(Yicai) March 8 -- Chinese video streaming platform operator Bilibili narrowed its loss by 36 percent last year after further bolstering commercialization. The YouTube-like site will likely turn a profit for the first time in this year's third quarter, according to its chairman.

Bilibili has a net loss of CNY4.8 billion (USD677.7 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, the Shanghai-based firm’s financial report showed yesterday. Revenue rose 3 percent to CNY22.5 billion (USD3.2 billion) from a year earlier. Its fourth-quarter net loss shrank 13 percent to CNY1.3 billion, with revenue was up 3 percent at CNY6.3 billion.

“To better serve our content creators and strengthen the overall community ecosystem, we further advanced our commercialization strategy and improved various monetization products,” Chairman and Chief Executive Chen Rui said in a statement released along with the report.

Last year, more than three million content creators earned income on Bilibili, a 30 percent increase on 2022, Chen said, adding that the “commercial progress we made can also be seen in our mounting advertising and value-added services revenues.”

Annual advertising revenue jumped 27 percent to CNY6.4 billion, mainly thanks to better advertising product offerings and efficiency, while income from value-added services rose 14 percent to CNY9.9 billion, led by gains from live broadcasting and other value-added services.

The number of daily active users topped 100 million in the fourth quarter.

Bilibili will continue to strengthen its commercialization capabilities, increase its gross margin, and control expenses to turn a profit in the third quarter of 2024, Chen said on the company’s earnings conference call. This is the first time that Bilibili has set a definite timetable for profitability, he said, adding that the had previously said it aimed to break even this year.

In Hong Kong today, Bilibili’s shares [HKG: 9626] ended 2.6 percent lower at HKD83.40 (USD10.66) each. Its New York-listed stock [NASDAQ: BILI] fell 1.9 percent to USD10.60 yesterday.

The share price drip may be due to the ongoing decline in Bilibili’s gaming revenue. Income from mobile games tumbled 20 percent to CNY4 billion last year, while falling 12 percent to CNY1 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, pulling down overall revenue, the company noted.

Due to increasingly fierce competition in China’s gaming market, Bilibili, which mainly publishes games, will set up a first-tier game development department by merging its existing studios, it said on March 4. Chen Tongpeng, who worked at internet giant Tencent Holdings and Genshin Impact developer MiHoYo, helms the project.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev