Sohu.com Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Sohu.com EPS Results

• Actual EPS: -$0.16
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Sohu.com Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $141.28 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Sohu.com Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 5/18/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Monday, May 18, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 5:00AM ET

Sohu.com (NASDAQ:SOHU) Limited is a Chinese internet company founded in 1996 by Charles Zhang. Headquartered in Beijing, the company operates online media and entertainment businesses serving users primarily in China. Sohu was one of China’s early internet portals and has developed a range of digital products and services over time.

The company’s media business provides online news, information, entertainment content and other portal services through Sohu-branded websites and mobile platforms. Sohu has also offered online video content and digital advertising solutions, connecting advertisers with audiences across its internet properties.

Through its Changyou business, Sohu is involved in the development and operation of online games, including massively multiplayer online games and mobile games. Sohu.com Limited’s American depositary shares trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol SOHU. Charles Zhang serves as the company’s chairman and chief executive officer.

Sohu.com Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 2026 results beat guidance, with total revenue of $141 million, marketing services revenue and online game revenue both exceeding management’s prior expectations, and the company reporting a modest $4 million GAAP net loss.
• Neutral Sentiment: Online games remained the main growth engine, as revenue rose 6% year over year to $125 million and operating profit at Changyou increased to $66 million from $55 million a year ago.
• Negative Sentiment: Marketing services stayed under pressure, with revenue down 8% year over year to $13 million and management citing cautious advertiser spending amid a weak macro backdrop and broad-based budget cuts.
• Negative Sentiment: Q2 guidance points to lower profits and softer game revenue, with online game revenue expected to fall sequentially and consolidated net loss projected at $25 million to $50 million as fewer promotional activities and seasonality weigh on results.
• Positive Sentiment: Management highlighted monetization from differentiated events and IP, including offline/online activations such as the Hong Kong marathon, Physics Class, K-pop, and Hanfu events, which they said are helping drive engagement, traffic, and new advertising opportunities.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, good day. Thank you for joining Sohu's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be question and answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I'd like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Pu Huang, Investor Relations Director of Sohu. Please go ahead.

[Pu Huang, Investor Relations Director at Sohu]

Thank you, operator. Thank you for joining us to discuss Sohu.com's first quarter 2026 results. On the call are Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Charles Zhang, CFO Joanna Lv, and Vice President of Finance, James Deng. Also with us are Changyou CEO Dewen Chen and CFO Yaobin Wang. Before management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you of the company's safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current plans, estimates, and projections. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward-looking statements involve significant uncertainties and risks. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements.

[Pu Huang, Investor Relations Director at Sohu]

For more information about potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent report on Form 10-K. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dr. Charles Zhang. Charles, please proceed.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Thanks, Huang Pu, and thank you everyone for joining our call. In the first quarter of 2026, our marketing services revenue, online game revenue, and bottom line performance all exceeded our previous guidance. For the Sohu Media Platform, we continue to focus on promoting a healthy and vibrant atmosphere on our platform with a series of differentiated events. At the same time, we kept refining our products to cater to users' needs. Leveraging our unique events and brand influence, we were able to explore new monetization opportunities. For online games, we delivered another solid quarter driven by a wealth of high quality content and targeted operational refinements that resonated with our diverse player base. Before going through each business unit in more detail, let me first give you a quick overview of our financial performance.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

For the first quarter of 2026, total revenues were $141 million, up four percent year-over-year and down one percent quarter-over-quarter. Marketing services revenues was $13 million, down eight percent year-over-year and 26% quarter-over-quarter. Online game revenues were $125 million, up six percent year-over-year and two percent quarter-over-quarter. GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $4 million compared with a net income of $182 million in the first quarter of 2025 and a net income of $423 million in the Q4 of 2025.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited was $4 million loss and $4 million net loss of $4 million, compared with a net loss of $60 million in the first quarter of 2025 and a net income of $261 million in the Q4 of 2025. I'll go through our key businesses in more detail. First, Sohu Media Platform. In the first quarter of 2026, we continued to integrate resources in depth and upgrade our products with cutting-edge technologies. We offer users various practical and easy-to-use functions to optimize the user experience, enhance user engagement, and further promote dissemination of content. At the same time, we kept focusing on promoting a vigorous atmosphere in our community and fostering a prosperous platform ecosystem.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Benefiting from unique offline events we held, we provided users with plenty of interaction opportunities, improved their social engagement, and generated abundant premium content that was widely spread over the internet. In March, for example, in March, we successfully held the 18th Sohu News Marathon in Hong Kong and the offline seminar of our Physics Class in Hong Kong. This season's marathon attracted active participation by celebrities and broadcasters nationwide, greatly promoting social interactions on our platform. Meanwhile, the Physics Class made its debut at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, bringing in-depth physics knowledge to the public. Both events were well-received by audiences, thereby creating a strong synergy between our flagship IPs and further expanding our brand influence.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

In April, we hosted the 2026 spring convention of Sohu video influencers. One example, which has been held biannually for the past three years. We invited celebrities and gathered influencers from various fields, including verticals popular with young users such as K-pop and Hanfu, and verticals in professional fields such as science and health. The convention created a chance for broadcasters to interact in person, promoting content generation and dissemination and building genuine social connections. During the quarter, we also launched the 2026 Sohu K-pop Dancing Festival competition throughout the year, and also the 2026 Hanfu Chinese costume model competition. It's also a year-long event. To further consolidate our influence and appeal in these areas, we continue to combine offline events with online interactions to upgrade our profile and the standard of our competition.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

With these efforts, we garnered widespread attention and attracted thousands of enthusiasts with shared interest to participate and interact on our platform. We continue to leverage our unique content and live broadcasting technology while exploring new business opportunities. We provided targeted marketing solutions for advertisers through our innovative and customized events and campaigns such as the Charles's Physics Class IP derivatives continues to grow in influence, it effectively drove traffic to the platform and continues to unlock monetization potential. Next, turning to our online game business. During the quarter, our online game business performed well, with revenues exceeding our prior guidance. In our PC game business, we roll out various holiday events around the Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, as well as promotional events for the regular TLBB PC, which helped sustain stable player engagement.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Apart from holiday events, we also introduced a new Mulong clan for TLBB Vintage, which boosted player enthusiasm. Meanwhile, we continue to update and refine TLBB Return to ensure its long-term vitality. Turning to our mobile game business, we launched an expansion pack for Legacy TLBB Mobile to celebrate the Chinese New Year, along with the diverse online offline events. Revenue for this game stayed largely stable on a sequential basis. Next quarter, we will continue to launch expansion packs and content updates for the TLBB services and other titles to further keep players engaged. Looking ahead, we will remain committed to our top game strategy. On the product development front, we will stay anchored in a user-centric approach and adhere to a systematic R&D processes while driving the implementation of new technologies to enhance efficiency and product success rates.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Regarding our pipeline, we seek to further unlock the potential of our TLBB IP. Meanwhile, as we maintain our competitive edge in the MMR-MMORPGs, we will continue to diversify our portfolio with multiple types of games and expand our product offerings with global appeal. Now, I'd like to provide an update on the ongoing share repurchase program. As of May 13, 2026, Sohu has repurchased 8.7 million ADS from aggregated cost of approximately $116 million. With that, I'll turn now the call to our CFO, Joanna. Joanna?

[Joanna Lv, CFO at Sohu]

Thank you, Charles. I will now walk you through the key financials of our major segments for the first quarter of 2026. All the numbers are on a non-GAAP basis. You may find a reconciliation for non-GAAP to GAAP measures on our IR website. For Sohu Media Platform, quarterly revenues were $60 million, compared with $70 million in the same quarter last year. Quarterly operating loss was $70 million, flat with the same quarter last year. For Changyou, quarterly revenues, $125 million, compared with $118 million in the same quarter last year. Quarterly operating profit, $66 million, compared with operating profit $55 million in the same quarter last year. For the second of 2026, we expect marketing services revenue to be between $30 million and $40 million.

[Joanna Lv, CFO at Sohu]

This implies annual decrease of 10%-17% and a sequential increase of 4%-11% . Online game revenue to be between $104 million and $114 million. This implies annual decrease of 2% to annual increase of 8% and a sequential decrease of 8%-17%. Both non-GAAP and GAAP net loss attributable to Sohu.com Limited to be between $50 million and $25 million. This forecast reflects Sohu's management's current and preliminary view, which is subject to substantial uncertainty.

[Pu Huang, Investor Relations Director at Sohu]

This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we would now like to open the call to questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question now, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. We will now take our first question, and our first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong at Jefferies. Please ask your question, Thomas. Your line is open.

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Hi. Thanks management for taking my question. I have a couple of question. I think first is on our marketing services, on our advertising revenue. Can management comment about how we should think about the advertising outlook in second half and full year? In particular, we are going to soon to have World Cup. Would this be a big positive to our advertising revenue in Q2 and Q3? My second question is about the gaming business. Can you comment about the quarter to date performance so far we are seeing in Q2? Is it more likely to hit the low end or the high end of the revenue guidance? My third question is about the earnings outlook.

