Hello Group Q2 2026 Earnings Report

Hello Group EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.26
• Consensus EPS: $0.22
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.04
• One Year Ago EPS: -$0.58

Hello Group Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $365.91 million
• Expected Revenue: $363.62 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$2.29 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: -5.10%

Hello Group Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 9/3/2026
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, September 3, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 7:00AM ET

Hello Group (NASDAQ:MOMO) Inc., formerly known as Momo Inc., is a Chinese social networking and entertainment company. Founded in 2011, the company operates mobile applications that help users discover, connect and interact with one another through messaging, interest-based communities, live streaming and other digital services.

Its flagship Momo platform provides social networking features, including user profiles, messaging, livestreaming, short-form video and virtual gifting. Hello Group also operates Tantan, a dating and social discovery application acquired in 2018. The company has additionally offered mobile games, advertising and other value-added services connected with its social platforms.

Hello Group primarily serves users in China through its mobile applications and related online services. The company changed its name from Momo Inc. to Hello Group Inc. in 2021 to reflect the broader range of brands and social products in its portfolio. The business is led by a management team headed by Chief Executive Officer Wang Li, with founder Tang Yan serving as chairman.

Hello Group Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Negative Sentiment: Q3 revenue guidance is RMB2.4–2.5 billion, implying a 5.7%–9.4% year-over-year decline, with mainland China revenue expected to fall by the high teens. Management attributed the weaker outlook primarily to reduced spending by high-value users amid deteriorating macroeconomic expectations.
• Positive Sentiment: Overseas revenue grew 52% year over year to RMB673 million in Q2, reaching 27% of group revenue. New MENA products YahaLand and Amar are growing rapidly, with YahaLand reaching operating break-even and the pair expected to surpass SoulChill’s revenue in Q3.
• Negative Sentiment: Q2 adjusted operating margin declined to 11.1% from 17.1% a year earlier, while domestic revenue fell 17% and Momo VAS revenue dropped 16% due to tax scrutiny, weaker consumer sentiment and higher agency payouts. The company also recognized approximately RMB60 million of additional losses related to two released movies.
• Positive Sentiment: Management reported stabilization in Tantan’s domestic user base for the first time since marketing reductions began in 2022, supported by improved retention and AI-powered matching and messaging features. Hello Group also plans to reduce inefficient reactivation spending and diversify Tantan’s payment channels beyond Alipay.
• Negative Sentiment: Management now expects full-year group revenue to decline in the mid-single digits and said the original RMB3 billion 2026 overseas revenue target is likely to be reduced by roughly RMB100–200 million. Although cost controls may help, the company acknowledged that achieving its low-teens adjusted operating margin target will be more challenging.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Hello Group Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded today. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ms. Ashley Jing. Thank you. Please go ahead, ma'am.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Thank you, operator. Good morning and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Hello Group Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. The company's results were released earlier today and available on the company's IR website. On the call today are Mr. Tang Yan, CEO of the company, Mr. Jianhua Wen, COO of the company, and Ms. Peng Hui, CFO of the company. They will discuss the company's business operations and highlights, as well as the financials and guidance. They will all be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that 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, which may cause the company's actual results performance to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statement. For the information regarding this and other risks, uncertainties, and factors is included in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not take any further obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under law. I will now pass the call over to our COO, Mr. Jianhua Wen. Jianhua, please.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Hello everyone. Thank you for joining today's call.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

The group maintained steady business momentum in Q2. On the domestic side, Momo continued to preserve the healthy functioning of our cash cow business through product innovation and refined operations. Tantan focused on AI capability building to improve user experience and monetization efficiency. On the overseas side, the synergy across our diversified product portfolio became increasingly evident. Next, I will walk you through the key updates.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Starting with the financials, for Q2 2026, total revenue was CNY 2.49 billion, down 5% year-over-year, but up 4% quarter-over-quarter. Domestic revenue reached CNY 1.81 billion, down 17% year-over-year, but up 1% quarter-over-quarter. Overseas revenue was CNY 673 million, up 52% year-over-year, and 13% quarter-over-quarter. Overseas revenue accounted for 27% of total revenue, compared to 17% in the same period last year. Adjusted operating income was CNY 276 million, with a margin of 11%. Our 2026 priorities continue along three main tracks.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

For Momo, the goal is to ensure stable, sustained productivity of our cash cow business. For Tantan, to continue exploring a dating experience and an efficient business model tailored for Asian users. For our new businesses to deepen the overseas presence, enrich our brand portfolio, and build a long-term growth engine. Next, I will walk you through each. Let me start with Momo. On the user side, a year of user-oriented product iteration has effectively lifted platform engagement. Combined with the sequential recovery from the seasonal low in organic traffic, this drove a modest increase in Momo's overall user base. Building on this uptick in the overall scale, our audio and video small ticket scenarios run themed operational events around the World Cup and key seasonal occasions, driving paying users up 200,000 quarter-over-quarter to 3.9 million.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

On the product side, Knock Knock focused on refining our deep chat matching strategy, precisely pairing users with a high intent to chat, which had a positive effect on engagement, retention, and overall user scale. AI Chat Assistant trains its models on real user behavior data to deepen its understanding of user preferences, driving steady growth in feature adoption, as well as the reply rate in AI greetings. This has both supported long-term retention and user base scale and opened up new revenue scenarios. This quarter, we also began gray testing AI [Non-English content], which has AI browse users photos to identify common interests, complete an initial screening of potential matches, and automatically generate a personalized icebreaker message, further improving matching efficiency and connection success rate.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

On user acquisition, we ran a holdout experiment on channel spend for dormant user reactivation, aiming to test whether attribution errors in our channel data were leading to inefficiencies in these re-engagement efforts. The results showed that there is indeed room for continued optimization in our channel investment, and we are confident we can maintain our current platform scale and revenue with less spend. In Q3, we will continue to improve acquisition efficiency based on these findings.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Turning to Momo's commercial performance. In Q2, Momo's last revenue was CNY 1.54 billion, down 16% year-over-year, but up 2% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decline was mainly driven by two factors. Number one, continued tightening on the tax front, which has had a sustained and material negative impact on our agencies and broadcasters. Number two, softness in consumer spending due to macro. Sequential growth came in weaker than in previous years, mainly because since April, some agencies in the audio scenario scaled back operations due to tax related pressures, which weighted on revenue. In late May, we rolled out targeted subsidies to ease the operating pressure on these agencies, which drove a quick recovery in revenue.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

In Q2, our overall VAS revenue sharing ratio rose by a low single-digit percentage point, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, mainly because we moderately raised the revenue sharing ratio and subsidy support for certain core agencies in the audio scenarios to ease the supply side's financial pressure through the tax compliance process, keeping the supply side stable at a manageable cost. On the product and operation side, we stayed with our approach of tiered monetization and use case innovation. For high-value users, we selected top growing broadcasters and created AI-generated likeness-based custom gifts for them, which effectively refreshed the paying interest among our top spenders. For mid-tier users, we capitalized on World Cup related traffic by rolling out interactive gameplay such as match predictions, which lifted engagement and user stickiness.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

At the long tail end, we gray tested a Moments Boost feature letting users pay to increase the exposure of their post. This not only produced positive operating data, but also successfully validated a new small ticket payment scenario. This multi-pronged refined operating approach provided solid support for the stability of our overall revenue base amid the macro downturn.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Now, let's turn to Tantan. As of the end of Q2, Tantan had 0.5 million paying users, a modest decrease of 40,000 quarter-over-quarter, mainly due to pressure on paying conversion from Alipay's adjustments to its auto-renewal deduction rules. On the user base, average domestic user scale was stable with a slight uptick in Q2, marking the first stabilization in our user base since we began scaling back marketing spend in early 2022. New user growth stayed under year-over-year pressure amid the lingering effects of lower marketing spend. On the product side, refined targeting strategies for different user segments improved matching efficiency, lifting retention among both male and female users to varying degrees, and contributing positively to overall user base stability.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

In Q2, Tantan's domestic business focused its core efforts on exploring AI-driven improvements to the user experience. Among this, AI icebreaker and AI Chat Assistant delivered encouraging early results. The team strengthened AI's semantic understanding of users' photos, which fits Tantan's users preference for expressing themselves through images rather than text, and used the photo content to generate personalized opening lines, which had a particularly strong pull-on female user retention. To address the pain point of female users receiving too many matches, the new AI curated matching feature scans through a large volume of matches to surface the best people to chat with, effectively reducing decision fatigue.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

