On March 18, Weibo announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. In the fourth quarter, Weibo's total revenue reached $473.3 million, approximately RMB 3.337 billion. Advertising revenue accounted for $403.8 million, roughly RMB 2.845 billion. Adjusted operating profit for the quarter was $100.4 million, equivalent to RMB 702 million.
For the full year 2025, Weibo's total revenue amounted to $1.76 billion, approximately RMB 12.576 billion. Advertising revenue reached $1.5 billion, about RMB 10.742 billion. Net profit attributable to Weibo shareholders was $449 million, or RMB 3.224 billion, representing a 49% increase compared to the previous year.
In terms of user metrics, by the end of the fourth quarter, Weibo's monthly active users reached 567 million, while daily active users stood at 252 million.
Throughout 2025, the company focused on enhancing user value as its core strategy. It strengthened Weibo's leading position in trending and entertainment content ecosystems, maintained the competitiveness of its social products, and prioritized the development of its recommendation and search systems using large language models, which contributed to growth in both user base and engagement.
The efficiency of video recommendations improved, and AI technology drove an increase in original video content during the Spring Festival period. In late July 2025, Weibo completed the transition of its core homepage product architecture and officially launched a new homepage centered around a recommendation feed. As the recommendation feed became the primary distribution channel, the video business was able to overcome previous limitations of follower-based reach, achieving greater efficiency in content delivery and user consumption. In the second half of the year, Weibo focused on two key initiatives: enhancing video recommendation efficiency through deeper content and scenario integration, and improving video content quality by incentivizing top Key Opinion Leaders to produce more competitive content while systematically managing low-quality videos to optimize the content supply structure. These efforts yielded significant results, with average daily video play time and per-user play time in the second half of the year both achieving double-digit growth compared to the first half.
Additionally, during the Spring Festival, the release and adoption of AI video technologies and tools, such as Seedance, significantly lowered the barrier to video creation. The number of original video creators and the volume of posts from verified influencers increased markedly compared to the same period last year, with both metrics rising by over 40%. Looking ahead, as AI technology advances, Weibo plans to leverage its platform's strengths in trending topics and vertical IPs by providing creators with AI-powered tools to support secondary creation and content expansion, further enhancing the competitiveness of its video content ecosystem.
In search products, the fourth quarter continued the direction set in the third quarter, aiming to provide users with smarter and more convenient search services. Efforts included deepening AI capabilities to improve the accuracy of understanding user queries and content, optimizing search results and user experience in high-frequency search scenarios like trending topics and people searches through intelligent search features, and reinforcing Weibo's search identity. The product format was also upgraded from single-turn queries to a multi-turn interactive assistant, supporting more连贯 and in-depth information discovery. Furthermore, intelligent search features were extended to more users within content consumption and social interaction scenarios. These initiatives helped increase the user base and engagement of the intelligent search product in the fourth quarter. In December, monthly active users for intelligent search surpassed 80 million, with daily active users and search query volume growing by double digits month-over-month, contributing to an overall increase in total platform search volume.
On the commercialization front, Weibo continued to promote its unique content marketing approach across industries in 2025, while integrating AI capabilities to systematically enhance the conversion efficiency of advertisements. Fourth-quarter advertising revenue grew by 5% year-over-year.
Weibo's advantage in spreading social hotspots gained broader recognition among platforms during key e-commerce promotions and for acquiring high-value users, leading to significant year-over-year growth in advertising revenue from the e-commerce sector. This successful model was also replicated in the local services domain, boosting advertising revenue from the lifestyle services industry. The automotive sector achieved steady growth, supported by its long-established vertical ecosystem.
Since the fourth quarter, with the密集 release of major domestic AI models, Weibo has become the preferred platform for AI manufacturers to launch new products, conduct technical outreach, and build user reputation, thanks to its established ecosystem of Key Opinion Leaders and professional discussion氛围 in the technology and digital sectors. Recent iterations of models, such as Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen and ByteDance's Doubao, generated nearly 50% more discussion on Weibo compared to the launch of DeepSeek the previous year. The breakout effect of this wave of technological upgrades also spurred increased marketing investments by manufacturers in trending topic areas, creating a new growth driver for Weibo's advertising revenue.
Video content is driving user retention, while celebrity and brand marketing are fueling revenue growth. As it moves into 2026, Weibo will continue to prioritize user value, focusing on user experience and long-term retention. The platform will adhere to a principle of balancing traffic operational efficiency with quality, aiming to enhance ecosystem health and long-term competitiveness to support growth in both user scale and engagement.
Video business will be a core strategy for user retention and time-spent growth in 2026. The platform will increase resource allocation, leveraging AI technology to improve video understanding and recommendation efficiency, and expanding diverse video content formats including original content, thematic videos, and short dramas. Through comprehensive upgrades in content, algorithms, and product experience, Weibo aims to strengthen video's role in boosting user engagement and retention, thereby supporting overall user growth.
In terms of content ecosystem competitiveness, Weibo will continue to enhance the health and core competitiveness of its content围绕 its three key business areas: trending topics, social interaction, and search.
For commercial growth, as more brand clients express interest in increasing investments in celebrity and brand marketing, Weibo will continue to upgrade its IP marketing service system. By offering more customized services and a robust product matrix for celebrity marketing, the platform will further strengthen its competitiveness in the brand marketing arena. Simultaneously, driven by AI technology, efforts will focus on improving the precision of performance advertising and enhancing the user experience.
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