JOYY (NASDAQ:YY) executives highlighted a return to top-line growth, accelerating advertising momentum, and continued shareholder returns during the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call. Management also laid out plans to refine segment reporting in 2026 to better reflect the company’s evolving business mix across social entertainment, advertising technology, and e-commerce services.
Fourth-quarter results: Live streaming recovery continues, BIGO Ads accelerates
Chairperson and CEO Ting Li said the company’s “group revenue and social entertainment business regained growth momentum since Q2,” while progress in AdTech and other emerging areas helped shape a “clear strategic framework as a global technology company with multiple growth engines.”
- Live streaming revenue was $394.4 million, up 1.5% QoQ, marking three consecutive quarters of sequential growth.
- BIGO Ads revenue (first- and third-party) was $128.1 million, up 61.5% YoY and 23.3% QoQ.
- Third-party Audience Network revenue grew 82.5% YoY, with traffic indicators such as SDK network ad requests up 166% YoY and 23% QoQ.
- Non-live streaming businesses contributed 32.2% of group revenue in Q4.
On profitability and cash generation, Li reported non-GAAP operating profit of $40.8 million and operating cash flow of $116 million, while Vice President of Finance Alex Liu later stated operating cash flow was $160 million for Q4. The company ended the quarter with $3.26 billion in net cash.
Full-year 2025: Non-live revenue mix expands and profitability improves
For 2025, JOYY posted total revenue of $2.12 billion. Live streaming contributed $1.53 billion, while BIGO Ads delivered $398.5 million in revenue, up 38.5% year-over-year. Li noted the third-party Audience Network within BIGO Ads grew 56.3% year-over-year.
Non-live streaming businesses represented 28% of total revenue for the year, an increase of 7.9 percentage points versus 2024. The company also reported non-GAAP operating income of $150.8 million and non-GAAP EBITDA of $189.8 million, up 10.8% and 10.9% year-over-year, respectively.
Liu said the company generated $305 million in operating cash flow in 2025 and returned $332 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchases, which he said represented 108.8% of operating cash flow.
Operating highlights: MAUs, AI-driven engagement, and advertiser diversification
Li said JOYY’s core social entertainment business delivered its third consecutive quarter of sequential recovery, with global social MAUs reaching 272.1 million, up 2.2% QoQ. She added that traffic from the company’s instant message function increased 4.5% QoQ, and that average user time spent and retention improved year-over-year.
Management emphasized product and AI-driven changes designed to improve engagement and monetization. Li said the company integrated LLM architecture and multi-model information into recommendation systems to better understand content and user interests. She said the improvements led to a 5.6% QoQ increase in BIGO LIVE’s average viewing time per user in Q4. As of January 2026, Li added, consumption of AI interactive gifts on BIGO LIVE had surpassed 30% of total vertical gift consumption.
On advertising, management attributed growth to broader traffic coverage, multi-vertical advertiser expansion, and algorithm optimization. Li pointed to diversification across insurance lead generation, e-commerce, and IAA games, as well as seasonal strength in Q4 tied to U.S. insurance advertising and e-commerce campaigns such as Black Friday. She said web-based demand (primarily insurance and D2C e-commerce) grew 20%, while the IAA vertical (primarily casual games) increased 39% sequentially. The number of key cohorts rose 29% QoQ and spending by key cohorts climbed 34% QoQ. By region, North America was up over 21% QoQ and Western Europe rose 46% QoQ.
Outlook and strategic changes: New segments, $1B Audience Network goal, and Shopline path
Management said it is evaluating refinements to segment reporting and is considering reporting results across three major segments—social entertainment, AdTech, and e-commerce service—beginning in the first quarter of 2026. Li said the structure is intended to make progress within each business easier to understand.
Liu provided first-quarter 2026 revenue guidance of $538 million to $548 million, implying 8.8% to 10.9% year-over-year growth. He said the company expects live streaming to return to positive year-over-year growth in Q1, while noting seasonal softness sequentially due to the timing of the Lunar New Year and Ramadan. For advertising, he said Q1 is typically seasonally softer, but the company still expects BIGO Ads to deliver mid-double-digit year-over-year growth despite seasonality.
Li also disclosed a three-year roadmap for the BIGO Audience Network with a target to reach a $1 billion revenue milestone by 2028, alongside improving economics. Asked about the drivers, Li pointed to further SDK publisher and mediation platform integrations, expansion of multi-channel and iOS traffic, deeper penetration in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, exploration of new verticals (including sub-verticals within lead generation, IAP, and e-commerce), and continued algorithm and data iteration.
On Shopline, Li said the business’s monetization is based on take rate tied to merchant GMV growth. She described Shopline’s evolution from a storefront builder into a “full stack e-commerce ecosystem,” combining SaaS, payments, and marketing tools. Li said R&D investment has “greatly stabilized” since last year, and that revenue and gross profit growth have improved operating leverage and reduced operating losses. Management said it remains committed to achieving breakeven for Shopline in 2028.
Capital returns: Additional dividend and accelerated buybacks
JOYY reiterated its focus on shareholder returns. Li said the company returned $332 million through share repurchases and dividends in 2025 and announced that the board approved an additional cash dividend of approximately $20 million, representing roughly 10% of the total cash dividends declared for 2025, on top of the regular quarterly dividend schedule.
In Q4, Li said the company repurchased 67.4 million shares, and for the full year, repurchases reached 134.6 million. Liu said the company believes its valuation “does not fully reflect” intrinsic value and that it plans to continue actively executing buybacks in 2026.
About JOYY (NASDAQ:YY)
JOYY Inc (NASDAQ:YY) is a global technology-driven social media company specializing in video-based content creation and real-time social entertainment. The company develops and operates platforms that enable users to broadcast live video, engage with audiences and participate in interactive social communities. Its flagship global products include Bigo Live, a live-streaming application, and Likee, a short-video creation and sharing platform, which collectively support real-time interaction through virtual gifting and in-app social features.
Originally founded in Guangzhou, China in 2005 by David Xueling Li under the name YY Inc, the company pioneered real-time group communication and live streaming services in its domestic market.
