Gaotu Techedu Q4 2023 Earnings Report

Gaotu Techedu EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.07
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Gaotu Techedu Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $107.19 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Gaotu Techedu Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2023
• Date: 2/27/2024
• Time: N/A
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 8:00AM ET

Gaotu Techedu (NYSE:GOTU) (NYSE:GOTU), formerly known as GSX Techedu, is a Beijing-based provider of online education services in China. Since its founding in 2014, the company has built a technology-driven platform that delivers live, interactive tutoring sessions to students primarily in the K-12 segment. Gaotu Techedu’s rebranding in 2021 underscored its commitment to leveraging cutting-edge digital tools to expand access to quality instruction across core academic subjects.

The company’s main offerings include small-group and one-on-one classes in mathematics, Chinese, English, physics and chemistry, as well as targeted test preparation for high-stakes national and local examinations. Gaotu Techedu employs a proprietary live-streaming system that enables real-time interaction between students and instructors, supplemented by AI-enhanced study aids, homework review services and on-demand course materials. These features are designed to personalize learning pathways and improve academic outcomes.

Serving students in urban and suburban areas throughout China, Gaotu Techedu has expanded its course catalog to address lifelong learning and professional skill development. The company’s digital ecosystem integrates mobile and desktop access, allowing learners to participate in classes from any location. Headquartered in Beijing, Gaotu Techedu is led by founder and Chief Executive Officer Zhu Zhiwei, whose vision emphasizes scalable, tech-enabled education solutions for the evolving needs of Chinese learners.

Gaotu Techedu Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Gaotu delivered Q4 net revenues of RMB 761.1 million (+20.9% YoY) and gross billings of RMB 1.3 billion (+28.1% YoY), with operating cash inflow of RMB 491.5 million and full‐year 2023 cash inflow up ~5.5× YoY.
• Gross billings for non-academic tutoring grew triple-digits YoY, driven by refined products and diversified customer‐acquisition channels—including live streaming, short-form video and selective offline efforts—that lowered unit costs.
• The company expanded its offerings by investing in AI-powered personalization, launching offline bootcamps and learning centers, and partnering with major publishers on comprehensive textbook series to boost retention and learning outcomes.
• Gaotu strengthened its talent pool—over 70% of postgraduate entrance-exam tutors hold master’s degrees—and advanced social responsibility initiatives, including a rural school principals forum and a RMB 10 million donation to youth education.
• For Q1 2024, Gaotu guides net revenues of RMB 908–928 million (29.4%–31.2% YoY growth) and expects full-year 2024 to deliver further top-line expansion and margin improvement via diversified products and efficient operations.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and welcome to the Gaotu Techedu Inc. Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Thank you, operator. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining Gaotu's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Catherine, and I'll help host the earnings call today. Gaotu's earnings release for the quarter was distributed earlier and is available on the company's IR website at ir.gaotu.cn, as well as through PR Newswire services. Joining the call with me tonight from Gaotu Senior Management is Mr. Larry Chen, Gaotu's Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, and Ms. Shannon Shen, Gaotu's Chief Financial Officer. Larry will first provide the business highlights for the quarter, and then afterwards, Shannon will discuss our financial performance in more detail. Following their prepared remarks, we'll open the floor to questions from analysts.

[Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that this conference call will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management's current beliefs and expectations, as well as the current market and operating conditions. They involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict, and many of which are beyond the company's control, and may cause the company's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Further information regarding this and other risks is included in the company's public filing with the U.S. SEC. The company does not undertake any obligations to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. During today's call, management will also discuss certain non-GAAP measurements for comparison purposes only.

[Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please refer to our Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Release published earlier today. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a live and archived webcast of this conference call will be available on Gaotu's IR website. It is now my pleasure to introduce our founder, chairman, and executive and Chief Executive Officer, Larry. Larry, please.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Good evening, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Gaotu's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all of you for your interest and support of Gaotu. Before I start, I would like to remind everyone that all financial figures discussed today are quoted in RMB unless stated otherwise. During the past quarter, we continued to bolster our core business strengths while simultaneously pushing the boundaries of new initiatives. We observed a notable uptick in demand for high-quality educational products and learning services, and we remained focused on addressing this demand by enhancing our product offerings and channels across key business lines, including non-academic tutoring services, traditional learning services, and educational services for college students and adults.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Investing in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence allows us to acquire a more profound and holistic insight into the fundamental needs of users and students, enabling us to provide precise and personalized offerings and services, thereby elevating user experiences and improving learning outcomes. Our deep industry insights, exceptional organizational capabilities, and well-established teacher recruitment and training system, have provided a robust foundation for the sustainable development of our business. Now, I'm pleased to report our results for the fourth quarter of the year and share our expectations for future business endeavors. Our net revenues increased 20.9% year-over-year to CNY 761 million, exceeding our expectations. Our Gross Billings grew 28.1% year-over-year to approximately CNY 1.3 billion, indicating an accelerating growth trend compared to prior quarter.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

