Weibo 3Q 2025 Earnings Call - Strategic Shift to AI-Driven Content and Ads Amid Advertising Headwinds

Sandra Zhang, Investor Relations, Weibo: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Weibo Reports’ third quarter 2025 financial results. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the call over to your first speaker today. This is Sandra Zhang from IR. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Thank you, Operator. Welcome to Weibo’s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are our Chief Executive Officer, Gaofei Wang, and our Chief Financial Officer, Fei Cao. The conference call is also being broadcasted on the internet and is available through Weibo’s IR website. Before the management remarks, I would like to read you the Safe Harbor Statement in connection with today’s conference call. During today’s conference call, we will make forward-looking statements, statements that are not historical facts, including statements of our beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Weibo assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statement in this conference call and elsewhere.

Further information regarding this and other risks is included in Weibo’s annual report on Form 20F and other filings with the SEC. All the information provided in this press release is occurring as the date hereof. Weibo assumes no obligation to update such information except as required under applicable law. Additionally, I would like to remind you that our discussion today includes certain non-GAAP measures, which exclude stock-based compensation and certain other expenses. We use non-GAAP financial measures to gain a better understanding of Weibo’s comparative operating performance and the future prospects. Our non-GAAP financials exclude certain expenses, gains or losses, and other items that are not expected to result in future cash payments or are non-recurring in nature or are not indicative of a core operating result and outlook. Please refer to our press release for more information about our non-GAAP measures.

Following management prepared remarks, we open the lines for a brief Q&A session. With this, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Gaofei Wang.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 谢谢。大家好，欢迎大家参加微博财报电话会议。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Thank you. Hello everyone, welcome to Weibo’s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 本次财报会议，我向大家重点介绍微博25年第三季度的产品运营，以及商业化方面的进展。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: On today’s call, I will share with you highlights on Weibo’s product and monetization in the third quarter 2025.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 用户方面，截至三季度末，我们月活用户达到5.78亿，日活用户达到2.57亿。三季度微博总营收达到了4.423亿美金，年内年下降5%。其中广告营收达到3.754亿美金，年内年下降6%。三季度公司调整后营业利润达到1.32亿美金，调整后营业利润率达到30%。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: On the user front, in September 2025, Weibo’s MAUs reached 578 million, and average daily use reached 257 million. In the third quarter, Weibo’s total revenues reached $442.3 million, a decrease of 5% year over year. Our total ad revenues reached $375.4 million, a decrease of 6% year over year. Our non-GAAP operating income reached $132.0 million, representing a non-GAAP operating margin of 30%.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 2025年，公司整体策略仍以提升用户价值为核心，保持微博在热点和微云运营生态的领先优势，稳定社交产品的竞争力，并在此基础上结合大模型能力，重点投入推荐搜索体系的建设，提升用户规模和活跃。接下来，我介绍一下三季度产品运营和商业化工作的进展。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: In 2025, our overall corporate strategy continues to focus on enhancing user value, sustaining Weibo’s leading position in hot topics and the entertainment content ecosystem, while reinforcing the competitiveness of our social products. Building on this, we also leverage large language models to enhance our recommendation feeds and search products, aiming to increase our user base and engagement. Next, I’ll share with you highlights in Weibo’s product operation and monetization in the third quarter.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 用户增长以及活跃方面，25年我们重要的产品改造是首页信息流的改版，新版首页形成以推荐流为主的产品架构，并已于7月下旬基本完成对于用户的覆盖。同时，我们结合三季度暑期文娱和热点的活跃契机，持续优化推荐算法，并结合视频算法的进一步升级，提升用户的活跃效果，对部分人群的活跃效果有显著提升，特别是中低频及以下用户的人均阅读时长和次流，实现了环比双位数的提升，整体上带动了推荐流三季度人均时长的环比增长。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: On user growth and engagement, in 2025, our key product revamp is the upgrade of the homepage information feed, which puts the recommendation feed as the default core feed. The revamp has largely rolled out in all users by late July. Alongside the information feed revamp, we also optimized our recommendation algorithm, especially for video content recommendation. During the summer vacation, leveraging the active entertainment events and hot topics during the summer vacation, we saw significant improvement in user engagement of the mid and low-frequency user group. The per capita viewership timespan and retention of the mid and low-frequency user group grew double-digit quarter over quarter, which in turn drove per capita timespan in the recommendation feed for the whole user group to increase for Q3 quarter over quarter.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 我们在三季度推进两项的重点策略。第一，强化推荐流的算法推荐能力，提升用户当下兴趣的消费满足度。例如，在热点内容分发方面，推荐和搜索实现用户的行为联动。用户在所有场景对热点内容的消费和互动之后，会在推荐流看到更多相关热点内容的精准推荐。这一策略对平台中低频用户在微博的活跃和留存效果尤其明显。第二，算法强化视频内容在推荐流的融合，提升用户的深度消费。随着首页信息流产品从关系转向以推荐流为主的结构，对社交关系分发的基础上，视频内容可以更多地依托算法能力，实现更精准、更广泛的触达。这一转变促成了原创视频、中长视频在推荐流的分发显著提升。用户因更丰富的中长视频内容，也延长了在推荐流的停留时长，也更有助于平台内容生态的健康发展，进一步实现视频内容生态的正向循环。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: In the third quarter, we implemented two key strategies. First, we enhanced the algorithm of the recommendation feed to improve user satisfaction with content, which matches their real-time interest. For example, in hot topic distribution, we established user behavior linkage between the recommendation feed and the search function. When users view and engage with the hot topics in search function, they are shown more precisely targeted contents in the recommendation feed. This strategy has been proven particularly effective in enhancing engagement and retention among mid and low-frequency users of Weibo. Second, we enhanced our algorithm to better integrate video content into the recommendation feed, driving deeper content consumption. With the homepage information feed shifting from a relationship-based model to a recommendation-based one, video content could be distributed through our recommendation algorithms to reach more precise and broader user groups, on top of the traditional social distribution mechanism.