In addition, AI 1-click registration and profile optimization processed user information in bulk with precision, which not only lowered the barrier to onboarding, but also laid a high-quality data foundation for building an AI agent social manager down the road, and enabling deeper, more curated matching and recommendations.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

On user acquisition, external factors pushed up unit acquisition cost year-over-year, and combined with narrowed channel budget, this reduced the number of users acquired from a year ago. However, because organic traffic retains better and drops more slowly than channel traffic, this partially offset the pressure on the overall user base from the reduction in paid acquisition. Channel ROI declined quarter-over-quarter due to raising unit cost and the impact of Alipay's policy change on ARPU, but Tantan's overall ROI remained at a healthy level above 100% payback.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

On the financial side, in Q2, Tantan generated total revenue of CNY 156 million, down 18% year-over-year and 3% quarter-over-quarter. The revenue decline was mainly due to the temporary pressure on membership renewals from Alipay's domestic channel policy adjustments. in response, we took several measures. First, we launched a lifetime membership product and encouraged the short-cycle subscribers to convert to longer cycle plans, reducing the volatility risk tied to the renewal frequency. Second, we completed an upgrade to our payment infrastructure, integrating Douyin Pay and WeChat Pay to meaningfully reduce the reliance on a single channel. At the same time, we optimized the matching strategy behind FlashChat, driving revenue growth in that scenario against the broader trend.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Lastly, our new businesses. In Q2, total overseas revenue was CNY 673 million, up 52% year-over-year and 13% quarter-over-quarter. Overseas revenue as a share of group revenue rose 10 percentage points year-over-year to 27%. The acceleration in year-over-year growth was mainly driven by strong momentum from our new MENA products, as well as the consolidation of overseas dating products acquired last year. Sequentially, overseas revenue grew at a double-digit rate, mainly reflecting the natural recovery in the MENA region following the seasonal Ramadan low, along with new gamified features on the product side and themed events tied to seasonal occasions and the World Cup on the operational side. Both of which lifted user engagement and paying propensity and drove revenue growth across the board.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Within the portfolio, SoulChill's progress moderated relative to our initial timeline due to external factors, including its removal from the Turkish App Store and the ongoing geopolitical tension in the Middle East since the beginning of the year. However, the product is gradually emerging from its Q1 trough and is showing a clear recovery trend. Notably, the two newer products in MENA demonstrated strong growth momentum, with their combined revenue in the second quarter already approaching the scale of SoulChill. Alongside this high growth, profitability has also continued to improve. YahaLand achieved a net income break even for the first time in Q2. Amar, having turned marginal contribution positive earlier this year, has seen its net loss continue to narrow quickly on the back of a rapid revenue growth and operating leverage.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

This marks a new stage of our MENA strategy, moving from a SoulChill-driven single product model toward a multi-product matrix working in concert.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

On the other hand, our developed market dating business has maintained high-quality expansion in Q2. In the first half of the year, happn improved pay conversion and ARPU through iterating on its membership benefit and precision targeting, driving continued revenue growth both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. Building on its strong position in its core European markets, happn began exploring neighboring markets starting early this year and has seen encouraging early results. The current user and revenue performance in these new markets fully validates their long-term growth potential and lays a solid foundation for the next phase of scaled expansion.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Overall, in the first half of the year, while our domestic business continued to weather external headwinds, our overseas product portfolio has shifted from being supported by a single product to achieving balanced, diversified growth. This validates the effectiveness of our sustained investment in globalization over the past several years and has given the Group a healthier revenue structure and stronger resilience. In the second half of the year, we will continue to strengthen the foundation of our domestic cash cow business through product innovation and refined operations, while advancing the scaling of our overseas business, so as to create long-term value for both users and shareholders.

[Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

This concludes my remarks today. Now, let me pass the call over to Cassie for the financial review. Cassie, please.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Thanks, Jianhua and Ashley. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call today. Now let me take you through the financial review. Total revenue for the second quarter 2026 was RMB 2.49 billion, down 5% year-on-year, but up 4% quarter-on-quarter. Non-GAAP net income attributable to the shareholders of the company was RMB 273.9 million, compared to a net loss of RMB96 million in the same period of 2025, and RMB 328.8 million in the previous quarter. Looking into the key revenue items for Q2. Total revenue from value-added services for the second quarter of 2026 was RMB 2.44 billion, down 5% year-on-year, but up 4% quarter-on-quarter. On a geographic basis, PRC mainland value-added services revenue was RMB1.77 billion, down 17% year-over-year. The decrease was primarily due to continuous tax scrutiny on some of Momo's agencies, combined with weak consumer sentiment due to broader macro pressures.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

To a lesser degree, a decline in paying users on Tantan. PRC mainland VAS revenue for Q2 2026 was up 1% quarter-over-quarter due to recovery from low seasonality. VAS overseas revenue for the second quarter of 2026 reached RMB 664.9 million, up 51% year-over-year, driven by strong growth momentum from our new MENA product, as well as the consolidation of overseas dating products acquired last year. Sequentially, overseas VAS revenue rose 12%, driven by a recovery in the MENA region after its seasonal low, alongside product and operational initiatives. Turning to costs and expenses. Non-GAAP cost of revenue for the second quarter of 2026 was RMB 1.6 billion, same as the year-ago period. Non-GAAP gross margin for the quarter was 35.8%, compared to 38.8% from year-ago period. Q2 cost of revenue included RMB 56.8 million in film production expenses.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Excluding this item, gross profit margin would have been 38.1%, a decline of less than one percentage point versus Q2 last year. The decrease was primarily due to payment channel costs rising as a percentage of revenue. This resulted from a geographic mix shift toward international operations, which carry higher payment channel fee structures compared with our domestic businesses. Although Momo raised agency payout ratio to mitigate impact from tax scrutiny, improved gross margins in the MENA region, coupled with larger revenue contribution from higher margin overseas dating products, offset the margin pressure stemming from Momo's operations.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

As a result, total revenue share costs as a percentage of revenue remain stable from the year-ago period. Non-GAAP R&D expenses for the second quarter was RMB 171.3 million, compared to RMB 172.0 million for the same period last year. Non-GAAP R&D expenses as a percentage of revenue was 7%, same as Q2 last year.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

We ended the quarter with 1,399 total employees, compared to 1,268 from a year ago. The R&D personnel as a percentage of total employee for the group was 56%, compared with 58% from Q2 last year. Non-GAAP sales and marketing expenses for the second quarter was RMB 380.4 million, compared to RMB 339.7 million for the same period last year, representing a 15% and 13% of total revenue, respectively. The year-over-year increase in sales and marketing expenses was mainly attributable to a greater marketing spend on our new overseas app. This increase was partly offset by ongoing cost controls in mainland China operations. Both Momo and Tantan cut marketing spend while SoulChill temporarily pulled back on channel investments amid external challenges. Non-GAAP G&A expenses was RMB 75.1 million for the second quarter, compared to RMB 67.5 million for the same period last year.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

The increase was primarily driven by RMB 11 million in exchange gains on euro-denominated deposits stemming from currency fluctuations in Q2 last year, compared with a RMB 1.8 million exchange loss in the current quarter. Non-GAAP G&A expenses as a percentage of revenue was 3%, largely unchanged from Q2 last year. Non-GAAP operating income was RMB 276.1 million, representing a margin of 11.1%, compared with RMB 447.7 million at a margin of 17.1% from Q2 2025. As noted earlier, non-GAAP cost of revenue included film production-related expenses. Excluding this item, non-GAAP operating income from our recurring business would have been RMB 332.9 million with a margin of 13.4%. Non-GAAP OPEX as a percentage of total revenue was 25%, an increase from 22% from the year-ago period. Now briefly on income tax expenses. Non-GAAP income tax expenses was RMB 71.2 million for the quarter, with an effective tax rate of 23%.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

