Kakaku.com, Inc. (2371) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone. This is Hata from Kakaku.com. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today. Let me begin by showing you the consolidated business results on Page 3. We have included figures for the fourth quarter, but let me explain the full-year figures. First, revenue was JPY 51,723 million, up 1.3% from last year. Operating profit was JPY 19,147 million, up 4.7% from the previous year. Operating profit margin was 37%. Pre-tax income was JPY 20,897 million, up 16.7% Y-o-Y. And net income was JPY 14,294 million, up 21.5% Y-o-Y. The achievement rate against the earnings forecast was 92.7% for revenue and 89.1% for operating income. Fourth quarter figures were a result of the fact that effects of the coronavirus had not subsided and measures to prevent the spread of the disease were applied. Next, on Page 4 is a graph showing revenue and profit for the first, second, third and fourth quarters, respectively. On Page 5, I will explain the quarterly trends and breakdown of consolidated operating expenses. Advertising expenses decreased in Kakaku.com and Tabelog, while advertising expenses increased in New Media and Solution and Finance. Outsourcing costs increased mainly due to costs related to the development of new businesses in Tabelog. Generally speaking, there is no significant change in the cost structure otherwise. Next, we have the results and progress by business. Page 7 shows the sales composition by business segment, which are Kakaku.com, Tabelog and New Media and Solutions and Finance. Of the total, Kakaku.com accounted for 40%, Tabelog about 30%; and New Media and Solutions and Finance, 28.8%. The figures for Tabelog are like this, due to the fact that the state of emergency was once lifted in the third quarter, but restrictions were placed on restaurant business hours again in the fourth quarter. Next, on Page 8, we have a breakdown of figures for each of these businesses. Kakaku.com was down 8.8% for the full year Y-o-Y. The shopping business was down 12.5%. The service business was down 8.8%, and the advertising business was down 0.4%, almost flat. Further details are explained on the following pages. As for Tabelog, the restaurant promotion business was up 3.5% Y-o-Y. The premium user membership business was down 10.8%, and the advertising business was down 16.6%. In the emerging New Media and Solutions and Finance segment, the New Media and Solutions business was up 47.2% Y-o-Y, and the finance business was up 7.5%. Page 9 onward provides a detailed explanation of each business. First, let me talk about the shopping business of Kakaku.com. In the shopping business, durables were down 8.3% Y-o-Y and consumables were down 8% Y-o-Y. In the fourth quarter, the supply side of durable goods, in particular, continued to be affected by the shortage of parts and materials for PCs and large household appliances and the demand for consumables such as masks, sanitizers and interior goods has calmed down. For details on the shopping business, please see Page 10. Please have a look at the graph on the left. The number of new products from PC and home appliance and electronics manufacturers in the fourth quarter remained at a fairly low level for the second quarter in a row, and we have not seen any signs of recovery. Then on the right side is an example of our effort through the third and fourth quarters to make it easier for our users to find information on consumable goods. We have added a section to the price comparison page, where you can see the lowest price for each EC mall, making it easier for users to find the cheapest store on Rakuten, Amazon and so on. On Page 11, I will explain the results of the Kakaku.com service business. Although the figures for the fourth quarter improved considerably compared to the first, second and third quarters, Personal finance was down 28.0%. Telecommunications was down 7.2%. Automotive was down 8.3%. The other category showed an increase of 19.8%, as comparisons of energy providers, especially electricity were very favorable. The automotive category was impacted by continued supply side issues in the form of reduced production and delayed deliveries in the automobile industry. Please see Page 12 for more information on our service business. In personal finance, the number of credit card issuances and card loan applications declined. In telecommunications, the number of applications for fiber optic lines has been declining, and the number of applications for overseas Wi-Fi rentals also remained at a low level, with almost no applications in the fourth quarter. As for the automotive domain, I have already touched upon earlier. In other, the number of applications for energy providers, in particular, showed an unprecedentedly large jump in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. On Page 13, we have the advertising business of Kakaku.com. Network and listing ad sales, although small in absolute amount, decreased by 32.7%, while banner and tie-in ad sales were up 9.9% Y-o-Y. Please see Page 14 for a breakdown of banner and tie-in ad sales. The reason for the 9.9% increase in banner and tie-in ad sales compared to the previous year was the extremely strong increase of 83.2% in advertisements from PC manufacturers. As with home appliances and electronics, the number of new products in the personal computer market is still low, but the supply-side problem of delivery delays has been resolved to a large extent. And in this fourth quarter, ad placements resumed. This concludes our overview of the Kakaku.com business. Next, I will explain about the Tabelog business. First, please see Page 15 for the overall sales trend of the Tabelog business. The restaurant promotion business achieved a 12.5% increase over the previous year, but has yet to achieve a full recovery. Next, on Page 16, I will explain about the restaurant promotion business, which consists of the PR service and the online reservation service. The PR Service increased by 8.9% Y-o-Y, and the online reservation service increased by 23.4%. As for the online reservation service, although higher than in the fourth quarter of last year, the results were lower Q-o-Q due to the impact of restrictions on business hours and limitation on the number of diners. Continuing on Page 17 and beyond, I will explain the operating progress of the restaurant promotion business in further detail. First, the PR service had 44,300 restaurants under contract at the end of the fourth quarter, a slight decrease from the third quarter. This figure remained almost unchanged due to the difficulty in acquiring new contracts as a result of priority preventive measures. On the right, you can see the ARPU for the PR service. The fourth quarter figures are down from the third quarter due to an increase in partial contract suspensions as a result of priority preventive measures. The denominator of the ARPU calculation includes restaurants that had suspended their contracts. So the decline of ARPU from the third quarter can be attributed to the increase in partial contract suspensions. Next, Page 18 shows the number of restaurants subscribing to the online reservation service. The number of restaurants subscribing to our online reservation service increased in the fourth quarter. The number of restaurants using the online reservation service reached 59,300 at the end of the fourth quarter, which is a slight increase over the third quarter. On the right side is a graph showing ARPU for the online reservation service. The number of restaurants used as the denominator for ARPU between the third and fourth quarters is slightly different. But if we take this as a margin of error, the difference between the third and fourth quarters can be taken as a decline in the number of online reservations as a result of priority preventive measures. Next, we have the number of fee-paying restaurants. This is the total number of restaurants that have subscribed to the PR service and/or the online reservation service, not including duplicates that occur as a result of a single restaurant subscribing to both services. In the fourth quarter, the number of fee-paying restaurants totaled 64,200. Next, I will explain about the number of online reservations. The graph on the left-hand side is similar to the trend in ARPU for the online reservation service shown on Page 18. The number of online reservations in the fourth quarter was 7.11 million. On the right side, we have a graph showing the number of people per group for online reservations. Due to the impact of the priority preventive measures, as well as restriction on the number of people attending meals, the annual average for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 was 2.63 persons per group. Compared to 3.59 persons pre-COVID, I think that in the fourth quarter was another period in which people refrained from making reservations for large groups due to restrictions on the number of diners. Continuing on Page 21, here we have further information on Tabelog. The left-hand graph shows the monthly trend of online reservations up to April. The number of online reservations was 3.79 million in April alone, compared to a total of 7.11 million in January, February, and March. As priority preventive measures have been lifted, the number of people going out to eat and the number of people making reservations online is higher than before COVID. And although it does not reach the level we have seen during the Go To Eat Campaign, we believe it is safe to say that we are almost back to the pre-COVID levels. It is only the middle of May, but barring any unexpected circumstances such as another resurgence of infections, we expect this kind of trend to continue and the market for dining out will continue to thrive. Since we frequently receive questions on this, we have also included the ratio of online reservations by time of visit on the right-hand side of the page for your reference. Lunch reservations originally accounted for about 10% of the total online reservations, but now account for about 20%. We have 2 points to make about this. One is that the evening crowd itself has not yet fully returned, including dinners in larger groups, meaning that there is still room for growth in the number of online reservations. The other is that, whereas online reservations had not been widely accepted for lunch in the past, during the pandemic, online reservations for lunch have become more prevalent and we believe that the recently higher ratio of online reservations during lunch hours is a result of this. This concludes my explanation on the Tabelog business. Next, I will discuss New Media and Solutions and Finance, which consist of 5 domains. Recruitment was very strong, up 86.2% compared to last year. Real estate showed very good growth, up 13.1%. The travel and transportation domain has increased significantly, up 63.3%. Compared to the fiscal year ended March 31, 2020, as shown on the left end of the graph, third figure from the top, revenue in the travel and transportation domain has not yet returned to pre-COVID levels, but the figures have already returned considerably, especially for domestic travel. In the domestic market, the situation is almost the same as before the pandemic, if not stronger. Revenue in the entertainment and hobbies domain, which includes movies and car-related media, was also up 19.7%. Finally, the finance domain, which consists of Kakaku.com Insurance, achieved a 7.5% increase for the full year. I will now report on the individual