Qutoutiao Q1 Revenue Grows, Ads Contributes the Most Thanks to COVID-19

Chinese mobile content platform Qutoutiao (lit. fun headlines) reported revenue of 1.41 billion yuan, up 26.2% from the previous year in its Q1 2020 earnings report released on Thursday, as over 45 million users spent over an hour a day on the app during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ad revenue contributed the most, 1.36 billion yuan, to the overall revenue growth in the first quarter. The short video segment in particular quadrupled its ad revenue from previous year.

“The vigorous growth in the first quarter demonstrates our efforts to improve our commercialization capability,” Qutoutiao CEO Tan Siliang said. “We hope to see more users and earnings in the second half of the year and continue long-time sustainable growth.”

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With a pool of active users, Qutoutiao has attracted advertisers spanning various industries from real estate to online shopping, including top brands like Estée Lauder, KFC, P&G and China Mobile.

According to the marketing platform Morketing, Qutoutiao is the youngest among the top 20 companies that secured the highest ad revenues in 2019, ranking 12th.

In its fourth year of operation, Qutoutiao has so far expanded its content to diverse areas including news, online fiction, short video, games, live-streaming and more.