In Q2, the company accrued withholding income tax of RMB18.4 million, which is 10% of undistributed profit generated by our WFOE. Without the withholding tax, our estimated non-GAAP effective tax rate was around 17% in the second quarter. Now turning to balance sheet and cash flow items. As of June 30th, 2026, Hello Group's cash equivalents, short-term deposits, long-term deposits, short-term investments, and restricted cash totaled RMB 8.54 billion compared to RMB 8.68 billion as of December 31st, 2025. Net cash provided by operating activities in the second quarter 2026 was RMB 642.3 million. The difference between operating net cash and non-GAAP net income was mainly due to the fact that a substantial amount of Q1 receivables were collected in Q2, accrued interest, and some non-cash items, including film production costs and withholding tax. Lastly, on business outlook.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

We estimated our third quarter revenue to come in the range from RMB 2.4 billion to RMB 2.5 billion, representing a decrease of 9.4% to 5.7% year over year. This is based on the assumption that at midpoint, on a year-over-year basis, revenue from our mainland China business will decline by high teens percentage-wise, while overseas revenue is expected to grow by high 30s percentage-wise. Please be mindful that this forecast represents the company's current and preliminary view on the market and operational conditions, which are subject to change. That concluded our prepared portion of today's discussion. With that, let me turn the call back to Ashley to start Q&A. Ashley, please.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Thank you. Just a quick reminder before we take the questions. For those who can speak Chinese, please ask your questions in Chinese first, followed by English translation by yourself. Operator, we are ready for questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

[Non-English content]

[Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies]

Let me translate myself. Hi, good evening. Thanks for management for taking my question. In our last earnings call, management talks about the decline in domestic revenue in the second half would be notably leveling versus the first half. However, when we look at the guidance, it seems the decline in Q3 is slightly widening versus the first half of the year. May we know the key reason for the difference? Is it more due to the changes in external macro environment or adjustment about our platform operational strategy? In response to the situation, what specific measures does company have at the moment? Can management provide more color about the domestic revenue and expenses in the second half? Thank you.

[Tang Yan, CEO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Let me translate. Our revised outlook for the domestic business is mainly based on some new trends that we have seen in the Momo live streaming revenue since entering the second half of the year. The data shows that the revenue pressure is concentrated mainly in consumption downgrading among high spending paying users. Although the vast majority of these users in this cohort remain active on our platform, they have become more cautious about spending. Average RPPU has declined significantly. Based on our targeted interviews to those cohort of users by our VIP team, we found out that the core driver behind this is weaker wealth expectations among high-net-worth individuals amid macro volatility, which has dampened spending on social entertainment. By contrast, mid-tier and long-tail users, as well as the broadcasters from the supply side, have remained relatively stable.

[Tang Yan, CEO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Based on this view, we will take a tiered operating approach. Starting with top tier users, we will make full use of Momo's strength as a social platform, focusing on deepening social connections rather than simply pushing more spending. Specifically, on the one hand, we will roll out light weighted social interaction-focused features and organize official offline events for high-paying users, further strengthening these groups' stickiness to the platform and upgrading our VIP exclusive services. On the other hand, we will continue to provide high quality broadcasters with exclusive resources, such as overseas training tours and short drama production, to constantly refresh content supply and sustain high-value users' ongoing interest and engagement around top broadcasters.

[Tang Yan, CEO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

For mid-tier and long-tail users, we will focus on low barrier, high retention scenarios, such as audio-based interactive features and social mini games, using richer use case offering to stabilize the revenue base generated by this user group. For the financial figures, I will hand it over to Cassie.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Sure. Let me give you a quick update on how we currently think about the domestic business in the second half of 2026. As you may see, our Q3 guidance implies roughly a high teens year-over-year decline for the domestic business, widening from Q2 17% year-over-year decline rate. That underperforms our earlier expectation that in the second half, domestic business could see YY decline rate narrowing down from first half. The key reason Q3 is coming in below our quarter ago expectation is that, as Tang Yan mentioned just now, the domestic business has been facing greater pressure than we anticipated, particularly on user spending sentiment among the very top cohort users in live streaming showrooms. With regards to the trajectory from Q3 onwards, as in the previous quarters, I would still frame our view around three areas that we closely monitor. First is overall spending sentiment.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