domains. First, please see Page 23 regarding Kyujin Box. Revenue in the fourth quarter increased 75%, and the number of monthly users in the fourth quarter increased by 18.6%, a significant increase compared to last year for both. In addition to the number of monthly users, growth in unit price and click rate also resulted in higher sales figures. On Page 24, we have travel and transportation, which consists of 3 businesses: LCL, time design and 4travel. First of all, LCL was up 152.2% compared to last year. Revenue was slightly lower than before COVID, but in terms of the recovery trend, we believe we have been able to bring the numbers back up considerably. Time Design was up 37.3%, which is also a very strong result. Time Design, has especially many transactions with resorts and luxury hotels. And as domestic travel continues to recover, the return in demand for those hotels has been quite strong. 4travel, which is a media that is mainly used by people who are looking for information on overseas travel, continued to show weak results as demand for overseas travel had hardly returned in the fourth quarter. Next, I will explain about the real estate and entertainment and hobbies domains. On the left, we have Sumaity. In the fourth quarter, revenue was up 7.1% Y-o-Y, and the number of monthly users was down 15.4%. So although the number of monthly users decreased slightly, sales were higher than last year and remained very strong. On the right, we have the entertainment and hobbies domain. In particular, results for our movie-related businesses were down during the pandemic due to the cancellation or postponement of many major film releases. But in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, numbers gradually recovered from the first quarter onwards. And in the fourth quarter, advertising revenues were quite close to what they were pre-COVID. Next, Page 26 shows results for Kakaku.com Insurance. The fourth quarter showed a slight decrease of 2.8% in revenue year-over-year. Although last year's high demand for life insurance is subsiding, sales of house insurance and pet insurance continue to increase. On the right side of the page, we have several ongoing initiatives to enhance content and improve online functions for consultation and procedures. The application process, which previously consisted of requesting information materials online and then applying in person or by sealed envelope or postcard, can now be partially completed online. Structural changes of insurance companies and deregulation will make insurance sales more efficient, and we will respond to these changes by continuing our efforts to evolve our services, this concludes my report on the progress of each of our businesses for the fourth quarter and for the full year. Next, I would like to continue by introducing some of our future initiatives. First, on Page 28, you can find policies and measures for our core businesses: Kakaku.com, Tabelog, Kyujin Box and Kakaku.com Insurance. Next, on Page 29, we have the policies for several sites and services. Please see Page 30 for more information on future initiatives of Kakaku.com. On the left side, we have measures in the shopping business that we have been working on since the previous fiscal year ended March 31, 2022 and which we intend to focus on further in this fiscal year and beyond. We are planning to enhance our content to help consumers, make more environmentally conscious choices, not only when purchasing new products, but also when disposing of or recycling used products and selling or buying used products. In other words the 3Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle. Next, Page 31 shows new initiatives for Tabelog. Under the policy of connecting people and restaurants, we intend to develop various services vertically and horizontally in addition to the current media business. At the center of our services, we have online reservations and we would like to focus on supporting the digitalization of restaurant operations in order to increase the number of restaurants that can be booked online. We will develop our business, aiming for a maximum target of about 260,000 restaurants. Next, on Page 32, you will find examples of further initiatives for Kyujin Box. In terms of accuracy of and up-to-date job information, we believe that it is very important to reduce the number of bait-and-switch advertising in order to create a website that is useful to jobseekers. We are also running commercials, mainly on YouTube. Kyujin Box is still a media that is not well known, so we will continue this kind of branding and continue to make Kyujin Box a comprehensive service for jobseekers. Finally, on Page 33, we have our future business policy. We aim to increase the ratio of sales outside of Kakaku.com and Tabelog to more than 20%, which is a target we have been stating for some time. Because of the poor performance of Tabelog and Kakaku.com due to COVID, the ratio of other sales has already exceeded 26%. While we will leave this target unchanged for the time being, we will review our progress over the next year and hope to set a new mid-term target. Next, on Page 35, I will explain the consolidated earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023. As stated in our consolidated earnings report, for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, we forecast consolidated revenue of JPY 64.5 billion and operating profit of JPY 25.9 billion, which is not yet at the level of 3 years ago. With full recovery from the impact of the coronavirus and further growth of New Media and Solutions and Finance, we are forecasting a 25% increase in revenue and 35% increase in operating profit Y-o-Y. This concludes by explanation of our financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. Thank you.