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Given our solid performance in Q1, and we are expecting the losses to widen sequentially in Q2, I'm just wondering, is this a conservative assumption? Should we use Q2 as a benchmark to project Q3 and Q4 bottom line? Thank you.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Okay. Thomas, the first question about marketing services revenue, right? Q2 forecast, as Joanna just said, is going to be $13 million to $14 million, about seven percent sequential growth compared with the Q1. First of all, the overall economy and, you know, situation is kind of, we're in the downturn, right? In economic situation. The advertisers are tend to be cautious in spending. We are able to maintain some growth because we have our unique and differentiated marketing solutions and events.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Especially we can take advantage of our, you know, going into the network and also influencers and also some IPs like my, in my own, the Physics Class IP and the, you know, the offline events like the K-pop competition, and Hanfu and all those. We have a quite unique, you know, tailor-made or customized, you know, marketing event based on the available, like, you know, our own, you know, platform and also its activities. Your next question is about the overall year look or outlook or just the Q2? I think it will be similar, right, to last year. About the game, right?

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

The game, the first quarter is good. Then you second time you want to see that second half, you know, is that a low end or high end, right?

[Dewen Chen, CEO at Changyou]

Thomas

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Oh, yeah. Yes.

[Dewen Chen, CEO at Changyou]

[Non-English content] So far, the performance of the second quarter is largely in line with our expectation. The level of revenue will largely depend on the performance of the content and activities we plan to roll out for our TLBB series games to see whether they can satisfy users' needs. So far, we believe it is in line with our expectation. Also, as we plan to roll out fewer promotional and revenue-boosting activities in the second quarter, we expect our gaming revenue to experience a natural decline.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

The game, TLBB: Return, right? That was in

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Q1 still had an impact, but in Q3 gradually decline, right? Because I think the return, TLBB: Return. Yes.

[Dewen Chen, CEO at Changyou]

That's for gaming.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Right. You have third question, Thomas? Earnings outlook?

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Yes. Yes. On the bottom line, because of Q1, we are better than expected, but Q2, we are seeing sequential widening of the losses. Just want to see if Q2 is a benchmark for Q3 and Q4. Thank you. Thank you, Charles.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

I think the this year Q2 and Q3 will be similar to last year because on the marketing service side, on the platform side, we are basically about, you know, about the same. We still working on our social network and make sure that we have a larger user base so that we can have a update. Now still we are maintaining a stable and advertising growth. The Q2 results or the earnings dropped compared with Q1 mainly because of the gaming revenue trouble, right? It's much less than Q1 as we just described.

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Alicia Yap at Citi. Please ask your question, Alicia.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Hello, good evening, good afternoon, management. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two follow up on the earlier questions. I guess, you know, the You know, you mentioned on, I think, the Q2 already the guidance. It's, it is a bit, you know, weaker than I expected in terms of the sequential trend that typically we would see from the 1Q to 2Q, even though sequentially it's growth. I think the year-over-year decline, it seems to be, you know, worse than the first quarter year-over-year decline. I'm just wondering, you know, is the macro getting, you know, even weaker than what you had previously expected, let's say compared to, you know, five months ago in the beginning of the year?

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

You know, any colors you can share with overall the macro outlook, is that worse than what you had previously expected? On the operating loss, I just wanted to make sure I did not hear it wrong. For this 1Q, the marketing ad business, if the operating loss was $17 million, I just wanted to double-check on that because I think, you know, our revenues is only like $14 million or $16 million, we are losing $17 million, it seems like the expense is like double of the revenue. Just wanted to make sure I heard it correctly. If so, where were the money got spent?

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Is it mostly on the product development, or is it on the user acquisition? Thank you.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

First, let's just answer your last question about the what? You have a question about the loss, the marketing spending in Q1, right? What number you're talking about? Which one?

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

They said $17 million.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

You said-

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

The OP loss for the ad business.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

$17 million or loss of what? We don't have a $17 million loss.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Yeah, the operating loss.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Operating loss. $17 million operating loss in Q1.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

seven.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Just a second. Yeah.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

For the platform, the operating loss in Q1, $17 million.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Seventeen.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Seventeen.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

17. Yeah.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Yeah.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

But seven-

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah. Is there any I mean, it's similar, right? To the previous, yeah.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Like with the same quarter in last quarter.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah, it's similar to previous quarters.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Okay.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

You have a question about.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Not something that we said.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

how money was spent?

