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China Finance Online Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Unaudited Financial Results

Published

5 years ago

April 24, 2019

Wladimir P.

Reading Time: 7 minutes

China Finance Online Co. Limited (“China Finance Online”, or the “Company”, “we”, “us” or “our”) (NASDAQ GS: JRJC), a leading web-based financial services company that provides Chinese retail investors with fintech-powered online access to securities trading services, wealth management products, securities investment advisory services, as well as financial database and analytics services to institutional customers, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2018.

Fourth Quarter 2018 Financial Highlights

Net revenues were $10.7 million, up from $8.6 million in the third quarter of 2018
Revenues from advertising grew 85.5% year-over-year and 109.7% quarter-over-quarter
Gross margin was 65.1%, up from 58.2% in the third quarter of 2018
Net loss attributable to China Finance Online was $4.4 million, compared with a net loss of $8.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2017

Full Year 2018 Highlights

Net revenues were $45.5 million, up 6.7% year-over-year
Revenues from the financial information and advisory business grew 45.0% year-over-year
Revenues from advertising increased by 103.8% year-over-year
According to the Company’s asset allocation system, our Robo-Advisor product, Lingxi, significantly outperformed all Chinese market key indices and most of its peer products in the Chinese market with 95% of all its strategies posting positive returns in 2018. For the full year, the defensive strategy designed by Lingxi yielded an annual return of 5.28%.

Mr. Zhiwei Zhao, Chairman and CEO of China Finance Online, commented, “Our top line further improved from the third quarter while our net loss was narrowed. Through the efforts of controlling cost and improving efficiency, for 2018, our net revenue increased year-over-year and our bottom line losses were reduced by $16.8 million. With the priority of strengthening future growth potential, we will continue to improve efficiency.

While the stock market suffered major losses in China and Hong Kong during the fourth quarter, our equity-brokerage related business maintains a strong growth momentum and our intelligent-finance driven fintech business continued to lock in contracts with leading brokerage firms in China. We are pleased that we have established strategic partnerships with influential financial institutions in China and are developing systems to empower their wealth management services.”

“Our other operations have also been making solid progress. Our website “JRJ.com.cn” remains a popular destination for news and analysis on the economy and capital markets, and its unique visitors all year in 2018 rose to 253 million from 236 million in 2017 and 169 million in 2016. The strong growth of traffic to our site was attributable to the improvement of our fact-based journalism, breaking news coverage and proprietary deep dive content,” Mr. Zhao concluded.

Fourth Quarter 2018 Financial Results

Net revenues were $10.7 million, compared with $13.6 million during the fourth quarter of 2017 and $8.6 million during the third quarter of 2018. During the fourth quarter of 2018, revenues from financial services, the financial information and advisory business, and advertising services contributed 53%, 19% and 28% of the net revenues, respectively, compared with 66%, 21% and 12%, respectively, for the corresponding period in 2017.

Revenues from financial services were $5.7 million, compared with $8.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2017 and $4.7 million during the third quarter of 2018. Revenues from financial services consist mainly of equity brokerage services. The year-over-year decrease of revenues from financial services was mainly due to the reduced revenue from the equity brokerage business. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly driven by the strengthening of Rifa’s equity brokerage business.

Revenues from the financial information and advisory business were $2.0 million, compared with $2.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2017 and $2.4 million in the third quarter of 2018. Revenues from the financial information and advisory business were comprised of subscription services from individual and institutional customers and financial advisory service. During the fourth quarter, subscription revenue from individual investors decreased by 12.3% year-over-year, mainly due to the effects of streamlining sales team and upgrading business operation for long-term healthy growth during the fourth quarter.

Revenues from advertising services were $3.0 million, compared with $1.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and $1.4 million in the third quarter of 2018. The increased traffic to our site also helped elevate our advertising revenues on both a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis.

Gross profit was $6.9 million, compared with $6.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and $5.0 million in the third quarter of 2018. Gross margin in the fourth quarter of 2018 was 65.1%, compared with 49.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 58.2% in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter increases in gross margin were mainly due to increased revenue contribution from advertising which carries a higher gross margin.

General and administrative expenses were $4.9 million, compared with $4.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, and $3.1 million in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter increases were mainly attributable to increased bad debt provisions.

Sales and marketing expenses were $4.4 million, compared with $6.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, and $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decrease of 35.1% was mainly attributable to the reduction of consulting fees related to commodities brokerage business and sales commissions. The quarter-over-quarter decrease of 7.4% was mainly attributable to the reduction in advertising.

Research and development expenses were $2.9 million, compared with $3.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and $3.5 million in the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter decreases were mainly attributable to improved efficiency after the consolidation of the R&D team throughout different business units. The Company continues to maintain a team of senior software engineers, data scientists and capital market professionals to support further development in its fintech capabilities.

Total operating expenses were $12.3 million, compared with $14.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, and $11.3 millionin the third quarter of 2018. The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to improved efficiency and effective cost controls. The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly due to bad debt provisions.

Loss from operations was $5.4 million, compared with a loss from operations of $8.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a loss from operations of $6.3 million in the third quarter of 2018.

Net loss attributable to China Finance Online was $4.4 million, compared with a net loss of $8.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and a net loss of $6.0 million in the third quarter of 2018.

Fully diluted loss per American Depository Shares (“ADS”) attributable to China Finance Online was $0.19 for the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with fully diluted loss per ADS of $0.37 for the fourth quarter of 2017 and fully diluted loss per ADS of $0.26 for the third quarter of 2018. Basic and diluted weighted average numbers of ADSs for the fourth quarter of 2018 were 22.8 million, compared with basic and diluted weighted average number of ADSs of 22.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2017. Each ADS represents five ordinary shares of the Company.

Full Year 2018 Financial Results

Net revenues for full year 2018 were $45.5 million, an increase of 6.7% compared with $42.6 million for 2017.

Revenues from financial services for the full year 2018 were $23.1 million, a decrease of 18.3% compared with $28.2 million for 2017.

Revenues from the financial information and advisory business for the full year 2018 were $14.9 million, an increase of 45.0% compared with $10.3 million for 2017.

Revenues from advertising services for the full year 2018 were $7.3 million, an increase of 103.8% compared with $3.6 million for 2017.

Gross profit for the full year 2018 was $28.6 million, an increase of 38.4% compared with $20.7 million in the full year 2017. Gross margin was 63.0% compared with 48.5% in 2017.

Net loss attributable to China Finance Online for the full year 2018 was $20.0 million, compared with $36.7 million in 2017.

Fully diluted loss per ADS attributable to China Finance Online was $0.88 for the full year 2018, compared with $1.62 in 2017. Basic and diluted weighted average numbers of ADSs for the full year 2018 were 22.8 million.

Recent Developments

Lingxi Robo-Advisor recorded strong performance in the fourth quarter of 2018 and full year of 2018

According to our proprietary asset allocation system, our Robo-Advisor product, Lingxi, provides Chinese retail investors with a wide array of investment combinations and personalized global asset allocations through Chinese domestic mutual funds.

Since its inception, Lingxi significantly outperformed all Chinese market key indices and most of its peer products in the Chinese market. In 2018, the Shanghai Composite Index experienced a loss of 24.6%. However, 95% of the strategies in the Company’s Robo-Advisor product, Lingxi, posted positive returns, with a defensive strategy yielding an annual return of 5.28% in 2018. Since its inception in 2017 to the end of 2018, the accumulative returns of Lingxi’s high-risk, medium-risk and low-risk strategies were 16.94%, 13.91% and 10.79%, respectively.

China Finance Online Launched its Turnkey Asset Management Platform (TAMP)

In late 2018, the Company launched the i-TAMP platform (Turnkey Asset Management Platform) to provide financial advisors consultation and advice on stocks, mutual funds, wealth management products, insurance, trust and other financial products. Featuring best-in-class TAMP, this platform has already attracted hundreds of financial advisors to open their online offices to provide services to mass retail investors. The key benefits of the i-TAMP platform are the superior user experience and robust product functionalities which empower financial advisors to better serve their clients.

China Finance Online Forms Strategic Partnership with Leading Futures Brokerage Firm CIFCO

In January 2019, the Company signed a strategic partnership agreement with Founder CIFCO Futures Co. Ltd (“Founder CIFCO Futures”), a leading futures brokerage firm in China. Pursuant to the partnership agreement, both parties will collaborate in the development of more advanced trading system, smart market news alert, cloud-based research platform and industry forums.