We expect this growth momentum of our business to continue. In the fourth quarter, our cash flow from operating activities was CNY 491.5 million, and our net operating cash inflow in the full year 2023 increased by approximately 5.5x year-over-year, a strong testament to the ongoing improvement of our operating efficiency. As of December 31st, 2023, our deferred revenue reached over CNY 1.2 billion, laying solid groundwork for our further growth in 2024. Our cash balance, which includes cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, withdrawable cash balance on third-party payment platforms, as well as short and long-term investments, totaled over CNY 4 billion, ensuring lasting and stable support for our business development. I will now discuss our business highlights from the fourth quarter across four aspects.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

First, we are diligently focused on both our educational products and services to boost learning efficiency and optimize the overall learning experience. Throughout this process, we remained laser focused on user needs and potentials, and expanded our range of products and services as needed. We established an integrated online/offline offering by launching on-the-ground boot camps and learning centers. To give an instance, for our educational services for college students and adults, such as offline exam prep boot camps, can better address students' needs in areas such as postgraduate entrance exams, civil service exams, and overseas study preparation. In addition, through collaboration with renowned publishing houses, such as Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, we developed textbook series that have achieved major breakthroughs as comprehensive educational solutions covering instruction, learning, practice, assessment, and evaluation.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Some of these publications are currently used as textbooks by several major universities and high schools in China. For our traditional learning services, we saw a significant increase in retention rate during the 2023 fall semester compared to the same period last year, thanks to our ongoing efforts to refine course content and improve delivery quality. At the same time, we proactively communicated with regulatory authorities at all levels, seeking guidance on relevant policies and compliance, and iterated our educational products and learning services accordingly. Second, we continued our efforts to explore diversified customer acquisition channels and enhance operational efficiency. Leveraging our high quality content and efficient operations, we have expanded into innovative channels, including live streaming and short-form video platforms, as well as offline avenues, establishing our competitive edge in these channels.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

In the live streaming space, the substantial overlap in skill sets between online teachers and live stream hosts gave us a competitive advantage in customer acquisition. We have grown to be a leading influencer on Douyin, particularly in certain educational categories for college students and adults. Meanwhile, we actively expanded our offline channels to boost regional brand visibility. The comprehensive channel mix not only ensures sustained business growth, but also allows us to engage with customers through diverse channels, gaining insight into their needs, fostering deep interactions, and bringing down customer acquisition costs. As a result of the measures, our customer acquisition efficiency remained at a high level in the fourth quarter, demonstrating the success of our enhanced investment in customer acquisition. Third, we leveraged our organizational capabilities and talent pool to drive consistent business growth. We believe that education is a process of outstanding teachers positively influencing students.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Therefore, one of Gaotu's most crucial strategies is to enhance organizational capabilities to systematically nurture top-tier educators at scale and to high standards. By cultivating a team characterized by a passion for learning, resilience, and strong cohesion, we ensure the effective and efficient operation of our organization. While the booming business has resulted in rapid organizational expansion, we continue to maintain a consistent standard of hiring the best-in-class instructors and tutors in the industry. Taking our postgraduate entrance exam prep business as an example, the percentage of our tutors with a master's degree has increased to over 70%, positioning us at the forefront of the industry. Teachers with first-hand experience in postgraduate entrance exams can provide students with the full support, including professionally, psychologically, and emotionally, therefore enhancing the overall effectiveness of the test preparation.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Fourth, we remain committed to fulfilling our social responsibilities and actively create social value. In the fourth quarter, we organized the Gaotu Hope Project Rural Primary School Principals Online Forum in partnership with the China Youth Development Foundation. Over 600 rural primary school principals and teachers from 11 provinces attended the event, engaging in insightful discussions on rural education in the era of artificial intelligence. In addition, we donated CNY 10 million to the China Next Generation Education Foundation, aiming to improve family education and the mental wellbeing of young children and adolescents. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to our original educational aspirations, striving to enhance equity and accessibility in education. We have full confidence in Gaotu's prospects for 2024, and for the future, and, and for the further future, we are prepared to devote our full efforts to executing on our strategy.

[Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

With a robust talent pool, a highly cohesive organization, and strong cash flow, we believe that we can achieve promising top-line growth while enhancing profitability by consistently delivering top-notch educational products and learning services, thus generating long-term value for both our shareholders and the society. Thank you very much. This is the end of my prepared remarks. Now, I will pass the call over to our CFO, Shannon, to walk you through the financial and operational details of the quarter.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Thank you, Larry, and thank you everyone for joining our call today. I will now walk you through our operating and financial performance for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023. During the quarter, our business entered a healthy phase of rapid and sustainable expansion. We witnessed accelerated growth in the gross billings of our core business lines, while our new initiatives also demonstrated promising growth potential. In the fourth quarter, net revenues increased by 20.9% year-over-year to CNY 761 million, topping the upper end of our guidance by 10.6 percentage points. The better than expected performance was driven by the surge in gross billings, which increased by 28.1% year-over-year to approximately CNY 1.3 billion.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Benefiting from ongoing improvements in operational efficiency, our net operating cash inflow reached CNY 491.5 million, while our cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, withdrawable cash balance on third party payment platforms, as well as short and long-term investments, exceeded CNY 4 billion, laying solid groundwork for the long-term growth of our business. Next, I will walk you through the progress we have made during the quarter. Learning services contributed over 95% of net revenues. Breaking it down, more than 70% of total revenues came from non-academic tutoring services and other traditional learning services, representing over 35% year-over-year growth and solidifying this segment's role as a key driver of our business. Our new initiatives center around non-academic tutoring. Over the past few quarters, we have been diligently designing and developing educational products tailored to students' learning needs.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

By sparking students' interest in learning, we aim to enhance their fundamental critical thinking skills and learning abilities, while fostering healthy study habits and self-motivation. Our course offerings undergo constant iteration and refinement, and have shown to be popular and satisfied with our students. Underpinned by a combination of top-notch educational products and high caliber learning services, Gross Billings of our non-academic tutoring services increased by triple digits year-over-year. While maintaining our competitive edge in instructors, we have also consistently enhanced our tutored service capabilities. Additionally, by diversifying our educational products and learning service formats, we have established a comprehensive product matrix to meet users' varied and personalized learning needs.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Our ongoing refinement of products and teaching capabilities has also contributed to further improvement in retention rates. In the meantime, we have closely monitored regulatory policy developments and engaged proactively with authorities at different levels to seek compliance guidance for curriculum content and frameworks. This ensures that we can plan for long-term healthy business growth within regulatory boundaries. Our traditional learning services continue to maintain a leading edge in the online space. In terms of educational products, we have developed a more targeted and personalized curriculum by taking a tiered approach to design and developing holistic learning journeys. We have also carefully curated and cultivated the most influential and reputable instructors in the industry, and established a highly competitive team of tutors. For customer acquisition, we have developed channels driven by high quality content, and efficiently gathered user feedback to derive valuable insights for our business.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

By seamlessly integrating front-end and back-end processes, we have consistently enhanced our customer acquisition efficiency. In the fourth quarter, we achieved rapid growth in gross billings from new enrollments, while simultaneously reducing the unit acquisition cost. The other crucial component of our learning services is educational services for college students and adults, which accounted for around 25% of total revenues during the quarter. Benefiting from a refined strategic focus and optimized educational products, gross billings of this segment rebounded to grow by more than 10% year-over-year in the quarter, setting the stage for its contribution to our revenue growth in 2024 and beyond. Driven by robust market demand and improved operational efficiency, both our domestic exam prep business and overseas study related business are charting a more promising growth trajectory.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Particularly in this quarter, our overseas test prep business saw year-over-year growth of more than 200% in both revenue and gross billings, thanks to our ongoing innovation and expansion efforts in the short video and live streaming space. Furthermore, our postgraduate entrance exam prep business generated a positive cash flow for the second consecutive quarter, while our civil service exam prep business achieved quarterly profit. For the full year 2023, our net revenues grew by 18.5% year-over-year to approximately CNY 3 billion, while gross billings grew by 31.7% year-over-year to over CNY 3.3 billion. Gross margin was 73.3%, 1.4 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Non-GAAP net income was CNY 51.1 million, and non-GAAP net income margin was 1.7%.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