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Yeah, yeah.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

We didn't spend more money, just as we did before, the previous quarters. Mostly to, I think, Well, it's either on user acquisition or on product development. It's all together because we are building Actually, we have three social network products. One is Sohu Video, Suan Ni Liu. We also have Huyou and also have Sohu News app, and also turn that into a, you know, the Shi Dian Tian. And also for each of the products, especially for the Sohu Huyou, we have, yeah, we do spend some money on the user acquisition and also the team, you know, the cost and also product development. It's similar to previous quarters.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

It's, until we, you know, have a really successful product that, you know, obviously explode into a lot, much larger scale, Also considering the macroeconomic situation, the advertising dollars will not be able to cover the cost that we are, you know, we incurred on product development and user acquisition. That's similar to spending another quarter.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Okay. Okay. The revenue, the guidance, is that worse than you expected?

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

That's because the macro economy is getting better compared with last year, right? It's, it's worse than last year because those are also co-car companies there. Because of the fierce competition and the low margin out there, you know, so we are more cautious and spending less, and we have to come up with a really unique, you know, event or opportunities like, you know. Like, for example, I have to, myself, I have to apply, you know, the specific craft IP to try to explain, you know, to how you call it, how you say it? Give lectures about their products or the engines and also the cars, why the car is better.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Sometimes to organize the users, our users and influencers to have the forums, whatever. We have to have a differentiated, unique opportunities to have a marketing solution offer to them so that we can compare with a few years ago. A few years ago, they are just, you know, it's an easy decision to spend money to advertise, but now it's very difficult.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

I see. I see. Just lastly to follow up, can you share with us, I know you mentioned auto is one of the industry vertical probably are cutting back the ad budgets, any other vertical that you're actually seeing is also, you know, facing more cautious ad budgets?

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

It's across the board, all companies, basically.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

O-

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Chinese consumers are spending less, you know. Consumers are spending less, that's why those companies are not making money or, you know, not making good money. That's why they are actually reduced, their ad reduction, their advertising dollars.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

The auto,

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

O-

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

FMCG and all. Across the board, all, you know, everything is slashed.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

I see.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

their advertising.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Okay. Maybe just lastly, in terms of the Q1 on your advertising revenue contribution by industry vertical, if you can rank them by the contribution percent. Thank you.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

19%. Auto industry, 19%. IT services like home appliances and electronics, you know, that's 19%. FMCG, 14%.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

I see. Okay, very helpful. Thank you, Charles.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah, the IT sector, there's some, there are some good signs in the IT sector because the traditional home appliances, now because of the IT AI, you know, they're all turning into AI product with the, you know, intelligence.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

We have seen a lot of new kind of products that tend to market, to the, you know. That's why, because like for example, I went to the Shanghai AWE, the annual AWE, and see a lot of new, the traditional, home products, home appliance electronics with, you know, with, you know, in Chinese called.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

That's some opportunity.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

I see. I see. That is you are seeing, you know, decent budget. In terms of, you know, in the second quarter should we also rank maybe you are seeing more upbeat from the IT and then maybe FMCG also okay, but then weaker in auto? Is that fair to assume that on the second quarter?

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah. The second quarter, the auto, Right. Yeah, auto is the fiercest competition, yes, they are. Also the new electric vehicle, you know, is a more penetration of electric vehicle into the market share.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah, I would say similar, right? The auto industry is graduating, right? Now they're all trying to, you know, export more to the European market or to the Middle East, right? Domestically, the consumption, you know, the consuming power is really a problem. People are not spending money. It's too saturated.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Right? Because people are all, you know, paying their mortgage. That's why they don't have money to spend, right? They're all paying the high, you know, housing price mortgage. That's mostly the biggest problem with the Chinese economy. People all have debt and have to pay back their to pay their mortgage. They don't have time to, they don't have the money to spend on other things.

[Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi]

Okay. Okay. Thank you so much, Charles. Thanks for sharing.

[Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu]

Yeah. Okay.

[Operator]

Thank you. As a reminder, please press star one, one on your telephone keypad if you wish to ask a question. I am showing no further questions. With that, we conclude our conference call for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

Participants

Analysts

• Alicia Yap, Analyst at Citi
• Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO at Sohu
• Dewen Chen, CEO at Changyou
• Joanna Lv, CFO at Sohu
• Pu Huang, Investor Relations Director at Sohu
• Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies