Agora, Inc. Reports Third Quarter 2023 Financial Results

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Nov. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API) (the “Company”), a pioneer and leader in real-time engagement technology, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2023.

“We delivered sequential revenue growth amid a very challenging operating environment in this quarter, by staying laser-focused on key customers and core product improvements. Our continued cost discipline has enabled us to further reduce our adjusted EBITDA loss and operating cash outflow to the lowest levels seen in more than two years,” said Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of Agora, Inc. “Looking forward, generative AI will enrich many of today’s real-time engagement use cases and inspire new ones for years to come. I believe we are uniquely positioned to enable human users and AI models to interact with each other through video and audio, in addition to text, which will transform all kinds of use cases such as AI companions, social games with AI players, and AI tutors for learning languages.”

Third Quarter 2023 Highlights

• Total revenues for the quarter were $35.0 million, a decrease of 14.6% from $41.0 million in the third quarter of 2022.
  • Agora: $15.3 million for the quarter, a decrease of 8.9% from $16.8 million in the third quarter of 2022.
  • Shengwang: RMB141.2 million ($19.7 million) for the quarter, a decrease of 14.6% from RMB165.3 million ($24.2 million) in the third quarter of 2022, or a decrease of 9.2% from RMB155.5 million ($22.8 million) in the third quarter of 2022 if excluding revenue from the disposed Customer Engagement Cloud (“CEC”) business.
• Active Customers
  • Agora: 1,664 as of September 30, 2023, an increase of 26.2% from 1,319 as of September 30, 2022.
  • Shengwang: 4,034 as of September 30, 2023, an increase of 6.3% from 3,796 as of September 30, 2022.
• Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate
  • Agora: 98% for the trailing 12-month period ended September 30, 2023.
  • Shengwang: 89% for the trailing 12-month period ended September 30, 2023 (excluding revenues from terminated businesses due to regulatory changes in the education sector).
• Net loss for the quarter was $22.5 million, compared to net loss of $27.7 million in the third quarter of 2022. After excluding share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, financing related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill, non-GAAP net loss for the quarter was $15.6 million, compared to the non-GAAP net loss of $17.6 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was negative $4.4 million, compared to negative $16.4 million in the third quarter of 2022.
• Total cash, cash equivalents, bank deposits and financial products issued by banks as of September 30, 2023 was $373.4 million.
• Net cash used in operating activities for the quarter was $3.0 million, compared to $8.8 million in the third quarter of 2022. Free cash flow for the quarter was negative $3.2 million, compared to negative $9.9 million in the third quarter of 2022.
  

Third quarter 2023 Financial Results

Revenues
Total revenues were $35.0 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 14.6% from $41.0 million in the same period last year. Revenues of Agora were $15.3 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 8.9% from $16.8 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the decrease in usage and pricing from and to certain customers in emerging markets due to their tightening financing conditions. Revenues of Shengwang were RMB141.2 million ($19.7 million) in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 14.6% from RMB165.3 million ($24.2 million) in the same period last year, primarily due to macroeconomic slowdown, fast evolving regulations in certain downstream markets and the disposal of the CEC business in the first quarter of 2023.

Cost of Revenues
Cost of revenues was $12.6 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 24.3% from $16.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the decrease in bandwidth usage and co-location costs.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit was $22.4 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 7.9% from $24.3 million in the same period last year. Gross margin was 64.0% in the third quarter of 2023, an increase of 4.6% from 59.4% in the same period last year, mainly due to a change in product mix and the implementation of technical and infrastructural optimizations.

Operating Expenses
Operating expenses were $36.9 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 33.7% from $55.6 million in the same period last year.

• Research and development expenses were $20.0 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 32.7% from $29.8 million in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in personnel costs as the Company optimized its global workforce, including a decrease in share-based compensation from $4.2 million in the third quarter of 2022 to $3.8 million in the third quarter of 2023.
• Sales and marketing expenses were $7.8 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 46.7% from $14.6 million in the same period last year, primarily due to a decrease in personnel costs as the Company optimized its global workforce.
• General and administrative expenses were $9.1 million in the third quarter of 2023, a decrease of 19.4% from $11.3 million in the same period last year, primarily due to decreased professional services expenses and a decrease in personnel costs as the Company optimized its global workforce.
  

Other Operating Income
Other operating income was $0.6 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $2.4 million in the same period last year, the majority of which came from government subsidies in both periods.

Loss from Operations
Loss from operations was $13.9 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $28.9 million in the same period last year.

Interest Income
Interest income was $4.9 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $2.5 million in the same period last year, primarily due to the increase in interest rates.

Investment Loss
Investment loss was $13.4 million in the third quarter of 2023, primarily due to the fair value change in an equity investment of $7.0 million and loss on investments in certain private companies of $6.3 million, whereas there were no material transactions in the same period last year.

Net Loss
Net loss was $22.5 million in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $27.7 million in the same period last year.

Net Loss per American Depositary Share attributable to ordinary shareholders
Net loss per American Depositary Share (“ADS”)¹ attributable to ordinary shareholders was $0.23 in the third quarter of 2023, compared to $0.25 in the same period last year.

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¹ One ADS represents four Class A ordinary shares.

Share Repurchase Program

During the three months ended September 30, 2023, the Company repurchased approximately 17.0 million of its class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 4.3 million ADSs) for approximately US$12.3 million under its share repurchase program, representing 6% of its US$200 million share repurchase program.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had repurchased approximately 99.7 million of its class A ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 24.9 million ADSs) for approximately US$94.3 million under its share repurchase program, representing 47% of its US$200 million share repurchase program.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had 377.0 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 94.3 million ADSs) outstanding, reflecting a reduction of 72.8 million ordinary shares (equivalent to approximately 18.2 million ADSs) from January 31, 2022 before the share repurchase program commenced.

The current share repurchase program will expire at the end of February 2024.

Change to Board of Directors

The Company today announced a change in its board of directors. Mr. Tuck Lye Koh has tendered his voluntary resignation from the Company’s board of directors due to personal reasons, effective as of today.

Mr. Sheng (Shawn) Zhong, currently Chief Technology Officer and Chief Scientist of the Company, has been appointed as a director of the Company, effective as of today.

Mr. Zhong has served as the Company’s Chief Scientist since January 2018 and as the Company’s Chief Technology Officer since September 2022. Before joining the Company, Mr. Zhong served as the chief executive officer of Hisense Microchip Company and had held several senior technical roles at Broadcom lnc. and LSl Corporation. Mr. Zhong was a key member of International Organization for Standardization (ISO)’s MPEG/JVT team, INCITS and IEEE, and has published more than 30 papers in the field of video processing and computer vision. Mr. Zhong received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a PhD in applied mathematics from Peking University and was a post-doctorate research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park.

“On behalf of the board, we sincerely thank Tuck for his dedicated service and invaluable advice since joining us in 2018,” Mr. Tony Zhao, founder, chairman and CEO of the Company, commented, “We warmly welcome Shawn to our board. In the past six years, Shawn has demonstrated exceptional leadership in driving our technology advancements. We are confident that Shawn’s insights and expertise will help the board and the Company stay on the forefront of real-time engagement technology and create long-term value for our shareholders.”

Financial Outlook

The Company expects total revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 to be between $35.5 million and $37.5 million. This outlook reflects the Company's current and preliminary views on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change.

Earnings Call

The Company will host a conference call to discuss the financial results at 5 p.m. Pacific Time / 8 p.m. Eastern Time on November 21, 2023. Details for the conference call are as follows:
Event title: Agora, Inc. 3Q 2023 Financial Results
The call will be available at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/t37c98mk
Investors who want to hear the call should log on at least 15 minutes prior to the broadcast. Participants may register for the call with the link below.
https://register.vevent.com/register/BIc7379ddba33a4f2db9fc47f6ddfc764f
Please visit the Company’s investor relations website at https://investor.agora.io on November 21, 2023 to view the earnings release and accompanying slides prior to the conference call.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has provided in this press release financial information that has not been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“GAAP”). The Company uses these non-GAAP financial measures internally in analyzing its financial results and believe that the use of these non-GAAP financial measures is useful to investors as an additional tool to evaluate ongoing operating results and trends and in comparing its financial results with other companies in its industry, many of which present similar non-GAAP financial measures. Besides free cash flow (as defined below), each of these non-GAAP financial measures represents the corresponding GAAP financial measure before share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, financing related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill. The Company believes that such non-GAAP financial measures help identify underlying trends in its business that could otherwise be distorted by the effects of such share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, financing related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill that it includes in its cost of revenues, total operating expenses and net income (loss). The Company believes that all such non-GAAP financial measures also provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by its management in its financial and operational decision-making.

Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures and should be read only in conjunction with the Company’s consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. A reconciliation of its historical non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures has been provided in the tables captioned “Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures” included at the end of this press release, and investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation.

Definitions of the Company’s non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release are presented below.

Non-GAAP Net Income (Loss)

Non-GAAP net income (loss) is defined as net income (loss) adjusted to exclude share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, financing related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets, income tax related to acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before exchange gain (loss), interest income, investment income (loss), other income, equity in income of affiliates, income taxes, depreciation of property and equipment, amortization of land use right, and adjusted to exclude the effects of share-based compensation expenses, acquisition related expenses, financing related expenses, amortization expenses of acquired intangible assets and impairment of goodwill.

Free Cash Flow

Free cash flow is defined as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment (excluding the acquisition of land use right and the construction in progress for the headquarters project). The Company considers free cash flow to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors regarding net cash provided by operating activities and cash used for investments in property and equipment required to maintain and grow the business.

Operating Metrics

The Company also uses other operating metrics included in this press release and defined below to assess the performance of its business.

Active Customers

An active customer at the end of any particular period is defined as an organization or individual developer from which the Company generated more than $100 of revenue during the preceding 12 months. Customers are counted based on unique customer account identifiers. Generally, one software application uses the same customer account identifier throughout its life cycle while one account may be used for multiple applications.

Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate

Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated for a trailing 12-month period by first identifying all customers in the prior 12-month period, and then calculating the quotient from dividing the revenue generated from such customers in the trailing 12-month period by the revenue generated from the same group of customers in the prior 12-month period. As the vast majority of revenue generated from Agora’s customers is denominated in U.S. dollars, while the vast majority of revenue generated from Shengwang’s customers is denominated in Renminbi, Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate is calculated in U.S. dollars for Agora and in Renminbi for Shengwang, which has substantially removed the impact of foreign currency translations. The Company believes Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate facilitates operating performance comparisons on a period-to-period basis.

Safe Harbor Statements

This press release contains ‘‘forward-looking statements’’ within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical or current fact included in this press release are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company’s financial outlook, beliefs and expectations. Forward-looking statements include statements containing words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “project,” “will” and similar expressions intended to identify forward-looking statements. Among other things, the Financial Outlook in this announcement contain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and involve risks and uncertainties. The Company’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks related to the growth of the RTE-PaaS market; the Company’s ability to manage its growth and expand its operations; the continued impact of COVID-19 on global markets and the Company’s business, operations and customers; the Company’s ability to attract new developers and convert them into customers; the Company’s ability to retain existing customers and expand their usage of its platform and products; the Company’s ability to drive popularity of existing use cases and enable new use cases, including through quality enhancements and introduction of new products, features and functionalities; the Company’s fluctuating operating results; competition; the effect of broader technological and market trends on the Company’s business and prospects; general economic conditions and their impact on customer and end-user demand; and other risks and uncertainties included elsewhere in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including, without limitation, the final prospectus related to the IPO filed with the SEC on June 26, 2020. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

About Agora, Inc.

Agora, Inc. is the holding company of two independent businesses, Agora and Shengwang.

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Agora is a pioneer and global leader in Real-Time Engagement Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), providing developers with simple, flexible, and powerful application programming interfaces, or APIs, to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications.

Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Shengwang is a pioneer and leading Real-Time Engagement PaaS provider in the China market.

For more information on Agora, please visit: www.agora.io
For more information on Shengwang, please visit: www.shengwang.cn

Agora, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets
(Unaudited, in US$ thousands)

Agora, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss
(Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts)

Agora, Inc.
Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
(Unaudited, in US$ thousands)

Agora, Inc.
Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures
(Unaudited, in US$ thousands, except share and per ADS amounts)

Investor Contact:
investor@agora.io

Media Contact:
press@agora.io