What we have observed since late Q2 is a meaningful reduction in spending from the top cohort of users. These are the users who historically contribute a disproportionate amount of revenue in the showrooms, and many of them spend in the hundreds of thousands CNY on monthly basis. In Q3, the reduction in spending from this top of pyramid users became more pronounced. Our current assessment is that this reflects continued pressure on the financial outlook of these so-called high net worth users, which is in turn affecting their discretionary and entertainment spending. So from a macro spending sentiment perspective, we may continue to see a headwind as we move into Q4. The second factor is the regulatory environment. At this point, we are not seeing any significant incremental regulatory pressure, and we expect the environment to remain relatively stable.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

This is not a major driver of the change in our outlook. The third area, and one where we continue to see encouraging signs, is the underlying health of the platforms. Our DAU and engagement metrics remain relatively resilient, and importantly, Momo paying user base in Q2 increased meaningfully from Q1. There is certainly some seasonality in that sequential improvement. However, we believe it also reflects a relatively healthy and resilient user ecosystem. In other words, the weakness we are seeing in revenue is not primarily a function of users leaving the platforms or a deterioration in engagement. It is much more concentrated in the spending behavior of the highest net worth users. These users are still active and still paying, they are simply spending less.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

If you put these factors together, I would say the biggest change in our view versus at the beginning of the year, is the macro spending environment, particularly among the top cohort of users. For that reason, our earlier expectation for a meaningful narrowing of the year-over-year decline in the second half should be adjusted downward. At this point, given the uncertainty around the macro environment, I do not think it would be appropriate for us to put a specific Q4 number out there. What we can control is continuing to strengthen the fundamentals of both Momo and Tantan, improve the user experience and engagement across the platforms, and make the business more efficient. On the cost side, we do see opportunities to further optimize our operating expenses. This includes continued discipline around personnel costs.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

As Jianhua mentioned in his prepared remarks, additional opportunities to optimize sales and marketing spending in the domestic business. While the revenue environment is more challenging than we anticipated at the beginning of the year, we are taking a more balanced approach, remaining focused on improving the underlying health of the platforms, while at the same time actively managing the cost structure. This should allow us to mitigate some of the pressure on the bottom line, even in a more challenging revenue environment. Now back to Ashley for more questions.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Right. Operator, next question please.

[Operator]

Thank you. Your next question comes from Xueqing Zhang with CICC. Please go ahead.

[Xueqing Zhang, Analyst at CICC]

[Non-English content]

[Xueqing Zhang, Analyst at CICC]

Thanks, management, for taking my question. My question is about overseas business. Management mentioned that the combined revenue from YahaLand and Amar, two new products, the combined revenue has already basically approached SoulChill, while their profitability continues to improve. As the revenue mix of the social entertainment business in the MENA region becomes more diversified, can we expect the company's performance in the region to become more stable and resilient going forward? How will the structural shift affect the overall margin profile of the MENA business? Could management also share whether there has been any update to the company's full-year outlook for overseas business? Thank you.

[Tang Yan, CEO at Hello Group]

[Non-English content]

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Based on the current momentum, the combined revenue of our two newer MENA products will surpass SoulChill's in Q3. Both products are still maintaining healthy, strong growth. We are confident that we can grow them into social products of the scale comparable to SoulChill. Based on the current momentum, the combined revenue of our two newer MENA products will surpass SoulChill's in Q3. Both products are still maintaining healthy, strong growth, so we are confident that we can grow them into social products of the scale comparable to SoulChill.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

In addition, these three products differ in gameplay, target of user base, and regional focus, which will make the group's MENA business more diversified and strengthen both our resilience to external risks and our agility in capturing growth opportunities. Once the new products are established, even if one of them comes under short-term pressure from external regulatory or geopolitical factors, the others can still support the stability of overall regional revenue. We also believe the market for this type of audio-video social product isn't limited to MENA. A diversified product portfolio gives us stronger capability to expand into other regions than a single product would. On profitability, both YahaLand and Amar are improving quickly. YahaLand has already crossed breakeven, and Amar is likely still around half a year away. But both products' growth margin and contribution margin are improving rapidly and steadily.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

We believe both products will contribute to Group's profit next year. As for our overseas revenue outlook, I will leave it to Cassie.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Before giving a quantitative outlook, let me briefly walk through the three key components of the overseas business. First on SoulChill, our flagship product in the MENA region. The business has underperformed our original expectations somewhat. There were two main factors behind that. One was the removal of the apps from the App Store in Turkey earlier this year, and the other was the regional conflict that started in April, which had an impact on the operating environment in parts of the Middle East. The encouraging part is that, as you can see from Q2 results, both revenue and traffic for SoulChill have already recovered from the low point in Q1. We are continuing to see gradual sequential improvement as we move through Q3 and hopefully Q4 as well.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