These robust operational and financial results are attributable to our year-long efforts to diversify our customer acquisition channels, upgrade our teaching and service offerings, and enhance organizational and execution capabilities. By strengthening our core competencies, we were able to swiftly deploy resources based on changes in the market environment and user demand, proactively meeting diverse customer needs while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements. Looking ahead to 2024, we will further unleash the untapped potential across our business lines and embrace emerging opportunities as they arise. Leveraging our diversified product matrix and service formats, along with efficient customer acquisition and operational capabilities, we remain dedicated to providing students with exceptional learning experiences and excellent learning results. I will now present our financials in more detail. Our cost of revenues this quarter was CNY 227.7 million.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Gross profit increased 13.4% year-over-year to CNY 533.3 million, and gross profit margin was 70.1%. Total operating expenses during the quarter increased 49.1% year-over-year to CNY 721.2 million. Breaking it down, selling expenses increased 60.7% year-over-year to CNY 465.7 million, accounting for 61.2% of net revenues. This was primarily attributable to our increased marketing investments to address the robust demand during the winter season. Benefiting from our expanded operations in a diverse range of innovative customer acquisition channels, especially in the short video and live streaming space.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Our selling expenses ROI in quarter remained at a high level observed throughout the year.... Moving on, research and development expenses increased 22.1% year-over-year to CNY 136 million, accounting for 17.9% of net revenues. General and administrative expenses increased 45% year-over-year to CNY 119.5 million, accounting for 15.7% of net revenues. Loss from operations was CNY 187.9 million, and operating margin was -24.7%. Non-GAAP loss from operations was CNY 172.2 million, and non-GAAP operating margin was -22.6%. Net loss was CNY 119.6 million, and net income margin was -15.7%. Non-GAAP net loss was CNY 104 million, and non-GAAP net income margin was -13.7%.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Our net operating cash inflow was CNY 491.5 million. Turning to our balance sheet, as of December 31st, 2023, we held CNY 741.7 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and withdrawable cash balance on third-party payment platforms, along with around CNY 2.3 billion in short-term investments and around CNY 1 billion in long-term investments. This comes to a total of over CNY 4.2569 billion, higher than at the same time point in the last year. As of December 31st, 2023, our deferred revenue balance was around CNY 1.2 billion, which primarily consisted of tuition received in advance.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

As of December 31st, 2023, we have repurchased an aggregate of approximately 4.9 million ADSs on the open market for approximately $12.4 million. We will continue to execute stock buybacks in accordance with the guidance of the board of directors and create long-term value for our shareholders. Before I provide our business outlook for the next quarter, please allow me to remind everyone that this contains forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties which are beyond our control and could cause the actual results to differ materially from our predictions.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Based on our current estimates, total net revenue for the first quarter of 2024 is expected to be between CNY 908 million and CNY 928 million, representing an increase of 29.4%-31.2% on a year-over-year basis. This concludes my prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready for the Q&A section. Thank you everyone for listening.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Timothy Zhao with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

[Timothy Zhao, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs]

Thank you, management, for taking my question, and, congratulations on the very strong results. I have two questions. One is about the student acquisition history for the upcoming or the ongoing winter vacation. Could management share some color on the customer acquisition progress, and also the related customer acquisition cost? And secondly, I think in your prepared remarks, you mentioned the comprehensive channels to acquire customers, including the Douyin videos, live streaming, and offline avenues. I think specifically on offline, could you share some color on your plans for 2024 in terms of the number of learning centers or any color on your projected revenue or profit contribution? That would be very helpful. Thank you.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Sure. Thanks, Timothy, for your question. First, we are very happy to share the most recent updates for our winter vacation performance. In terms of the customer acquisition cost, let's revisit the winter vacation performance from both supply and demand perspectives. Starting with the supply side, the current operating environment imposes relatively high requirements on an institution's capability of deliver high quality products, including the ability of continually refining the curriculums, like faculty reserves and, like, the cash positions, and also very important to meet all compliance standards. Therefore, the supply of high quality courses in the winter actually is very limited. So then, but like on the demand side, we have perceived a strong demand from the students.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

So the scarcity of supply coupled with strong demand presents an excellent growth opportunity. And also, we were fully prepared for the winter peak season, and therefore our winter vacation gross billings has maintained quite a high year-over-year growth rate. If we exclude the cash collection from retentions in the same period of last year, we do an apples-to-apples comparison, we foresee a high end of high double-digit year-over-year growth over our traditional learning services and non-academic tutoring services. Actually, that's quite, quite impressive. And but behind all these fast growth is our high efficiency of our customer acquisitions. So we deployed certain new channels, especially for the short video live streaming platforms, as well as our new explorations to some offline channels.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Both these channels has really high requirements on the operations, especially for the collaboration between the front end and the back end. We need to have the ability to target the process to precisely targeting our customers and fulfill their needs in a very short of time. Then also, that needs our back-end teams, which means our tutors, to further facilitate these parents and students timely and meet their learning demands. So based on our observation, we do observe a meaningful customer acquisition cost decline in the winter vacation. Also, you ask about our offline channels and our offline operations. Actually, that's basically that's two different business.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

First, to facilitate our online business, we also have some offline channels to support our online business to grow. On the other hand, we do start to deploy our operations for our offline learning centers, and we're more than happy to share with you some perspectives and insights into our offline operations. The reason why we start to enter into the offline space is because in the post-pandemic era, we've keenly observed a diversification in students' learning needs. While many have adopted well on learning online, there is a growing desire among students to return to offline classrooms for more connections, interactions, and engagements with the teachers and their classmates.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Currently, numbers of parents opt for a hybrid approach, with some courses taken online and others offline, aiming to enhance learning efficiency and cater to a diverse learning needs. So as an educational institution, one of our most important mission is to continually meet customer demands. So when such demands arise, we naturally extend our operation to offline and adapt the education product accordingly. And on the other hand, we deliberately evaluate our management team's background and capabilities. Our founder, Larry, brings years of experience in offline business operations, very profound industry insights and considerable personal influence, which can all contribute to attract all those top talents in this space, especially after the double reduction. When customer demands align with our organizational capabilities, we embark on exploring and expanding our offline operations.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

So that's the reason why we started to enter the offline space. So then, when we operate or in the selection in the selecting locations process or when we started to plan for expansion of our offline operations, we employ a more of a dynamic approach. We continuously optimizing and adjusting, well, we need to consider a few factors, like market demand, and also go with brand influence and penetration in certain areas, and also the acceptance of teaching products by the students and teachers in that specific area, and most importantly, our ability to recruit and nurture outstanding principals and teaching faculties locally.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

So, to development of offline operations also entails a long cycle requiring sustained investment from user cultivation to word-of-mouth referrals, which is the reputation for the local offline learning centers. So we will be extremely patient and wait for the sprawling and growth of our offline business. Ultimately, no matter it's online or it's offline, students always care most about the suitable teachers and the fitting curriculum and the outstanding services. So we will continue to strive tirelessly to meet those expectations. And in the past quarter, and also in the full year of 2023, offline business showed a very limited impact on our financials. So we will update you every milestone of our offline operations in the future. Hope that address your questions, Timothy.

[Timothy Zhao, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs]

Sure. That's very clear and very helpful. Thank you, Shannon. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Alice Cai with Citibank. Please go ahead.

[Alice Cai, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi]

