Q3 2023 Smart Share Global Ltd Earnings Call

Participants

Hansen Shi; Director of IR; Smart Share Global Limited

Mars Guangyuan Cai; Chairman of the Board & CEO; Smart Share Global Limited

Yi Xin; CFO & Director; Smart Share Global Limited

Weiting Tang; Research Analyst; Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., Research Division

Y. Chen; Analyst; China Renaissance Securities (US) Inc., Research Division

Yi Jing Wei; Associate; Citigroup Inc., Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Hello, and thank you for standing by for Energy Monster's 2023 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Today's conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)
Now I like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference call, Director of Investor Relations, Hansen Shi.

Hansen Shi

Thank you. Welcome to our 2023 third quarter earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are Mars Cai, Energy Monster's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Maria Xin, Chief Financial Officer.
For today's agenda, management will discuss business updates, operation highlights and financial performance for the third quarter of 2023. Before we continue, I refer you to our safe harbor statement in the earnings press release which applies to this call as we will make forward-looking statements. Also, this call includes discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned during this call are in RMB.
I would now like to turn the call over to our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mars Cai, for the business and operation highlights.

Mars Guangyuan Cai

Thank you, Hansen. Good day, everyone. Welcome to our 2023 third quarter earnings call. We are very pleased to announce that our operation continues to achieve new heights during the third quarter of 2023, with both mobile device charging service GMV and POI count both reaching historical high.
Mobile device charging GMV increased by 18% year-over-year as the progression towards normalization of offline foot traffic continues its recovery trend. Performance in third quarter showcased a consistent monthly growth pattern. July marked a 16% year-over-year GMV increase followed by an 18% increase in August and a stronger 22% growth in September. The growth in GMV was particularly pronounced in higher tier cities with Shanghai, [Xinjiang], Chengdu and Beijing, driving the recovery with impressive year-over-year growth of 65%, 55%, 32% and 28%, respectively.
Both in terms of POI types was all encompassing as well with every type of POI growing year-over-year. Transportation hub fueled by the surge in summer travel, achieved a notable 62% year-over-year growth. Other POI types such as office buildings, family centers, banks, and government institutions exhibited robust growth with a year-over-year increase of 57%, 65%, 72% and 75%, respectively.
The recovery in our GMV continues to be driven by the diversification of coverage, both in terms of city tiers as well as POI types, which reiterates the adaptability of our services to diverse environments and general demand for our service across China.
In terms of network expansion, we added nearly 80,000 new POIs during the third quarter of 2023, with restaurants, entertainment and shopping hubs locations leading the growth. We were also able to onboard leading KAs in various industries as the benefit of our brand value and network effect of our operation continues to scale. This dynamic expansion reiterates our commitment to providing charging solutions across diverse locations so that more users in need of our service can more easily access our solutions.
We are excited that expansion of our network coverage is unlocking new opportunities to reach and serve a broader user base. Our accumulated registered user base expanded by RMB 16.4 million during the third quarter. As of the end of the quarter, we reached accumulative user base of 379 million making a 17% year-over-year increase. Mobile device charging orders increased by 9% year-over-year to over 176.5 million during the quarter, as both new and existing users continue to seek Energy Monster for their everyday charging need.
We are also continuously rebalancing our network coverage between our direct and network partner models during the third quarter. As POI is under network partner model and active network partner count both reached new heights.
Not only were we able to effectively descale and network coverage of our operations during the third quarter, the profitability of our vision is also making a recovery. Non-GAAP net income reached RMB 55.2 million for the third quarter increasing from RMB 17.1 million in the first quarter and RMB 30.1 million in the second quarter. The increasing trend is clear, and the recovery compared to the same period last year is significant. 3 consecutive quarters of profitability reflects our enduring commitment to operational efficiency despite the weaker-than-expected recovery offline foot traffic and consumption power.
The increased scale, coupled with an improvement to our profitability reflects that our commitment to our strategies and operational efficiency and POI expansion is effective and continues to be a driver for growth and improved profitability.
Now let me walk you through our key initiatives in coverage and efficiency in greater detail. First is our commitment to expanding our network -- where our service is available to over 2,000 -- the consistent growth in POI count and expansion of regional coverage indicate that there continues to untapped opportunity in the mobile device charging service market here in China. Our user acquisition efforts yielded a remarkable 16.4 million new users during the third quarter representing a 17% year-over-year increase in terms of our cumulative registered users. The large user base is directly translating into record high number of unique users and mobile device charging orders, which totally to more than 176 million orders for the quarter. The network effect of our operation continues to scale and become increasingly apparent.
For users, they are able to see our cabinets throughout their day cementing the Energy Monster brand as a reliable and expensive provider of mobile device charging service. During the quarter, we continued to roll out IP partnership with leading celebrities and brands for the promotion of tailored power banks, especially the one with (inaudible) fantasy world. This continues to be one of the differentiators that Energy Monster excels that at in terms of offering a different experience for our users.
We are also seeing an increasing number of users directly opening up our mini program to find out service in their near by locations as we solidify Energy Monster as the go-to brand for mobile device charging service. We are also seeing a number of orders where users borrow power banks from one cabinet and returning it into another cabinet continuously trending up, suggesting that the users are more comfortable with taking the power bank with them to their next location as there will likely be a place to return the power bank later in the day. The increased POI count will be a main driver of our ability to acquire new users across China. But at the same time, we will innovate on more ways to attract and remain more users to our services.