SoulChill is somewhat below our initial expectation for the year, but the trajectory has been improving over the past couple of quarters. The second piece is YahaLand and Amar. As Tang Yan and Jianhua mentioned, the outperformance of these two businesses has partially compensated for the shortfall in SoulChill. In Q3, the combined revenue from YahaLand and Amar has already exceeded that of SoulChill. Both businesses are still growing at a rapid pace, while we are also seeing a meaningful improvement in their bottom-line performance. We believe these two businesses can continue to make progress and become increasingly meaningful contributors to both the top line and bottom line of the overseas business going forward. The third piece is the dating and membership subscription businesses, which continue to perform well.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Some of the acquired brands, including happn, have been making good progress in new markets, including Korea, Taiwan, and U.K. At the same time, we are taking a fairly disciplined approach to investment in these new markets. We do see opportunities to increase marketing investment to accelerate top-line growth, but we also want to maintain a healthy bottom line for the newly acquired dating business. More importantly, we want to make sure that we are building the ecosystem in these markets in a sustainable way, rather than simply pushing for short-term user or revenue growth. There is naturally a balance between the pace of top-line expansion and the level of investment that we're willing to pour in within a relatively short timeframe. In other words, we'd rather take it right than take it fast.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

If you wrap these all up and try to look at the takeaway as a whole, I would say that SoulChill perhaps moved a little bit slower than we expected a quarter ago. We do have the potential to maybe compensate it by moving faster on expanding the other two MENA apps and the dating apps. But given that we wanted to balance top-line growth and bottom-line targets, we probably won't push the gas pedal harder than we previously planned. Therefore, my current view is that the original RMB 3 billion target for overseas revenue for 2026, at this point, looks a little bit of a stretch. We'd rather take 100 million or 200 million down from that target. Maybe back to Ashley to take one last question.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Yeah. In the interest of time, let's just take one last question before we close the line. Operator, we're ready.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Jenny Yuan with UBS. Please go ahead.

[Jenny Yuan, Analyst at UBS]

[Non-English content]

[Jenny Yuan, Analyst at UBS]

Thanks management for taking my question. My question is on the profit outlook. As management announced that weaker revenue outlook for domestic business in the second half, how do we think about the impact on the group's overall profitability and the earnings performance going forward? Thank you.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Okay, I'll take that question. Profitability. Maybe let me start with the group top line first, because that's the first area where our view has changed. As I mentioned back in June, during our Q1 conference call, at that time, we expected the group revenue to decline slightly year-over-year, perhaps by a couple of percentage points. Given the additional pressure we are seeing in the domestic business in the second half, we currently expect the full year group revenue decline to be somewhat larger, maybe to mid-single digit range. The second factor affecting profitability is the investment in the two movies. With both movies now released, we've recognized roughly somewhere around $60 million of additional losses in Q2. That obviously creates some incremental pressure on the full year bottom line relative to our earlier expectations.

[Peng Hui, CFO at Hello Group]

Having said that, we continue to see opportunities to offset some of this pressure through cost management and improving operating efficiency. In particular, we are looking at further optimization of personnel costs as well as sales and marketing spending, especially in the domestic businesses. Putting these factors together, the additional pressure on the top line does make it more challenging to achieve our original margin target, which was, I think we pointed toward a low teen adjusted operating margin for 2026. But at this point, we still believe that that margin target remains achievable, provided that we execute well on the cost side and continue to improve operating efficiency. Back to Ashley to wrap up the call.

[Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations at Hello Group]

Yeah. I think that's all the time we have. Thank you for joining us today and we'll see you next quarter.

[Operator]

Thank you. That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Ashley Jing, Head of Investor Relations
• Peng Hui, CFO
• Tang Yan, CEO

Analysts

• Jianhua Wen, COO at Hello Group
• Thomas Chong, Analyst at Jefferies
• Xueqing Zhang, Analyst at CICC
• Jenny Yuan, Analyst at UBS