China Finance Online Entered into Multiple Contracts from Leading Brokerage Firms

In January 2019, the Company announced it had entered into a contract from Orient Securities Co., Ltd. (“Orient Securities”), a Top 10 leading brokerage firm in China according to Securities Association of China, to construct an intelligent, contextual, pragmatic online nationwide investor education center to equip Orient Securities with industry-leading comprehensive intelligent solution for investor education. In addition to Orient Securities, the Company also entered into contracts with other leading brokerage firms such as BOCI International (China) Limited (BOCI) and Southwest Securities to develop smart and customized solutions for investor education.

2018 Fintech & Leading China Annual Forum

In December 2018, the Company hosted the “2018 Fintech Forum & Leading China Annual Awards” in Beijing. The key discussions were artificial intelligence, data security, big data, risk management, IoT and blockchain. The conference is committed to promoting the long-term health of the financial industry in China and has received high recognition from financial regulators and institutions.

Awards and Letters of Appreciation from the China Banking Association, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Investment Association and National Internet Finance Association of China.

In 2018, the Company’s media content department received a slew of awards and letters of appreciation from the China Banking Association, China Banking Regulatory Commission, Securities Investment Association and National Internet Finance Association of China for its outstanding media coverages on the Chinese banking industry and stock markets. These accolades are government endorsements of our efforts in promoting rational and long-term investment philosophy. As the No. 2 most popular financial news website in China by Sina, the Company has 253 million unique visitors in 2018 along with a robust presence in large Chinese social media domains including 2.7 million followers on Weibo, 1 million followers on Wechat, and 1.8 million followers on TikTok. In recent months, the Company has been consistently ranked No. 1 on Baidu’s financial institutions value board for its 500,000 followers and accumulative reads of 410 million.

Conference Call Information

The management will host a conference call on April 23, 2019 at 8:00 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time (8:00 a.m. Beijing/Hong Kong time April 24, 2019). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:

US: 1-800-742-9301
Hong Kong: 800-906-648
Singapore: 800-616-2313
China: 800-870-0210 or 400-120-3170
Conference ID: 8985259

Please dial in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the conference ID to join the call.

A recording of the call will be available on China Finance Online’s website under the investor relations section.

In addition, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available at https://edge.media-server.com/m6/p/mr48xpx3.

SOURCE China Finance Online Co., Ltd.

Artificial Intelligence

Leo Wang, CEO of Duotech, Addresses Impact of AI on Fintech Industry During Chinese New Year Speech

Published

2 months ago

February 22, 2024

Wladimir P.

Leo Wang, CEO of Duotech, delivered a captivating speech during the Chinese New Year festivities, shedding light on the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fintech industry. Wang’s address resonated strongly with the young professional audience, who make up nearly 70% of Duotech’s staff strength.

Wang began his speech by highlighting the significant impact AI has had on the fintech industry over the last few years. Citing recent statistics from industry reports, he noted that AI adoption in finance has surged, with an estimated 89% of financial services firms globally using AI in some form.

“The fintech landscape has undergone a profound transformation fuelled by AI technologies,” Wang stated. “From algorithmic trading to fraud detection, AI has revolutionised traditional financial practices, enhancing efficiency, accuracy, and security.”

Wang referenced another study which revealed that AI-powered solutions have contributed to a 20% reduction in costs and a 30% increase in revenue for financial institutions. “These statistics underscore the tangible benefits AI brings to the table, driving innovation and profitability in the fintech sector,” Wang added.

In his speech, Wang encouraged the younger generation to embrace AI technologies, emphasising the immense opportunities for growth and innovation in the evolving fintech landscape. He urged them to stay up to date on industry advancements and leverage AI skills to drive positive change within their organisations.

Furthermore, Wang showcased Duotech’s cutting-edge AI solutions tailored for the finance industry, designed to enhance trading strategies, bolster cybersecurity, and streamline compliance processes.

Wang concluded his speech by reaffirming Duotech’s commitment to driving innovation in the fintech industry through AI-powered solutions. “At Duotech, we’re dedicated to leveraging AI to revolutionise finance and empower the younger generation to shape the future of our industry,” he said.

Artificial Intelligence

WeLASER, CLOSER TO PESTICIDE-FREE AGRICULTURE

Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

Wladimir P.

After 3 years of work, an international partnership has realised a precision weeding tool proving that herbicide free agriculture is at hand.

The partnership formed by research centres, universities, private companies and farmers’ organisations from Spain, Germany, Denmark, France, Poland, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands, by WeLASER project funded by the EU within its “Horizon 2020” programme, has completed the first stage of the development of the a precision weeding prototype tool that allows progress in eradicating the use of herbicides, improving the productivity and competitiveness of crops, thus eliminating health risks and the adverse environmental effects of chemicals.

The prototype includes an autonomous vehicle that drives through the crop and is equipped with an advanced detection system based on artificial intelligence (AI) through image acquisition and data processing, which allows it to distinguish and localize the centre of growth of the weed to be eradicated. Once targeted through the scanner, it directs the high-powered fibre laser source to that meristem. This fast modulation concept allows precise energy pulses to be directed for highly efficient weed treatment. Data management are managed by a cloud computing architecture and the system includes the IoT technology.

Although this project is currently concluding this first phase of development, further work will be needed, for example, to reduce the time required to work in the field, to make the prototype easier to handle and connect, and to reduce production costs in order to achieve a marketable model on the market.

A project of maximum cooperation between entities from all over Europe

WeLASER is the result of the cooperation of 10 partners from 8 EU member states. On the Spanish side, the Centro de Automática y Robótica (CAR) belonging to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and coordinator of the project and the Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos (COAG); on the German side, the Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V. (LZH) and the company Futonics Laser GmbH (FUT); from Denmark, the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences of the University of Copenhagen (CPH); from France, the company AgreenCulture (AGC); from Italy, the Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Agri-Food Research of the University of Bologna (UNIBO); from Poland, the Instytut Ekologii Terenów Uprzemysłowionych (Institute of Ecology of Industrial Areas) (IETU) in Katowice; from Belgium, the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Faculty of Biosciences Engineering of the University of Ghent; and from the Netherlands (UGENT), Van Den Borne Projecten BV, the innovation department of the Van Den Borne Aardappelen (VDBP) farm located in Reusel.

For Pablo González de Santos, from the CSIC’s Centro de Automática y Robótica, coordinator of the project, “WeLASER has been a perfect collaboration between leading organisations in each of their fields of work, which has made it possible to have the latest technologies and advances necessary for the development of such a cutting-edge and necessary project”.

Beyond the development of the prototype, this project has resulted in the development of different innovations with multiple applications such as a high-power fibre laser source for the control of adventitious weeds through precise energy pulses, with an innovative pump and cooling concept that minimises the energy demand of the laser for the weeding process; an improved power supply system for autonomous robotic platforms; an intelligent navigation manager for autonomous robots applicable to precision farming that enables navigation throughout the farm, not limited exclusively to the crop field and integrates different Artificial Intelligence (AI) methodologies to identify various types of crops, including wide and narrow crops; and an AI-based laser weed control implement that enables a wide working range for individualised plant treatment in crops of different types, while complying with all safety regulations required for working with laser technology.

Ensuring food production on a safe planet

Faced with an increasingly growing population in an environment of climate change like the one we live in, humanity´s great challenge is how to guarantee food production without harming the environment or the health of the population with increasingly efficient and less polluting production systems.

In Europe alone, around 130 million tonnes of synthetic herbicides are used each year (not counting other chemicals), substances which, when applied, do not discriminate between beneficial plants and insects in the soil that are not their target and which, moreover, can have effects on the health of animals and humans.

In addition, weeds are developing resistance, which means that existing herbicides are becoming less and less effective.

For González de Santos, “The WeLASER consortium is motivated to adopt smarter farming methods and build more sustainable food production systems while preserving the environment and health. WeLASER opens up a reliable and safe option and offers breakthroughs to solve a global problem”.

Artificial Intelligence

Huawei and MDES Signed MoU to Establish Thailand as a Regional AI Hub

Published

4 months ago

December 18, 2023

Wladimir P.

Huawei Cloud Thailand, in collaboration with Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society (MDES), today hosted the Huawei Cloud AI Summit Thailand 2023. The event brought together hundreds of government representatives, industry experts, local customers, partners, and Chinese enterprises to discuss Thailand’s AI development and digital transformation. During the summit, Huawei Cloud and MDES signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on digital development with the aim to provide support towards AI development, industry applications, ecosystem building, and talent cultivation. This partnership will help Thailand establish itself as a regional AI hub through digitalization.

In his keynote address, H.E. Mr. Prasert Jantararuangtong，Minister of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand, explained that MDES aims to drive forward Cloud-First policies as the new growth engine of Thailand and believes that cloud and AI are the future of the country: “As a representative from MDES, I would like to thank Huawei Thailand for taking the leading role within the private sector in setting up this important event and bringing the global experience of Huawei and its partners to Thailand, as well as for helping foster the country’s cloud and AI digital ecosystems. Through cooperation with private sector partners like Huawei, we will continue to promote Thailand as an AI hub of the region. MDES will fully support the country to accelerate digital transformation, cultivate talents, achieve economic sustainability, and enhance the overall quality of life for Thai people.”

Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck, Clinical Professor and Chairman of National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), stated that the event witnessed the fast development of cloud and AI technology. As a Thai regulator, NBTC will take could and AI into consideration for policy making to digitalize the Thai society and economy.

In Thailand, for Thailand: Establishing Thailand as a Regional AI Hub

AI stands as a driving force behind the current wave of global technological advancements and industry transformations, creating a profound impact on human society and reshaping industries. By recognizing AI’s transformative potential, Thailand remains committed to enhancing its global competitiveness by strengthening its AI capabilities and becoming a regional AI hub. Huawei Cloud is proud to support this vision through its ‘In Thailand, for Thailand‘ commitment.

David Li, CEO of Huawei Thailand, highlighted Huawei Cloud’s commitment to enabling cloud and AI development in Thailand: “Huawei Cloud is firmly dedicated to its ‘In Thailand, for Thailand‘ commitments and has personally witnessed, contributed to, and benefitted from Thailand’s digitalization over the past two decades. Thailand now finds itself at a critical juncture in its digital transformation journey. Recognizing this, Huawei Cloud remains steadfast in its commitment to invest in the local cloud ecosystem and its capabilities. By building a robust digital foundation in Thailand and constructing AI infrastructure for the government and enterprises, Huawei Cloud is empowering the nation to harness the transformative power of AI. This will in turn lead to the proliferation of AI applications across industries, ultimately benefiting Thai people and driving the country’s digital progress.”

At the summit, Huawei Cloud served as a bridge between Chinese and Thai enterprises with the aim of empowering Thailand with advanced AI technologies, applications, and expertise from China. By leveraging its extensive localization experiences in over 170 countries and regions, Huawei Cloud is ready to provide valuable insights into global and regional industries and now stands as the preferred partner for Thai enterprises seeking global expansion and for Chinese enterprises venturing into the Thai market.

Huawei Cloud: A Better Cloud for Thailand

With its cutting-edge technologies and industry expertise, Huawei Cloud aims to build the cloud foundation for an intelligent future, providing better options for each customer. At the summit, Huawei Cloud showcased a range of cutting-edge AI solutions and models specifically tailored to Thailand’s needs, including models for the Thai language, meteorology, government, and AI solutions for the finance and retail sectors.

Huawei Cloud’s government model brings intelligence to government processes and city affairs, from perception and understanding to handling and decision-making. Citizen’s requests can be assigned automatically and managed round the clock, enabling governments to deliver high-quality services without concerns about human resource shortages.

The Thai language model, trained on Thai corpus and converged with Huawei’s industry knowledge accumulated over three decades, continuously optimizes by learning massive amounts of the Thai language data. This breakthrough removes language barriers to accessing foundation models, allowing Thailand to transition from an AI user to an AI creator.

In meteorology, Huawei Cloud collaborated with the Thai Meteorological Department to develop its Pangu weather model for Thailand in an endeavor to deepen the digitization of Thailand’s agricultural and tourism sectors. The model has already surpassed current state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction (NWP) methods with prediction speeds several orders of magnitude faster. In the past, predicting the trajectory of a typhoon for the next 10 days took 5 hours. Now, the Pangu weather model can do the same calculations in just 10 seconds.

Talent is indispensable for AI transformation, but their acquisition requires concerted efforts from both the public and private sectors. At the summit, Huawei Cloud, MDES, the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), universities such as Chulalongkorn University, AI associations, enterprises, and partners came together to launch the Cloud & AI Community Thailand. This collaborative initiative aims to nurture AI technology development and cooperation, ultimately elevating Thailand’s presence in the global AI landscape.

Equipped with a robust portfolio of innovative AI technologies, extensive industry expertise, and exceptional customer service, Huawei Cloud is poised to support Thailand in its quest to become a prominent AI hub in the region. Through sustained investments in the local ecosystem and industries, Huawei Cloud demonstrates its unwavering commitment to fostering the high-quality growth of Thailand’s digital economy.