Sohu.com posts 19% revenue growth in Q3 2025, driven by online games and positive net income amid challenging ad market

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for standing by and good evening. Thank you for joining Sohu.com’s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After Management's prepared remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host for today's conference call, Huang Pu, Investor Relations Director of Sohu.com. Please go ahead.

Thanks Operator thank you for joining us to discuss Sohu.com’s third quarter 2025 results. On the call, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Charles Zhang, CFO and Vice President Finance James Tung. Also with us are Chang and CEO of Yaobing Wang. Before Management begins their prepared remarks, I would like to remind you of the coming Safe harbor statement in connection with today's conference call. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed on this call may contain forward looking statements. These statements are based on current plans, estimates and projections and therefore you should not place undue reliance on them. Forward looking Statements Involving key risks and uncertainties we caution you that a number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward looking statements. For more information about the potential risks and uncertainties, please refer to the Company's filings with the securities and Exchange Commission, including the most recent annual report on Form 20F. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dr. Charles Zhang. Charles, please proceed.

Thanks Guangpu and thank you everyone for joining our call. In the third quarter of 2025, our marketing services revenues were in line with our guidance. While both our online game revenues and the bottom line performance benefiting from our continuous efforts in the gaming business were well above our prior expectations, we recorded positive net income this quarter for the social media. So now for the social media platform. We continue to refine our products and integrate resources to better meet users needs and enhance their experiences. Meanwhile leveraging our product matrix and distinctive events, we remain committed to generating and distributing diversified premium content and continuously energizing our platform. Our differentiated advantages and unique IP enabled us to further unlock monetization potential for online games. Both new and established titles delivered outstanding performance driven by our deep understanding of our needs and proven operational expertise. Before going through each business unit in more detail, let me first give you a quick overview of our financial performance for the third quarter of 2025. Total revenues $180 million upped 19% year over year and 43% quarter over quarter marketing services revenues $14 million down 27% year over year and 13% quarter over quarter online game revenues $162 million up 27% year over year and 53% quarter over quarter GAAP net income attributable to Sohu.com Ltd. $9 million compared with the net loss of $16 million in 3Q24 and the net loss of $20 million in the second quarter of this year. Non GAAP net income attributable to Sohu.com Ltd. Was $9 million compared to a net loss of $12 million in the third quarter of last year and net loss of $20 million in the second quarter of this year. Now I'll go through our key businesses in more detail. So for Sohu.com Platform, we continue to leverage the cutting edge technologies to optimize our products and and promote deeper integration across our product matrix. These enabled us to further adapt to various scenarios, improve operation efficiencies and enhance users experiences. At the same time, relying on the synergies between various online and offline events, we continue to stimulate the generation and dissemination of premium content and attract more users to our platform. During the quarter, we hosted a variety of events and activities to further build a vigorous social networking platform providing users with abundant opportunities for online and Offline Communications. The 2025 Autumn Convention of Social Video Influencers effectively promoted deeper communication among broadcasters across different verticals and significantly increased their vitality and retention on our platform. The ongoing 2025 Sohu K Pop Dancing Festival and also the Hanfu Model Competition Hanfu Model Competition both successfully ignited the passion of young people and further consolidated our influence in these areas. All these activities gained widespread recognition and popularity and continuously infused a large amount of content and traffic into our platform. As a result, we were able to further expand the influence of SOHU and foster a prosperous platform ecosystem. In addition, we also held a special themed activity such as the Halloween American TV Series Party. It not only engaged users with innovative content forms, but also became a highlight of our Social Video American TV Series Month which brought audiences with classic dramas such as the Western West World and also the Mandalorian. Meanwhile, we also launched multiple TV dramas, original drama and short dramas during the quarter to attract and retain users. The original drama the Rebirth Su Ye Ji was well received by audiences and attracted more users to our platform. Through our flagship IT the Physics class, we continue to strengthen our differentiated competitive advantages while at the same time exploring greater monetization opportunities. With Charles Physics class, we were able to reach a wider range of audiences through discussions on popular science topics and hot events and brought physics knowledge closer to the general public, not only helped us generate unique and premium content, but also consistently unlock monetization potentials. Together with the resources of sofu's product matrix and our marketing capabilities, we actively adapted to changes in the market trend and provided advertisers with customized marketing solutions through a series of innovative campaigns and events which are highly recognized by our both audiences and advertisers. Next turning to our guideline game business in the third quarter of 2025 we launched a new PC game, LBB Return. Based on a beloved early version of the TLBB PC. The game features reduced grinding and pay to win pressure, offering players a lighter gaming experience. It help us attract back many former players and its revenue performance has so far exceeded our expectations for TLBB PC. We also launched Game Content for TLBB Kunt Game Content for TLBB Vantage that recreated the classic design of the game which evoked a wave of nostalgia among players. Players enthusiasm and in game spending were far beyond our expectations. With regular TLBB PC we offered a new rare gear as rewards for our promotional events and redesigned the Cross Server Clan Wall gameplay which boosted willingness to pay among higher paying players for more games we launched for mobile games, we launched an expansion pack for legacy TLBB Mobile which brought an enhancement to the skills of Wang Clan alongside a new storyline and engaging activities. Revenue for this game remained stable on a sequential basis. TLBB Mobile Next quarter we will continue to launch expansion packs and content updates for the TLBB series and other titles to further keep players engaged amid an increasingly competitive market. We remain committed to our top game strategy. We follow a user centric philosophy and adhere to some strategies and a systematic RD process to enhance efficiency and success rate. As a part of strategy, we are taking concrete steps to unlock the potential of our TLBB IP. Meanwhile, building upon our core strengths in MMORPGs, we are working to diversify into new types of games including card based RPGs, sports games and casual games as well as expand our offerings for global markets. Now I'd like to give an update on the ongoing share repurchase program. As of November 13, 2025, SoHo has repurchased 7.6 million ADS for an aggregate cost of approximately $97 million. So basically 2/3 of the 150 million program. With that I will now turn the call over to Joanna please.