As a result, we saw a notable increase in the distribution of original and mid to long-form video contents in the recommendation feed. The enriched mid to long-form video content is extending user timespan in the recommendation feed and supporting healthy development of the content ecosystem.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 与此同时，运营持续推进兴趣内容运营体系的升级，强化基于兴趣内容调动博主规模化的生产机制，实现了被推荐流做出更高质量、更多元的内容供给机制。此次信息流价格调整对微博而言具有战略意义，类似于几年前我们从延续向算法模板采取的转型。短期来看，部分用户群体的体验确实面临一定的挑战，但长期来看，推荐机制和视频比重的提升将有助于增强微博社交媒体平台的核心竞争力，并为内容生态的持续健康发展建立坚实的基础。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Meanwhile, we continue to enhance our interest-based content operation, strengthening large-scale content production by content creators around user interests, and thereby improving the quality and diversity of content supplied to the recommendation feed. The restructuring of the information feed holds strategic significance for Weibo, which is comparable to our transition from the chronological to algorithm-based sorting several years ago. In the short term, user experience for a certain user group may face some challenges. However, from a long-term perspective, the increased weight of recommendation content and video content will strengthen Weibo’s core competitiveness as a social media platform, while laying a solid foundation for the sustainable and healthy development of our content ecosystem.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 在提升首页推荐流效率的同时，我们也进一步加强了关系流中的社交讨论，实际发挥在差异化竞争中的核心支撑作用。三季度，我们重点围绕强化博主与粉丝互动和激发用户兴趣社交的两大主线，提升平台的社交活跃度。首先，在提升博主粉丝互动方面，我们通过升级铁粉机制并优化触达与分发机制，显著提升了关系流的互动效率及互动量与阅读量的比例。三季度同款比均提升两倍数，更激发了普通博主持续产出优质内容的积极性。其次，在升级普通用户兴趣社交方面，我们持续深耕超话社区，聚焦暑期的关键节点，围绕演唱会、动漫展等年轻用户高热度的兴趣场景，鼓励用户分享有价值、有情绪的兴趣内容，打造超话成为有趣和有用的兴趣分享和交流空间。三季度，超话发帖人数和互动人数同比双位数的增长，这些有效的工作措施巩固了微博差异化的图文竞争优势，并使首页推荐流形成固步，推动平台生态的稳健发展。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: While improving the efficiency of the homepage recommendation feed, we also strengthen social discussion in the relationship feed, ensuring its role as the cornerstone of Weibo’s differentiated competitiveness. In the third quarter, our efforts focus on two key aspects: driving interaction between content creators and their followers, and stimulating interest-based social engagement among users to fully boost the social engagement across the platform. First, to further drive the interaction between content creators and their followers, we upgraded the core fan mechanism and optimized the content reach and the distribution. This significantly improved interaction efficiency in the relationship feed, which is measured by the ratio of total interactions versus total viewership, resulting in double-digit growth of this ratio both quarter over quarter and year over year in Q3, while further driving content creators’ motivation to consistently produce high-quality content in text and image.

Second, to enhance ordinary users’ social interaction around interest-based content, we continue to develop the super topics community, focusing on key summer events, concerts, and anime conventions, which young people are interested in. We encourage users to share meaningful and emotional content around their interest, positioning super topics as a fun and useful space for interest-based sharing and interaction. In the third quarter, the number of users who posted and engaged in super topics grew double-digit year over year. This effective initiative has strengthened Weibo’s differentiated advantages in text and image, complementing the homepage recommendation feed and contributing to the solid development of the platform’s ecosystem.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 搜索产品方面，三季度我们持续强化AI的技术应用，重点围绕技术能力升级和生态场景融合两个部分方面推进。首先，在技术能力升级方面，继续加强思聪对于用户搜索意图的理解和内容匹配的能力，有效提升了搜索结果的相关性和准确性，让用户更容易找到想要的内容。同时，推进搜索模式的升级，从传统单次信息检索向连续性、代表性对话的升级，用户与自搜进行了连贯的对话，获得更智能、更连贯的信息获取服务体验。其次，在生态场景融合方面，我们推动自搜在信息流场景的应用，构建搜索机服务的用户心智，自搜深度融入平台博文的消费场景，通过完善博文求证和内容总结功能，利用AI对原文内容进行真实性的分析，关键信息的提炼和延展阅读，帮助用户在浏览博文时快速获得结构化、可靠的信息支持。三季度，自搜的MAU突破7,000万，DAU和快热量环比提升超过50%。这一增长不仅体现了用户对自搜产品的认可，也是进一步推动微博搜索生态的增长。微博搜索总快热量环比提升20%。未来，我们将继续深化AI在搜索产品的中心应用，技术上让搜索更懂用户，体验上让使用更连贯智能，生态上让服务更贴近场景，持续为用户提供更智能、更便捷的搜索体验，进一步释放平台的内容生态的价值。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Turning to search products, in the third quarter, we continue to reinforce AI application in search function, focusing on technical infrastructure upgrades and integration across ecosystem scenarios. First, in upgrading technical infrastructure, we continue to enhance intelligent search capability to understand user search intent and content matching capability, which effectively improves the relevance and accuracy of search results and makes it easier for users to find desired content. At the same time, we upgraded the search model from conventional one-time information search to continuous exploratory dialogue, enabling users to engage in coherent conversations with intelligent search and enjoy a more intelligent and seamless information across experience. Second, the integration across ecosystem scenarios, we focus on expanding intelligent search application in information feed, fostering a search-as-a-service user mindset. We deeply integrated intelligent search into the content consumption experience with enhanced content verification and content summary features.

The system leverages AI to assess the authenticity of the original post, extract key information, and provide extended insights, helping users quickly access structured and reliable information while consuming contents. In the third quarter, the MAUs of Weibo intelligent search product exceeded 70 million, with its DAU and search queries increasing more than 50% quarter over quarter. This momentum not only reflects users’ recognition of Weibo’s intelligent search product, but also further contributes to the expansion of Weibo’s search ecosystem. As a result, the total search queries on Weibo increased 20% quarter over quarter in the third quarter. Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen the innovative application of AI in search products. On the technology front, we aim to make search more user-aware.

As for user experience, we strive to deliver a more seamless and intelligent usage journey, and in terms of the ecosystem, service will become more contextually relevant. These efforts will continuously provide users with a smarter, more convenient search experience and further unlock the value of Weibo’s content ecosystem.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 在商业化方面，2025年广告产品营销的团队核心聚焦两大方向：一是推动微博内容营销的心智向更多行业和客户的渗透并巩固；二是持续提升广告产品的效果转化能力。三季度，受去年同期奥运期间高基数广告收入的影响，微博广告收入同比下降6%。从整体市场环境来看，在扩大内需、促进消费增长的引导下，电商平台和相关行业保持较高的投放水平，为三季度的收入增长提供了支撑。从客户侧反馈看，随着过去几年大量客户在校网广告预算上的持续投入，商业流量采买的竞争也日益激烈，成本持续攀升。再加上最近企业投放信息流广告涉及的抵税政策的颁布，这使得客户在预算分配时重新重视品牌广告的价值，特别是在明星代言等营销方式，目前已普遍成为客户重点考虑的选项之一。基于这一趋势，我们将充分发挥微博的资源优势，在明星代言和营销全链路上进一步贴合客户的需求，与客户共创更丰富的明星营销玩法，助力客户提升营销效果。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Moving on to monetization, in 2025, the ad product and sales team focus on two main priorities. First, to expand and solidify customers’ mindset of choosing Weibo as the go-to platform for content marketing across more industries and clients. Second, to continuously enhance the performance and conversion capabilities of our ad products. In the third quarter, due to the high base effect from the Olympics last year, Weibo’s ad revenue decreased 6% year over year. From the overall market perspective, thanks to the stimulus policy aimed at driving domestic demand and consumption, e-commerce platforms and related industries maintained a relatively high level of advertising spend, which supported our third quarter ad revenues. According to client feedback, after several years of substantial and continuous budget allocation toward performance ads, the bidding for the commercial traffic has become increasingly intense, which pushed their cost upward.

In addition, the government recently issued tax policies that limit the cap of the feed ad spend for tax deduction purposes. This dynamic has driven clients to reevaluate their ad budget allocation, placing renewed emphasis on the value of the brand advertising. In particular, marketing approaches such as celebrity endorsement have generally become a key option for clients to consider. In light of this trend, leveraging Weibo’s strengths in celebrity resources, we aim to better facilitate clients’ needs across the full celebrity endorsement and marketing lifecycle. We hope to create a richer celebrity marketing playbook together with clients, helping them enhance their marketing effectiveness.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 从行业看，电商平台的行业竞争开始在二季度延续至今，得益于与各大电商平台的深度合作，微博电商收入三季度同比实现明显增长。我们同步与各家电商平台集团内的其他产品线逐步培养合作关系，推动收入结构更趋合理，为未来收入的稳定性也奠定基础。汽车行业方面，微博在新能源车内容生态的优势持续巩固，今年燃油车的相关收入也保持了稳定，使得汽车行业的整体收入稳定性更高。三季度也保持了同比的双位数增长。游戏和手机行业受大盘预算收缩的影响，收入有所下滑。食品饮料、乳品、鞋服行业主要还是因为奥运高基数，去年奥运高基数收入的影响，同比下滑。但随着明星营销在客户营销心理中的恢复和增强，明星代言相关的广告收入依旧保持了同比增长。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Let me share more color from an industry perspective. Competitive dynamics within the e-commerce sector have persisted since the second quarter, benefiting from deep partnerships with leading e-commerce platforms. Ad revenues from the e-commerce sector achieved notable year-over-year growth in the third quarter. Meanwhile, we have been gradually cultivating partnerships with other business lines within this e-commerce group, promoting a more balanced revenue mix and thus laying a solid foundation for the future revenue stability. Ad revenues from the automobile sector sustained year-over-year growth trends in the third quarter. Weibo has continued to solidify its strengths in the new energy vehicle content ecosystem. Revenue from traditional fuel vehicles also remained stable this year, contributing to improved revenue stability for the automobile industry. In the online game and smartphone sectors, revenue declined due to overall budget contraction.

