Qutoutiao Inc – ADR (NASDAQ: QTT) stock lost over 13.1% in the pre-market session on March 6^th, 2019 (Source: Google finance) as the company has reported huge loss but posted huge growth in revenue and users. Qutoutiao said that daily and monthly users grew more than 200% apiece from the same quarter a year ago, though it paid $108.6 million to acquire users, up nearly 700% from the year before. Average MAUs reached 93.8 million, representing an increase of 286.0% from 24.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and an increase of 43.8% from 65.2 million in the previous quarter. Average DAUs reached 30.9 million, representing an increase of 224.2% from 9.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and an increase of 45.2% from 21.3 million in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP net loss was RMB366.7 million (US$53.3 million), compared to non-GAAP net loss of RMB52.4 million in the same period in 2017 and RMB298.4 million in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP net loss margin was 27.6%, compared to 20.8% in the same period in 2017 and 30.5% in the previous quarter. As of December 31, 2018, the Company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of RMB2,301.7 million (US$334.8 million), compared to RMB2,476.7 million as of September 30, 2018.

QTT in the fourth quarter of FY 18 has reported the adjusted loss per share of 22 cents, missing the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted loss per share of 19 cents. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 426.1 percent to $193 million in the fourth quarter of FY 18, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $192.3 million. Advertising and marketing revenues were RMB1,247.9 million (US$181.5 million) in the fourth quarter of 2018, an increase of 399.4% from RMB249.9 million in the same period of 2017, primarily due to increases in the Company’s user base, time spent and ability to monetize user traffic. Other revenues were RMB79.1 million (US$11.5 million) in the fourth quarter of 2018, a significant increase from RMB2.3 million in the same period of 2017. Other revenues primarily represent revenues from online marketing platform services, and the increase was driven by the expanding scale and increasing sophistication of the Company’s advertising platform.

The company predicted 2019 revenue of 7.5 billion to 8.5 billion renminbi, after reporting 2018 sales of slightly more than 3 billion renminbi. At current exchange rates, that would be about $1.13 billion to $1.28 billion, while analysts on average were predicting $1.26 billion in 2019 revenue for the company, according to FactSet.