... Hi, management team, thank you for taking on my questions. Firstly, congratulations on the company's strong performance in 4Q. And I have two questions regarding the guidance provided. And the first one, regarding the guidance for Q1, which seems slightly conservative, could the management team share your perspective on this? Do you consider the guidance to be on the cautious side? And second, could you please share with us about a general idea of the guidance for the full year 2024? Thank you.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Sure, Alice. Alice, thanks for your question. Let me take your second question first, so we can give the audience a whole picture of our plan for the full year of 2024. Looking into 2024, the growth in education space typically initiate from expansion of gross billings. If we look at our Q4 results in the fourth quarter of 2023, our gross billings reached approximately CNY 1.3 billion, making the highest single quarter level in the past three years. This metrics indicates that our business is on a healthy and rising trajectory of growth. Furthermore, we have been able to effectively extend the trend of accelerating growth into the first quarter of 2024.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Let's dive into each part of our learning services. We observe that revenue growth, especially in non-academic tutoring, continues to accelerate, given a sound unit economic model. The demand for non-academic tutoring is substantial. With clear compliance and governance guidance in place, our business growth initiates with new enrollments, and subsequently generates incremental revenues through retentions and course expansions. So we have confidence in our operational capabilities and the reputation we have established among students and parents. Therefore, we anticipate triple-digit year-over-year growth in our non-academic tutoring section. While for our traditional learning services, which is basically high school business, continue to maintain a leading edge in the online space. We will leverage our existing competitive advantages to further deepen this moat.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

We anticipate that the growth rate of our traditional business will far exceed that of 2023. Regarding learning services we provided for college students and adults, we are glad to see its rebound in Q4 2023. We always prioritize margin improvements over revenue expansion in this sector, and ascertain the profitability at a unit economics level, and then focus on achieving effective growth as our primary strategy. Based on all those considerations, we are willing to elevate our targets and goals for both gross billings and revenue growth in 2024, and have confidence in overall growth prospects for the whole year. Secondly, in terms of growth efficiency, our explorations of diverse customer acquisition channels have effectively lowered customer acquisition costs.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

From high quality content generating on short video, live streaming platforms, and to extending into offline customer acquisition paths. Our unwavering commitment to creating customer value serves as drivers for our sustainable growth. And in terms of the Q, the guidance for the first quarter. So, in the first quarter, we are still in a phase of adjusting the revenue structure, and we have the confidence that in the more near future, like in the second quarter of 2024, we will see a accelerated growth rate for both of our gross billings and revenues. And yeah, that basically addressed your questions. Thank you, Alice.

[Alice Cai, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The next question comes from Crystal Li with CMS. Please go ahead.

[Crystal Li, Equity Research Analyst at China Merchants Securities]

Thank you for taking my questions, and congratulations on those strong results. I just noticed that your gross profit margin narrowed slightly in this quarter compared to last quarter and last year. Could you please share the reason behind this? And could you give us more color on your margin outlook going forward? Thank you.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Yeah, thanks a lot. Yeah, it's a very good observation. So we observed a 4.7 percentage points decrease in GP margin on a year-over-year basis. This year-over-year decrease in GP margin was due to a few reasons. Firstly, in terms of our revenue contributor, to meet diverse user needs, we actually have constructed a product matrix which primarily focused on online large live classes, complemented by one-on-one classes, smart textbooks, and offline small classes. So among these, online large live classes boosted the highest level of GP margin. As our business expands, the proportion of revenue generated from our one-on-one classes, smart books and offline small classes is gradually increasing, altering the revenue mix and substantially impacting the GP margin level.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Secondly, in preparation for the peak season during the winter vacation, we have proactively reserved a proportion of teachers and tutors. These teachers and tutors have not yet reached their full capacity levels in the fourth quarter. Thus affecting profit margin, gross profit margins, as well. But as always, we always need a time, a period for our new teachers and tutors to gradually adopt our learning methodologies and provide a sufficient training period for our teachers and tutors, so they can better serve our students. We do see this investment as valuable. Looking forward, in the middle term, as our teacher capacity increases, the GP margin and NQ margin are expected to improve. And also in the long run, our gross profit margin will depend on the future revenue structure. Hope that addressed your question.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Thank you.

[Crystal Li, Equity Research Analyst at China Merchants Securities]

Thank you.

[Crystal Li, Equity Research Analyst at China Merchants Securities]

Thank you, Shannon. That's very helpful.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Catherine Chen for any closing remarks.

[Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining the call today. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact our investor relations department or our management via email at ir@gaotu.cn directly. You are also welcome to subscribe to our news alert on the company's IR website. Thank you very much again for your time. Have a great night.

[Shannon Shen, CFO at Gaotu Techedu Inc.]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Catherine Chen, Head of Investor Relations
• Larry Chen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO
• Shannon Shen, CFO

Analysts

• Alice Cai, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi
• Crystal Li, Equity Research Analyst at China Merchants Securities
• Timothy Zhao, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs