(Yicai Global) March 4 -- Bilibili’s stock price slumped after the Chinese video-streaming platform’s loss more than doubled last year due to high operating costs. It also announced a share buyback plan.

After opening up by almost 11 percent in New York yesterday, Bilibili [NASDAQ: BILI] slumped as much as 9.8 percent, hitting a 21-month low of USD27.20, before ending 7.9 percent lower at USD27.78. In after-hours trading, the stock was down 1.5 percent at USD27.37 as of 7.59 p.m. local time.

Bilibili’s net loss widened 119 percent to CNY6.8 billion (USD1.1 billion) in the year ended Dec. 31, versus CNY3.1 billion a year earlier, according to the financial results the Shanghai-based company released yesterday.

Revenue jumped 62 percent to CNY19.4 billion (USD3 billion), buoyed by a 145 percent gain in revenue from live-streaming marketing, due to the increased recognition of Bilibili’s brand name in the Chinese online advertising market.

But revenue costs surged 67 percent to CNY15.3 billion, mainly due to a rise in gainsharing paid to live-streamers and content creators, Bilibili said. Total operating expenses, which include marketing, administration, and research and development costs, also soared, rising 75 percent to CNY10.5 billion.

Income from value-added services jumped 80 percent to CNY6.9 billion, driven by an increase in paying members and users for live-streaming services. Revenue from mobile games rose 6 percent to CNY5.1 billion.

Looking forward, “the target is to achieve the breakeven point on a non-GAAP basis by 2024,” Chief Financial Officer Fan Xin said on the company’s earnings call yesterday, by improving monetization efficiency, including revenue per monthly active user, and by controlling operating expenses.

For this quarter, the entertainment platform popular among young people expects revenue of between CNY5.3 billion and CNY5.5 billion, up 35.9 percent to 41 percent from the same period a year ago.

Bilibili also announced a plan to buy back as much as USD500 million of its own shares over the next 24 months. Chairman and Chief Executive Chen Rui will use his own money to boost his stake in the firm by buying up to USD10 million worth of shares in the same period.

Listed companies usually repurchase their own stock to buoy its price by removing equity from the market. Since peaking at a close of USD153.12 in February 2021, Bilibili’s shares have slumped 82 percent.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione