3% in Q4, if you look at the last quarter of 6.7, we do have a lot of room to grow from last quarter 2006, 6.7 and Q4 was 7.3 and we try to pursue higher conversion rate.

Kar Kuwong (Neeman & Co.): In terms of thinking about the ARPU for existing games, did you see continued growth in that number as to the decline that we saw in the overall?

Jun Tang: Yes, we are seeing casual continued growth. But again, our strategy is try to grow the active paying accounts number. In the meantime, we try to grow the ARPU number as well, but we try to grow the active paying account number faster than the ARPU growth.

C. Ming Zhao (SIG): What was driving the revenue growth in the fourth quarter? Does that include any in-game advertising revenues?

Grace Wu: In the fourth quarter, the major drivers are the MMORPG and the casual game growth. For advertising-related revenues, we report it under other revenues. For the other revenue category as a whole, advertising revenue is driving that growth.
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