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Kuaishou Technology reported revenue growth of 24 per cent in the first quarter, beating estimates, after a year of challenges for China's technology sector that has weighed heavily on the operator of the country's second largest short video platform.
The Hong Kong-listed company, which has lost over 80 per cent of its market value from its peak in February 2021, said revenue increased to 21.1 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) in the first three months this year, topping consensus forecast of 20.6 billion yuan.
Net losses fell to 6.25 billion yuan from 57.75 billion yuan a year ago, the company added, better than the 6.4 billion yuan loss estimated by 11 analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
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Average daily active users for the app, which competes with market leader ByteDance's Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, rose 17 per cent to 346 million, up from 295 million a year ago.
Cheng Yixiao, co-founder and CEO of Kuaishou, said the company achieved "satisfactory results" across its business operations "amid a challenging environment".
Kauishou's relatively positive results come as much of China's tech sector continues to face significant challenges after 18 months of regulatory crackdowns. Although the government has signalled that the crackdowns would ease, Covid-19-related lockdowns have continued to drag on the economy.
Tencent Holdings reported flat revenue growth for the first quarter last week, with profit dropping 51 per cent year on year. Analysts are also expecting slower revenue growth for Alibaba Group Holding, the owner of the South China Morning Post, when it reports its first-quarter results on Thursday.
NetEase, however, fared relatively well for the quarter. China's second largest video gaming firm reported revenue of 23.6 billion yuan, up 14.8 per cent from the first quarter of 2021. Net income remained flat at 4.4 billion yuan, roughly the same as last year.
Net revenue for the multimedia giant's online game services rose 15.3 per cent to 17.3 billion yuan, while revenue from cloud music jumped 38.6 per cent to 2.1 billion yuan.
Kauishou's chairman and co-founder Su Hua also became the subject of rumours this week. Yesterday, the Beijing-based company denied that Su was taken away by police at the end of April in relation to an investigation. The initial report, from "self-media" WeChat account Xinwaner, said Su had not been seen in the office in the past month, only showing up via video for a public event yesterday.