As for the food and beverage, dairy products, and footwear and apparel sectors, revenue fell year-over-year, primarily due to the tough comparable base from last year’s Olympics. However, with the recovery and strengthening of celebrity marketing in clients’ mindset, ad revenues from celebrity endorsement continued to grow year-over-year.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 广告产品方面，今年以来，微博持续加强AI技术在广告全链路的覆盖与提效。三季度，AI能力以贯穿广告素材生产、镜像模型优化到投放效果提升的全流程，其中二季度全面上线的灵创平台在客户中得到广泛应用，实现了AI图文规模化和个性化的内容产出。更进一步的是，AI广告素材在三季度拓展至视频内容，通过智能提升高光亮点的前贴和吸睛的封面图，不仅提升了视频广告生产的效率和多样性，也提升了用户的体验。截至10月底，信息流镜像广告中AI素材的消耗占比已经接近30%。除了在信息流镜像广告中的运用，针对品牌客户通过直播发布会发布新品的常见需求，我们通过实时直播开条转化为适配QL传播的素材，再通过信息流投放放大传播效果。这一模式既解决了客户直播内容难以高效转化为传播素材的痛点，又通过优质素材加精准投放的组合，帮助客户实现有价值的直播内容获得二次传播。以某手机品牌直播发布会为例，AI辅助生产的素材占比已经达到10%，但这些素材带来的互动量占比已经高达30%。我们计划把这一模式推广至更多的客户新品发布会上，帮助客户提升他们新品营销的传播效果。另外，在广告效果层面，AI赋能提升的广告效果模型在关键的场景表现突出。实验数据显示，APP下载类广告和表单提交类客户的转化效果均有一定的提升，也助力了广告客户核心投放目标的达成。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: On the ad product front, we have continued to strengthen the application of AI technology across the entire advertising lifecycle this year to enhance ad efficiency. By the third quarter, we have deployed AI capabilities throughout the process, from the ad creative production and bidding model optimization to campaign performance improvement. Notably, Weibo’s AI ad creative platform, Lingchuang, launched in the second quarter, has been widely adopted, enabling even scalable and personalized ad production in both text and image formats. Furthermore, in the third quarter, we have extended AI-generated ad creatives to video contents. This upgrade enables intelligent extraction of key highlights for the pre-roll segments and the generation of eye-catching cover images. This not only improves the efficiency and diversity of video ad creative production, but also enhances targeting precision and user viewing experience.

As of the end of October, AI-generated ad creatives accounted for nearly 30% of the consumption in the real-time video information feed. Besides this, to address the common needs of brand clients to launch new products via livestream press conference, we leverage AI to play livestreams in real time, extract the most engaging highlights, and transform them into high-quality material suitable for KOL distribution. These highlights are further distributed through our feed ad product, amplifying the overall content reach and influence. This model not only addresses clients’ difficulties in efficiently converting livestream content into shareable materials, but also enables clients to achieve secondary distribution of valuable livestream content through a combination of high-quality materials and precise targeting. For example, in a livestream product launched by a smartphone brand, AI-generated material made up 10% of all materials, yet contributed to as much as 30% of total interactions.

We plan to roll out this model to more brand clients hosting product launch, thereby further unlocking the potential of AI in brand marketing. In terms of ad performance, the upgraded AI-powered ad performance model has demonstrated impressive results in key scenarios. Experimental data shows that the conversion efficiency of both app download ads and the form submission campaigns have improved. AI-powered performance ad models have enabled us to better deliver on client campaign objectives.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 四季度，我们面重点把握电商等确定性较强的营销预算机会，进一步扩大品牌加内容营销在我们重点行业的渗透，持续巩固汽车行业的增长态势，并在消费品领域争取回暖。同时，我们会持续推进AI在广告创意生成和投放优化中的应用，为不同规模的客户提供更智能、更高效的广告解决方案，进一步巩固微博在广告市场中的差异化竞争优势。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Entering into the fourth quarter, we will focus on capturing marketing opportunities from sectors with high budget visibility, such as the e-commerce sector. We will beef up our efforts to further extend the penetration of our brand plus content marketing approach across key industries, sustain the growth momentum in the automobile sector, and strive for recovery in the consumer goods. At the same time, we will continue to drive the application of AI in ad creative generation and AI placement optimization, with the hope of offering smarter and more efficient advertising solutions for clients of all sizes, and thus further strengthening Weibo’s differentiated competitiveness in the advertising market.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 下面请曹飞介绍财务方面的情况。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Next, let’s turn the corner over to Fei Cao for a financial review. Thank you, Gaofei Wang, and hello, everybody. Welcome to Weibo’s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Let me start with operating metrics. In September 2025, Weibo’s MAU and average DAU reached 278 million and 257 million, respectively, with a steady improving DAU versus MAU ratio year-over-year. The modest year-over-year decline in MAU was primarily due to the high traffic base during the Paris Olympic Games in the same period last year. On the user product side, in the third quarter, we completed the revamp of our information feed and prioritized the recommendation feed for content consumption. We are encouraged by early signs of improvement in user engagement with interface feed and video content on Weibo.