As offline foot traffic and our operation continues to recovery, we are also rebalancing the contribution by our 2 major models in terms of POI distribution. Our direct model team continued their strong performance in the third quarter. The network partner model under the direct model team continues to bring the added layer of synergy between the 2 models together. This program leverages the coverage and the manpower of our direct model to effectively expand our network partner model in larger cities, increasing the efficiency and coverage capabilities of each [PB]
Another benefit of this program is the strong execution capabilities of our direct model team can be extended for the promotion of our network partner model, allowing us to more quickly and effectively reach network partners. On the KA front, we continue to secure contracts with new chains, including supermarkets and large-scale amusement parties on our parks across China. Because our direct model team directly work with the KAs for the everyday operation of our cabinets and post sales support. The support to our KA clients maintains its reputation as the best within the industry, given that most of our peers within the industry only have the network partner model. This is one of the key reasons why we're able to continue attracting top-tier KAs within the industry and through our service consistently renew our contracts with them.
This quarter, we had adjusted our POI structure focusing on KAs and urban case to optimize our direct model portfolio. Going forward, our direct model will concentrate in the advantage in terms of execution capabilities and ability to acquire KA accounts to focus primarily into high-yielding locations in higher tier cities and KAs.
Our network partner model, which continues to be the driver of our network expansion. We are primarily focused on expanding into lower tier cities and to complement our direct models coverage in higher-tier cities as well. During the quarter, the network partner model continues to play a pivotal role in the expansion of our POI coverage and now constitute to approximately 55.5% of our POIs. The net -- the growth of our network partner model is driven by the combination of new network partners and the support of existing ones.
In first quarter, we have over 10,000 active network partners, an increase of 1,100 from the previous quarter and 4,700 from the same period last year. Both our network partner team and our direct model program has contributed to the significant growth. However, the rapid increase in network partner is only one part of the equation, as we strive to continue providing our network partners with the know-how and data needed to successfully run their mobile device charging service operation.
Looking forward, the combination of continuously acquiring new network partners alongside with unlocking the growth potential of the existing ones will serve as the core drivers of growth under the network partner model. Both our direct and network partner models serve as drivers of our expansion. Having the 2 models give us increased flexibility in terms of getting into new [POI], both across different regions and POI types.
In the future, we will balance the 2 models based on the advantage of each in order to more efficiently expand our coverage. The models we fuel our expansion towards more regions and POI types, which in turn, ultimately allow more users to access our product and service.
The next one is efficiency. In the third quarter, our cost optimization strategies continue to bear fruit. The primary reason for the substantial reduction in sales and marketing expenses is due to the new contractual arrangement with network partners. However, the expense structure for the direct model is evolving accordingly. With pure revenue sharing, contracts comprising 85% of total signed contracts in the third quarter of this year up from 79% in the same period last year. The reduction in fixed expenses has played a crucial role in the transition of our financials back to a positive profit.
Especially, we further optimize our logistics and warehousing, reducing the warehousing expense as a percentage of our revenue to reach better economics of scale for warehouse and logistic costs. We are also continuing to introduce more ways to improve the quality of our cabinets and power banks by implementing improved quality assurance measures throughout both design and manufacturing processes to reduce repairment costs. These moves are all aligned with our commitment to cost efficiency and operational excellence.
We also remain (inaudible) [willing] to being the leader in the market in terms of the hardware capabilities and quality. We will be introducing newer versions of our power bank next year that features longer lifespan and increase quality, too. Our investments in the next generation of hardware showcases our commitment to stay at the forefront of innovation. This not only enhances our competitive advantage but also contributes to the overall efficiency and reliability of our service as well as improving the user experience. Also, the efficiency of our network partner team has scaled significantly in the past year.
During the year, our network partner count increased by almost 90%, while our network partner team increased by only 11%, the increase in the number of network partners managed by each network partner personnel is unlocked throughout the software support as more and more tasks can be automated. As the trend towards network partner continue, we believe the operating leverage that can be achieved increasingly apparent.
The shifting balance between the 2 models and the initiatives we have taken in to improve operational efficiency, all contribute to the improvement of our profitability during the quarter.
Going forward, we remain committed to our strategy in improving operational efficiency as we continue to optimize our operating expenses and costs. Overall, third quarter was a peak season with mobile device charging service, displaying strong growth and uptrending profitability. Operationally, our POI in terms of direct model and network partner model continue to rebalance based on their respective advantages. The direct model were more focused on high-yield locations while network partner will complement the coverage. The 2 models continue to differentiate ourselves from market peers as they all allow for increased flexibility and execution.
Our road map for the fourth quarter underscores our commitment to expanding our coverage, namely through increasing network partner count and support strengthening key account acquisition and enhancing our POI completion. We will also continue to reduce fixed expenses and optimize variable expenses and costs and drive the increase in efficiency of our teams by introducing more automated tools. This will all help us spearhead the standards of operating efficiency within the market.
Looking ahead, in the fourth quarter, the consumption power remains soft, although there are continue to be signs of a recovery in progress. GMV increased by 30% year-over-year during October and 32% in the first 3 weeks of November. Despite these challenges, our unwavering commitment to our strategical pillars remains our guiding force.
In conclusion, Energy Monster stands at the cusp of sustained growth with our mobile device charging service continuously, reaching new operating milestones and general recovery and profitability in progress. Our strong cash position, robust cash flow serves as the backlog for driving the continuous growth and value for our stakeholders and to optimistically explore new initiatives that may drive Energy Monster to new heights. Thank you very much.
I'll now turn the call over to Maria Xin, our Chief Financial Officer, for the financial highlights.

Yi Xin

Thank you, Mars. Now let me walk you through the third quarter 2023 financial results in greater detail.
For the third quarter of 2023, revenues were RMB 613.5 million, representing a 24.7% year-over-year decrease. Mobile device charging revenues, which consists of revenue generated from both direct and network partners models were RMB 564.2 million and accounted for 92% of our total revenues for the quarter. Revenues generated from direct model, which comprised of mobile device charging service fee of RMB 278.1 million and the power bank sales of RMB 6.1 million or RMB 284.2 million for the third quarter of 2023, down 36.4% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in number of POIs operating through direct model.
Revenues generated from network partner model, which comprise of the mobile device charging solutions fee of RMB 58.8 million and sales of cabinet and power banks of RMB 221.2 million were RMB 280 million for the third quarter of 2023, down 22.7% year-on-year. The decrease was primarily due to the change in contractual arrangement with network partners. Under the new contractual arrangement mobile device charging revenue generated under the network partner is net of incentive fees paid to network partners. The decrease was partially offset by the increase in cabinets and power bank sales to network partners.
Other revenues, which accounted for 8% of our total revenues were RMB 49.3 million for the third quarter of 2023 compared with RMB 5.8 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to new business initiatives. Cost of revenues was up 71.1% year-on-year to RMB 214.8 million for the third quarter of 2023, the increase was primarily due to the increase in sales of cabinets and the power banks under the new contractual arrangement with network partners. The increase was partially offset by the decrease in depreciation costs.
Gross profit was down 42.2% year-over-year to RMB 398.6 million for the third quarter of 2023. Operating expenses for the third quarter of 2023 were RMB 364.6 million, down 53.6% year-over-year. Excluding share-based compensation, non-GAAP operating expenses were RMB 359.5 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 53.9%.
Research and development expenses for the third quarter of 2023 were RMB 23.8 million, down 2% year-on-year, the decrease was primarily due to the decrease in personnel-related expenses.
Sales and marketing expenses for the third quarter of 2023 were RMB 298.2 million, down 50% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in incentive fees paid to network partners as a result of the change in contractual arrangement with network partners and the decrease in incentive fees paid to location partners.
General and administrative expenses were RMB 37.1 million in the third quarter of 2023, up 26.1% year-over-year, the increase was primarily due to the increase in personnel-related expenses and the professional service expenses.
Income from operations was RMB 34 million in the operating -- and operating margin for the third quarter of 2023 was 5.5% compared to a negative 11.9% in the same period of last year. Net income was RMB 50 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a net loss of RMB 95.8 million in the same period of last year. Net margin for the third quarter of 2023 was 8.2% compared to a net margin of negative 11.7% in the same period last year.
Non-GAAP net income, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, was RMB 34.2 million in the third quarter of 2023 compared to a non-GAAP net loss of RMB 88.6 million in the subperiod last year.
As of September 30, 2023, the company had cash and the cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of RMB 3.3 billion. Cash flow generated from operations for the third quarter of 2023 was RMB 165.6 million. Capital expenditure for the third quarter were RMB 2.8 million.
Thank you for listening. We are now ready for your questions. Operator?

Question and Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) And the first question comes from Victor Tang with Goldman Sachs.

Weiting Tang

I'm asking this question on behalf of (inaudible). You mentioned during your opening remarks that there's a rebalance between the network partner and direct models. Can management clarify how exactly this is done? And what is the right balance to think about in the future?

Mars Guangyuan Cai

Thanks for the question. That's -- we are actively rebalancing the contribution between the 2 models. But I would like to note that the recalibration has been going for the past few years. As of the third quarter of this year, 65.5% of our POIs are under the network partner model, this is a significant increase from the 47.4% of the same time last year. This rebalance will take from -- form with time, actually. I would like to emphasize that this does not mean that we will only have our network partner model in the future.
Our direct model advantages in terms of rapid execution and ability to acquire KA remains clear. That's why, going forward, we would like to focus these advantages for the direct model to key regions and POI types, namely (inaudible) POIs in higher tier cities in case. This increased precision in terms of the direct model will allow to have a greater focus on the larger regions and location partners.
I think the balance between the 2 is still a work in progress as we don't set specific targets for the contribution for either models. However, given the increased focus of our direct model, we would expect contribution by our network partner model to continue increasing for the near future. Thank you.

Operator

And the next question comes from Vicky Wei with Citi.

Yi Jing Wei

Can management gives more insight on the fourth quarter outlook and how the change in between the 2 models will impact the company's performance in the year?

Yi Xin

Sure. Thanks for your question. We are still (inaudible) observed in the fourth quarter. But so far, the consumption is a bit below expectation. GMV increased by 30% year-on-year during October and 32% in the first 3 weeks of November. There are signs of a gradual improvement but it will take a bit more time for it to fully normalize.
As for the probability part, the general rebalance of POI based on the true model will positively (inaudible) on our margins. Under the network partner model with updated contractual arrangement, we set a mobile device charging cabinets to our network partners and then generate a long-term mobile device charging solutions revenue. Also, gradually with time, the reduction in direct model will also lower our operating expenses. This will both be positive for our long-term margins in the future. Thanks.

Operator

And the next question comes from Charlie Chen with China Renaissance.

Y. Chen

Mars and Maria, congratulations on this strong quarter. I just want to get a bit more color on the other revenue, which seems to increase quite a bit this quarter. How much of this is driven by the advertising portion and how much by new business initiatives? And can management share on what initiatives are actively being explored by the company?

Mars Guangyuan Cai

Thanks for the question. First of all, I would like to break down a bit by the segments. Advertising revenue is growing as our registered user base growth and also very potent, we improved the rising efficiency. So it continues to scale accordingly to our mobile device charging service. This quarter, new initiatives contributing has increased a lot as well, and we are excited about that. But given that the new initiatives currently is still in its very early stage, we will disclose these initiatives once it consistently deliver a more meaningful contribution to our financials.
I think in terms of new initiatives, our approach has always been to firstly identify large industries where demand and unit economics are proven. Next, we are also seeing to how existing model, mobile device charging service advantages can synergize with the new operation.
For Energy Monster, we have 2 strong capabilities that serve a foundation to our potential entry into other industries. When is our vast distribution capability developed throughout our direct network partner models, another of our advantages is our ability to create solutions and our strong IoT foundation.
Going forward, we will actively explore opportunities that can leverage our advantages in the 2 to unlock the addition of the avenues of growth for the company. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I would now like to turn the call over to Energy Monster's CFO, Maria Xin, for any closing comments.

Yi Xin

Once again, thank you for joining us today. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to speaking with you in the coming months.

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.