Momo Growth Plans Explained in Conference Call

High-ranking executives from Momo have held a conference call to discuss the end of year financial results released earlier this week.

Overall, 2018 was a successful year for the Chinese social platform as it brought in a net revenue of $1.95 billion.

Off the back of these results, Morgan Stanley has upgraded its rating on Momo stock from ‘Equal-Weight’ to ‘Overweight’. The investment bank also increased the target share price from $33 to $44.

CEO Tang Yan noted that despite his company’s seemingly dominant position in the Chinese market there is plenty of room for continued growth and the team will continue to be disciplined when pursuing acquisition opportunities.

Momo completed the purchase of dating app Tantan in May and quickly monetised it through a premium subscription system. The introduction of the ‘See Who Likes Me’ and ‘Super Exposure’ paid features encouraged 3.1 million to sign up to Tantan VIP by the end of June.

Tang Yan explained the two aims for Tantan in 2019 are to continue to take advantage of AI to enhance the user experience, and roll out more premium products.

He also revealed that Momo was looking into the possibility of entering new overseas markets but believes that doing it through Tantan may be the best opportunity. Tang Yan said during the call: “We have been keeping an eye on overseas expansion opportunities are making regular assessments from time-to-time.

“Right now, on Momo side, we do not have any definitive plan, but Tantan may have a more specific opportunity that we would like to pursue”.

Tantan CEO Wang Yu continued: “China is still our focus, we do in fact already have a pretty sizeable overseas user base. We do see the overseas market, especially in Eastern market as a big growth opportunity for Tantan down the road”.

Listen to the full conference call here.