SOOP’s Q2 OP up 41% in record quarterly performance

SOOP Co. CI

South Korea’s SOOP Co., which operates streaming platform AfricaTV, posted its biggest quarterly profit ever in the second quarter of 2024, driven by higher revenue following its rebranding in late 2023.

SOOP said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that its preliminary consolidated operating profit for the second quarter of this year stood at 33.3 billion won ($24.12 million), up 41 percent from the same period a year ago. Revenue was 106.5 billion won, up 22.9 percent from the same period in 2023, while net profit increased by 24.8 percent to 28.3 billion won. The company’s operating profit was 6.4 percent higher than the market forecast of 31.3 billion won compiled by Yonhap Infomax while platform accounted for 78 percent and advertising 21 percent of revenue composition.

SOOP said that both its platform and advertising revenue grew by 27 percent and 13.5 percent year-over-year, respectively, driving the performance. The average number of concurrent broadcasts increased by 6 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2024, while the number of concurrent viewers increased by 11 percent and the average monthly user watch time increased by 24 percent, mainly due to its esports tournament service “GGGL” and virtual streamer support programs launched in the first half of the year, the company added.

Total operating expenses amounted to 73.2 billion won, an increase of 16.1 percent compared to the same period last year and 10.3 percent compared to the previous quarter. Of this, labor costs accounted for the largest share at 31 percent, followed by payout fees at 24 percent, platform fees at 24 percent, other expenses at 7 percent, depreciation at 7 percent, streamer support at 4 percent, and content production at 2 percent.

SOOP plans to rename its domestic service AfricaTV to SOOP in the third quarter of 2024 and overhaul its entire user interface.

“We will continue to maintain our technological edge as a market-leading platform and build long-term growth engines by rebranding our domestic services and expanding our global platform services,” SOOP Chief Executive Officer Jung Chan-yong said on Wednesday.