Hey guys, you know what released today? Other than a bunch of good streams?
Cover's Fiscal Year 2024 First Quarter Earnings Report and Summary! And I just spent a few hours going through it, summarizing it, and making a few assumptions that I thought would be useful to you guys here. Heads up, though: I am splitting the post into multiple chunks, so be ready for a few big text blocks to hit the fucking wall here in a bit. With that in mind: Here you go!
BASIC REVENUE STATISTICS:
>Net Revenue: 5,142,000,000 Yen ($35,800,000). Up 42.8% from last year.
>Gross Profit (Net Revenue - Costs of Goods Sold): 2,634,000,000 Yen ($18,340,000). Up 73.9% from last year.
>Operating Income(Gross Profit - Operating Costs[think wages, office supplies, bills, etc]): 895,000,000 Yen ($6,232,000). Up 147.5% from last year(!!).
>Net Income (Operating Income - Interest, Taxes): 621,000,000 Yen ($4,324,000). Up 129.5% from last year.
REVENUE STREAM BREAKDOWN:
>Delivery/Content (Revenue from live streaming. Memberships, Superchats, AdSense, etc): 1,651,000,000 Yen ($11,495,000). Up 13.9% from last year.
>Live Events (Concert revenue, HoloExpo, Conventions, etc): 376,000,000 Yen ($2,618,000). Up 94% from last year.
>Merchandise Sales: 2,091,000,000 Yen ($14,559,000). Up 32.8% from last year.
>Licenses/Tie-Ins (Brand deals, Baseball game hostings, etc): 1,023,000,000 Yen ($7,123,000). Up 167.7% from last year(!!).
After that, they record brand expansion numbers, but calculate it by the total number of Subscribers, so it isn't too important of a metric to dwell on for us. They also showcase that song covers are especially useful in expanding brand awareness for Hololive.
GRANDULAR NOTES ON REVENUE STREAMS:
>Cover highlights the fact that merchandising and licensing deal opportunities have been expanding due to the continued growth in relevance of Hololive as an IP.
>They note that merch is mainly driven by sales of anniversary event items and birthday celebrations, so that IS still the main driver of said category. It is noted that seasonality does cause fluxuation in the profits of that sector. As a personal note, I do wonder if Cover explicitly chooses birthdays, and possibly themes, to correspond to good financial periods for sales of merch.
COST OF GOODS SOLD
>For Cost of Goods Sold, it's broken down into four categories: Performer's Fee, Outsourcing Costs, Event Fees, and Other.
>The largest cost is "Other," which could be who knows how much stuff. All we know for sure is that it is related specifically to the Production Costs of Cover's Goods and Services. It does not include any of the Operating Costs, which feature later. Just assume it's general expenses that would come with production for Content that the Holos don't pay for themselves.
>"Event Fees," or the cost involved in holding events such as Lives, Expos and Concerts, are relatively constrained. However, the fees involved for "HoloFES/Hololive EXPO" are massive in comparison to other quarters where there is no Festival. 4thFES/EXPO cost Cover 1,314,000,000 Yen ($9,149,000).
>Outsourcing Costs are likely related to the production of things such as HoloEarth, if it were done by contractors, as well as manufacturing of Merch, although I imagine there are Merch costs which are in the "Other" category as well.