In addition, user scale and search queries from Weibo’s intelligent search feature continued to grow robustly quarter over quarter, with intelligent search and MAU exceeding 70 million in the third quarter. This growth was mainly driven by our AI technology upgrades, which allow us to better meet users’ content search and discovery needs on the platform. Turning to financials, as a reminder, my prepared remarks would focus on non-GAAP rounds, common terms in US dollar terms, and of comparisons on a year-over-year basis unless otherwise noted. Now, let me walk you through our financial highlights for the third quarter 2025. Weibo’s third quarter 2025 net revenues were $442.3 million, a decrease of 5% or 4% on a constant currency basis. Operating income was $132 million, representing an operating margin of 30%.

Net income attributable to Weibo reached $110.7 million, and the diluted EPS was $0.42. Let me give you more color on the third quarter 2025 revenue performance. Weibo’s advertising and marketing revenue for the third quarter 2025 was $375.4 million, down 6% or 5% on constant currency basis, while value-added service revenues were $66.9 million, up 2%. Weibo’s advertising business saw a modest decline, primarily due to the high base effect from last year’s Paris Olympics. By industry, our top three verticals were FMCG, e-commerce, and the 3C products. In terms of growth drivers, e-commerce, internet services, automobile, and local services were the key contributors. Notably, the e-commerce sector recorded over 50% year-over-year growth, driven by stimulus policies amid and boosting domestic demand and consumption.

We are pleased to see increased ad budget across multiple business lines within these platforms, including traditional e-commerce activities and local service initiatives. Weibo has continued to demonstrate its unique value in driving brand awareness and user acquisition for e-commerce platforms amid intensified market share competition. The automobile sector sustained solid growth this quarter, thanks to Weibo’s thriving auto-related content ecosystem, a dynamic EV launch season, and a stable ad spend from ICE vehicle brands. On the other hand, we face a significant year-over-year decline in food and beverage and the apparel industries, again due to the high base effect from the last year’s Olympics. As for 3C products, this year, government-backed trading subsidies encouraged many consumers to upgrade their phones or home appliances earlier this year, which led to softer shipments and lower ad spend from advertisers in the second half.

Other underperforming sectors that weighed down overall top-line recovery included online games, largely due to a tough year-over-year comparison and overall ad budget contraction in the sector. By ad product category, promoted feed ads remained the largest contributor, followed by social display ads and topic and search placements. AI has progressively transformed the entire lifecycle of Weibo’s ad products, from creative generation to ad placement. Notably, our real-time bidding feed products sustained double-digit growth, driven by AI-powered ad tech upgrades that enhanced conversions and ROI for advertisers, particularly for ad download and lead generation campaigns. Ad revenues from Alibaba reported a robust growth of 112%, reaching $45.5 million in the third quarter. We are pleased with the strong momentum from Alibaba this year, driven by deeper collaboration during key marketing windows and Alibaba’s increased ad spend on its local services initiatives.

Value-added service revenues grew 2% to $66.9 million in the third quarter, mainly due to modest increase in revenues from game-related business and membership services. Turning to cost expenses, total cost expenses for the third quarter were $310.3 million, an increase of 3%. Operating income in the third quarter was $132 million, representing an operating margin of 30% compared to 36% last year. Turning to income tax and ad tax measures, income tax expenses for the third quarter were $57.2 million, compared to $32.2 million last year, primarily due to the recognition of $29.4 million before the tax liability related to FPG comp gain in the third quarter 2025.

Net income attributable to Weibo in the third quarter was $110.7 million, representing a net margin of 25% compared to 30% last year, primarily attributable to top-line pressure. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow items, as of September 30, 2025, Weibo’s cash, cash equivalent, and short-term investments totaled $2.04 billion, compared to $2.35 billion as of December 31, 2024. The decrease of Weibo’s cash, cash equivalent, and short-term investment was mainly resulted from the purchase of long-term wealth management products and the payment of the annual dividend to our shareholders, and was partially offset by the operating cash flows in the past three quarters this year. In the third quarter, cash provided by operating activities was $200 million. Capital expenditure totaled $5.1 million, and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $15.4 million.

With that, let me now turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session.

Thank you, Management. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To cancel your request, please press star 11 again. Our first question comes from the line of Alicia Yap of Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Alicia Yap, Analyst, Citigroup: Hello, thank you, 管理层晚上好。谢谢接受我的提问。我有一个问题是关于四季度广告的展望。能请管理层跟我们分享一下，就是说怎么看四季度广告收入的一个增长，然后如果有预期2026年整体广告收入的一个预期，然后有什么，就26年的话有什么一个策略的更新，然后比如说AI如何对广告商业化的提升的帮助，如果能够跟我们分享一下，然后广告主对于整个AI这边的投入，然后得到什么样的一个帮助。我自己翻译一下。 Thanks, Management, for taking my questions. Can Management share with us the overall advertising outlook for the fourth quarter and also 2026? Any colors that you can provide in terms of the growth rate for fourth quarter, and also how should we be thinking about the overall ad revenue growth into next year? What is your future strategy for the overall advertising product upgrade? How is AI been helping or will be benefiting the click-through rate or even the advertising monetization? Also, how AI could be also improving, help advertisers to improve their ROI? Any colors that you can share would be great. Thank you.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 刚才其实财报里面也说了，就是我们三季度的这个支付下降主要还是因为我觉得有一方面是去年奥运会的高技术，另外一方面也有一些行业，像游戏跟手机其实比我们原来预期的还是会要差一些。虽然有些行业电商，包括汽车比我们预期的要好，整体来讲的话还是在我们预期范围之内。那从四季度角度看，我觉得一方面我们会看到下半年看整个的消费数据还是比较放缓的，而且很多省份的国补其实存在限额和放缓的迹象。这个其实对于很明显对我们下半年的一些客户，比如说像手机，包括我估计明年开始汽车的这个国补退潮政策改变可能也会有一定的持续性的影响。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Got it. All right. Thank you for the question. So according to the financial report that we have just delivered in Q3, we’ve been seeing the overall decrease of the ad revenue, primarily due to several reasons. The first one is that we had a high base last year due to the Olympic Games. The second is that even if we had a poorer performance of the headset industry and the verticals of gaming, and also we had a little bit better performance from the e-commerce and automotives, I think that on the overall basis, this is actually the performance within our expectation. Looking forward to Q4, we have been seeing that in the second half of this year, overall speaking, the overall figures and statistics of the consumption-related figures are actually slowing down.

We have been seeing that in some certain provinces and cities, the national subsidy policies have been seeing some kind of headwinds, like the limitations on the spending as well as the exiting. I think that this is going to have a continuous impact on the headset industry as well as the automotive industry next year because we are foreseeing a kind of exiting of the national subsidy policy for this industry for certain regions. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 谢谢。不确定性之外，当然我们会也会看到明年来讲的话还是有一定的相对来讲确定性的信息。一方面来讲，25年其实没有太多的大的广告的热点事件，比如像去年的世界杯，但是26年一个是有冬季奥运会，冬季奥运会，再一个是26年有世界杯。对，那正常情况下的这种消费品的投放在这些大的这种活动里面还是会有一定程度的回升的。其实您看三季度我们这个下降主要还是因为这个消费品的大的量图其实带来的。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Got it. These are some of the uncertainties that we’ve been witnessing. Still, except for these uncertainties, we could see some of the certainties for next year and also 2026 in specifics. You know that in 2025, we did not have any hot topics or hot trends or events happening. In 2026, we are expecting several important events like the Winter Olympics and also the World Cup as well. This will actually bring a better placement of the advertisers from the consumer goods verticals. You know that in Q3, the decreased performance of the ad revenue primarily was due to the decreased performance of the ad placement from the consumer goods industry. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 所以说明年的整个预期我们现在还很难做出。从四季度的情况来看的话，就毫无疑问就是第一个电商今年的竞争还是比往年可能会更激烈一些，尤其是一些线下，比如说生活服务这个领域。我们以往在生活服务领域来讲的话，份额是比较低的。对，但是通过今年这种电商，包括线下生活服务、外卖这些的竞争，我们在四季度我们看这方面的客户的需求还是比较旺盛的。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Got it. As a result, it is very difficult for me to give you a very precise prediction of our performance in 2026. Having said that, in Q4, we’ve been seeing some of the important things. First of all is that there is actually more fierce competition for the e-commerce industry, especially from the offline scenario and targeting the lifestyle service. Weibo used to have actually quite low percentage or the market share in this particular segment. Still, we do see fierce competition going on for the food delivery and lifestyle service as well as the other relevant ones. That is to say that in Q4, we are expecting a huge demand increase in this particular area. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 电商之外像是汽车行业，刚之前Scream也讲了，还是保持一个不错的一个态势。而且由于国家反内卷的政策，其实上半年汽车行业在价格竞争上比较激烈。相对来讲的话，在产品本身的这种心智，包括宣传方面的投入其实已经成了下降。这种情况在下半年会变好一些。手机和游戏行业我们会看还是有手机是因为国补的退场。我们看下半年除了苹果之外，其他手机厂商的销量其实可能相比上半年的预期来讲，都还是有一定程度的下降。这也相应缩减了手机客户发新品新机的这种频次。游戏行业其实今年的今年是出现了下降。主要还是因为我想大家看腾讯和网易的财报会看到，主要还是新游戏的发布速度是今年下半年几乎没有太多。然后但是明年的一季度我们会看到陆续这些厂商开始发布一些新的游戏出来。但是对于这部分的预算在明年一季度能不能保持一个恢复增长，我们还不确认。对，Gordon。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Also, for the e-commerce, of course, I’ve already shared some of the colors on this. Second is that in terms of the automotive industry, we believe that it will be actually performing quite good in Q4. First of all, due to the anti-evolution policies, we’ve been seeing that some of the customers or advertisers from this particular industry had issues like the price competition or price war. In the first half of this year, those advertisers did not pretty much focus a lot of their revenues on the product promotion or the mindset establishment. I think that this situation will be getting better in the second half of the year. Talking about the automotive, I mean, headset and also gaming industries, for headset industry, we know that this was primarily impacted negatively by the trend of exiting the national subsidy policy.

In the second half of this year, we’ve been seeing that except for Apple, the rest of the other headset makers were having a deteriorating sales volume. That’s the reason why we do see a lower frequency of the new phone launch. For gaming industry, you could see that from a financial report of NetEase or Tencent, they did not have that lot of new game release in the second half of this year. Of course, they are claiming that in 2026 Q1, we’re going to see some of new games launch from these two major game makers. Still, as for whether or not they’re going to be allocating more budget on this, this is still uncertain. All right.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 具体到我们这边的策略来看的话，我觉得一方面还是两个大的方向。一方面，一个是我们会看到客户预算前几年是比较多的增加在效果方面，包括客户在为了在疫情之后清库存，然后其实是拿价格战去做直播。所以说客户的品牌整个的品牌预算占客户整体预算的份额一直在下降。但是从今年开始，我们确实会看到很多客户的品牌，包括心智的预算和内容营销的预算在明显的有一个回升。所以说这个机会其实对微博这样的平台来讲的话，我们认为还是需要能够把握住的。我们未来肯定还是会聚焦在热点，包括明星和国补KR的整合营销上，力争这个，特别是FMCG这些领域，我们可以力争这个预算可以有逐渐的回暖。对，Gordon。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Second point on the overall strategies, we are talking about two directions. The first one is that in the previous years, a lot of those budgets of advertisements actually was pretty much placed on the performance-based ad. We did not see a lot of spending from those advertisers on the mindset-related areas. Also, after COVID-19, in order to consume more ad locks, we do see the behaviors of focusing on the livestream e-commerce. I think that this year we have been seeing a very obvious trend that there are more budgets allocated to the areas of establishing and building the mindset. As the traditional advantageous platform on this particular area, Weibo is definitely going to seize this opportunity. I think that we are going to focus on the hot topics and KOL, especially top-notch KOLs in terms of the integrated marketing.

We do actually see the trend of increasing budget from these advertisers on those fronts. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 另外一方面其实就是我们讲的竞价的效果广告。这部分其实在过去几年，在去年之前一直在逐步在我们的收入份额里面占比在下降。但是过去两年一方面我们对于效果广告做了比较多的产品和技术的升级。同时来讲的话，今年开始AI以及帮助我们的效果广告的竞争力的提升是比较明显的。咱们具体到三季度来讲的话，效果广告占我们整体的广告收入里面的比例其实都是在上升的，绝对值也是保持了比较快速的一个增长。这一方面来自于我们本身的一些流量，包括和我们产品策略的调整。另一方面也是来自于AI技术在这方面的应用。我们自己看对于未来，就明年来讲的话，效果广告可能还是保持着一个增长。对，Gordon。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: The second point is on the bidding ad and also performance-based ad. Last year, we’ve been seeing a decrease of overall revenue, ad revenue contributed to the overall ad revenue from the performance-based ad. Recently, in the past years, we’ve been dedicating a lot of efforts in making wonderful products in the performance-based ad and also increasing and updating our technologies. Most importantly, we’ve been applying a lot of AI technologies to really have a very good boost of the revenue from the performance-based ad. You could see that in Q3, we had a lot of increase on this area. Not only because of the overall data and traffic and also the adjustments of our strategies, but most importantly, I think that the overall use of the AI technology is really important.

We will be actually expecting a very good increase of this performance-based ad. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 主要就这些，谢谢。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: All right, pretty much for the answer for this question. Thank you.

Sandra Zhang, Investor Relations, Weibo: Thank you for the questions. One moment for the next question. The next questions will come from the line of Liu Yu from CLSA. Please go ahead.

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: revenue going forward? Let me translate. Thanks, management, for taking my question. I have two questions on the product commercialization. First is on the strategy and the progress of intelligent search. Do we have the commercialization attempts already in the fourth quarter? What are the AI application could management share? Second question is on the information feed re-event. What are the initial feedbacks on users’ content consumption engagement, and how would that translate into revenue growth in the future? Thank you.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 我觉得一方面在Scream我们刚才介绍了，其实致搜的一个产品在三季度其实还保持了一个比较快速的一个增长。就整个九月份的话，那致搜的MAU大概突破了7000万，大概DAU跟Query量的环比比上个季度大概提升超过50%。但是致搜本身的商业化而言来讲的话，我觉得是几方面。一方面致搜的使用可以带动我们整体搜索量的一个增加。那整个三季度其实被迫，因为致搜的逐步的一个普及，它也带动了整体的Query量环比比上个季度大概提升了20%左右。这个是给我们带来了更多的一个效果类的商业化流量。这是一方面。另一方面来讲的话，我们现在对于致搜结果本身去采广告，现在我们还没有这个计划，但是因为客户更多的对于致搜本身结果可以通过一些内容去做一定的影响的需求还是比较的多。所以说其实现在一方面是以GU，比如说生成引擎的优化作为驱动，我们会驱动我们的客户在微博里面生产更多高质量的内容，包括一些信息的回应，包括客户的新品的常见的问题这些。所以可以帮助我们客户去在微博里面生成更多的内容和更好的一些广告素材。这些内容会在致搜的结果里面去一定的呈现。当然这部分我们不是不向客户直接收费的，但是客户为了推动这部分的内容在致搜的结果里面获得更高的权重，他会增加这部分内容的效果广告的加热广告的投放，间接的会带来一定的这种我们讲品牌或者说是效果广告的收入。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Thank you for this question. First of all, we could see that in terms of the intelligent search, as we have already said, this has been increased a lot in Q3 in terms of the overall products, resulting in a very good performance. For instance, in September, the MAU exceeded 70 million. In terms of the DAU and also the query number, we had a quarter-by-quarter increase of over 50%. Of course, in terms of the monetization of the intelligent search, the first point is that we do see a very good increase of the overall intelligent search-based volume. That resulted in the performance like in Q3, we had a query increase by about 20% quarter-by-quarter. This actually provided us with very good traffic to actually have a better performance on this.

The second point is that, of course, at the current stage, we do not have the ability of all the consumers, I mean, the customers are not having this particular requirement of placing the ad precisely just based on the intelligent search results. This did actually provide some of the impacts to the customers. For instance, we are able to use the GEO technology to actually facilitate better product and better content creations and helping the customers in understanding or advertisers in understanding the new product-related issues and some of the other important things and also issues as well. This is going to be generating a lot of ad assets for advertisers so that they are able to use in the near future.

Of course, this is not going to be directly charging from the customers, but I think that in the future, the customers and advertisers are able to put more weight on this particular part of the intelligent search. I do think that in the future, we are going to see a very good increase, be it the brand-based ad revenue or the overall budget of the performance-based ad. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 另外刚才提到关于信息流的一个情况说明，刚才顺便也讲了，就是25年其实我们所重要的一个产品改造其实是信息流的一个改版。那7月份我们把这个所谓信息流大部分用户已经做了主题切换。目前来看，用户的行为习惯还需要一定程度的时间培养，但是近期的趋势就是微博信息流改版对于高频用户的活跃和新用户的留存和消费时长的增长是有明显的带动作用的。而且这个可以有效降低了，尤其是新用户使用微博的门槛。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Also, the second question is pretty much based on the information feed. As we have already stated, we had an updated version or modification of this information-based feed in 2025 and already provided to the users. We have already finished the first page switch for information feed in July. Of course, it takes time for the users to get used to this and nurture their habit of using. Still, I think that this particular new information feed is going to be very useful and beneficial to the overall activity of the users and also improving the overall retention and the total time spent on the consumption as well. I think that this is also going to be lowering the threshold for the users of using Weibo. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 我们刚才也提到就是我们这次的改版其实跟当年去做信息流的这个从市场转向这种非市场其实比较类似。这样一个改版我觉得短期之内不管有一部分用户的体验会或者消费行为有些明显的提升，但是也确实会有部分用户跟他原来的消费习惯差异性比较大。那这部分我们还是需要一个时间让大部分用户慢慢来去接受或者说是培养，包括我们产品也会进行进一步的优化。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: Of course, I think that this particular kind of modification or the version update is pretty much like what happened years ago from the time span-based to the non-time span-based. At the current stage, we think that there are a lot of variations between different versions. It still takes time for the user to adopt this new kind of a platform, or it takes time for them to nurture their habits of using. I think that on the overall basis, this did have a lot of benefits on impacting the overall consumption behaviors. Also, in Weibo, we are going to continuously focus on the upgrades and optimization of our products as well. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 但从我们的角度来看的话，一方面这样一个信息流改版对于几方面的提升是最关注的。一方面就是新用户的一个使用流程的改变。因为以前新用户上来之后，他需要先建立关系才能消费到更多内容。那今天这样一个推荐流的上线，让新用户可以进来就消费到一些微博平台里面最优质的内容。这个我觉得是让我们跟我们所有的竞品能够站在同一个跑道上。以前的微博的市场门槛还是比较高。然后另外来讲的话，对于微博的现有的这些用户，虽然说体验上还有一定的挑战，但是对于我们大部分用户可以让他们在我们的主流里面消费到一些他没有关注的内容。这个对于目前这样一个社交网络生态用户不太愿意去建立关注关系的这样一个趋势而言，我觉得是我们必须去做的一个改变。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: I think that this is very good to have certain kinds of improvements on two fronts. The first front is that, of course, it is going to impact some of the new users using the process of this particular product. Because it used to be the case that the users need to log on the Weibo and establish a following relationship before they could take any action on consumption of the content. At the current stage, this particular process is waived so that we are at the same starting point as the other competitors for this particular part. The users are able to actually consume very good quality or content at the very beginning.

Second is that for the existing users, of course, from an experience standpoint, it still takes time for them to be adopted in this new concept and also establishing a new using habit. Still, I think that at the current stage, this has primarily given us better opportunities, especially for those new users, to take actions on consumption more frequently without even establishing a following relationship as the prerequisite. Okay.

Gaofei Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Weibo: 第三点来讲，我觉得其实就是核心就是视频在我们整个体系里面的可行性的问题。因为大家也知道，就是现在这个时代用户越来越多的消费视频。但是微博原有的社交关系大部分其实还是构筑于非视频时代。那在这样一个体系里面，其实很多新的视频博主在微博传统的这种关系和体系里面是比较难的获得曝光和获得流量的。即使在热搜这样一个场景里面，由于它的即时性的问题，也会导致视频生产者比较难得获得流量。那我们在经过这种推荐流的改造之后，才能让平台有比较通过算法或者通过推荐的方式更多地向用户推荐视频的内容，推荐优质的视频博主。我觉得这个对于微博未来的持续的一个增长和未来的市场竞争，其实也是我们去做这样一个调整的很关键的原因。 Gordon，谢谢。

Translator/Interpreter, Weibo: I need to add another point, which is the third point, that is for the video-based consumption. We know that in the past, for those consumers, I think that the videos are actually very difficult for the users to actually consume upon. That was impacting a lot of the original social-based relationship. You know that in the past, for those content creators, especially the video content creators, it is very difficult for them to establish a social relationship with the users and also consumers as well. Even if on the relationship-based feed, it is also very difficult for those video content creators to expose their content in front of the wide audience. Also for the hot topic search, because of the real-timeness of their content, especially the video-based content, it is also very difficult for them to expose their content as well.

Now, after the change, we can see that we are going to proactively recommend more video-based content to the users. This is going to be very, very important for Weibo in the long run, be it from a growth standpoint or from the standpoint of enhancing our core competitive edge. Okay. Thank you.

Sandra Zhang, Investor Relations, Weibo: Thank you for the questions. That is the end of the question and answer session. With that, I would like to conclude the conference call today. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.