Weibo Q2 Earnings Call Highlights
Key Points
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- Weibo’s Q2 revenue rose 2% year over year to $453.8 million, as a 19% increase in value-added services offset a 1% decline in advertising revenue. Non-GAAP operating income was $125.4 million, while net income attributable to Weibo reached $102.7 million.
- User levels remained broadly stable, with 561 million monthly active users and 254 million daily active users in June. Feed improvements increased time spent and interactions, but lower-frequency users continued to show weaker visit frequency and retention, while reduced handset shipments affected new-user acquisition.
- Video consumption, interest-community engagement and AI-powered advertising tools all showed strong growth, but the advertising outlook remains cautious because of constrained consumer demand, intense competition and pressure on advertiser profitability. Management expects continued investment in creators, AI and content-marketing products to support longer-term growth.
Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue growth of 2% as gains in value-added services offset a modest decline in advertising revenue amid cautious spending by advertisers in several industries.
Total revenue for the quarter was $453.8 million, up 2% year over year, though down 4% on a constant-currency basis. Advertising and marketing revenue declined 1% to $381 million, while value-added service revenue rose 19% to $72.9 million. The company reported non-GAAP operating income of $125.4 million, equal to a 28% operating margin, and net income attributable to Weibo of $102.7 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.38.
Chief Executive Officer Gaofei Wang said advertiser budgets remained constrained by a subdued consumer market, heightened competition and pressure on customers’ costs and profitability. Still, the company recorded advertising growth in automobiles, internet services, and food and beverage, while celebrity marketing also expanded year over year.
User Base Stable as Feed Overhaul Continues
Weibo reported 561 million average monthly active users and 254 million average daily active users in June. Monthly active users declined modestly sequentially, while daily active users were broadly flat from the prior quarter, according to Chief Financial Officer Fei Cao.
Management said the company has shifted its user-acquisition strategy toward improving the conversion of newly acquired users into active users rather than expanding acquisition volume. The company also continues to refine its homepage feed, placing greater emphasis on recommendations for relationship-based content, trending topics and video.
Wang said the changes improved time spent, the number of users engaging with the homepage feed, and interaction volumes during the second quarter. However, lower-frequency users are still adapting to the revised feed format, and their visit frequency and retention have lagged broader consumption improvements.
During the question-and-answer session, management added that lower shipments of handsets carrying pre-installed Weibo applications pressured new-user acquisition. Wang said this factor had an approximately 10% impact on the business. The company expects overall feed time spent and interactions to grow in the second half, but said converting lower-frequency users remains a key challenge.
Video and Interest Communities Show Engagement Gains
Weibo said video views and total video consumption time increased by double digits year over year in the second quarter, while average video consumption per user rose more sharply. The supply of high-quality videos also grew by double digits sequentially.
The company has increased investments in attracting and supporting video creators as its recommendation system gives it more capacity to distribute content from newer accounts. Management said it added fewer than 10,000 video creator accounts in the second quarter and that roughly 70% continued to update videos weekly after one quarter.
Wang said creator incentives and revenue-sharing arrangements could result in a near-term effect on gross margin, but the accounts are expected to generate additional content, advertising inventory and user engagement over time. Management said it expects the return on those investments to reach 70% to 100% by the end of the year, with fuller incremental returns anticipated next year.
In its “super topics” interest communities, Weibo introduced new features for celebrity, sports and esports users, including event reviews, ratings and discussions. The company said daily active users and discussion participants in super topics increased by double digits year over year. Management said AI-enabled product development has helped the platform offer more customized features for different communities.
AI Efforts Extend to Search and Advertising
Weibo continued to use artificial intelligence across product development, operations and advertising. In search, the company said it is enhancing its AI-powered Zhisou product’s ability to understand context and user intent in multi-turn conversations, particularly around public figures, intellectual property and trending topics.
Management said Zhisou grew year over year in the first half but declined sequentially as competing large language models improved significantly during the first quarter. Weibo is upgrading the technology and adjusting the product experience, with a greater focus on guided and question-and-answer search embedded within posts, videos and trending-topic browsing.
In advertising, AI-generated creative materials accounted for 50% of spending in promoted-feed, real-time-bidding ads in June. The company said it has used video-generation tools to help e-commerce advertisers with limited video assets. AI-optimized advertising materials in e-commerce had negative-feedback rates more than 30% below clients’ original materials, according to Wang.
Cao said eCPM improved both year over year and sequentially, supported by AI integration in creative generation, targeting and bidding. However, Wang cautioned that higher eCPM did not necessarily indicate broad-based advertising-demand growth, because Weibo has also reduced lower-quality ad exposure and managed inventory to improve user experience.
Advertising Outlook Remains Cautious
Weibo said automobile advertising grew on the back of frequent new-energy vehicle launches, while internet-services advertising benefited from marketing demand for AI-related products and services. Food and beverage revenue also rose, aided by World Cup-related marketing and new-product promotion.
By contrast, handset advertising declined as manufacturers faced weaker demand, higher component costs and profitability pressure. E-commerce faced difficult comparisons with the prior year, while cosmetics and online gaming advertisers also remained cautious.
Advertising revenue from Alibaba was $39.2 million, up 10% year over year, or 3% on a constant-currency basis. Cao said higher spending on AI-related activity offset softer spending in local services.
For the second half, management said consumer-demand recovery may take time and competition for advertising budgets is likely to remain intense. Weibo also cited a high comparison base from last year’s food-delivery price war and a smaller advertising lift from this year’s World Cup than in the prior tournament.
The company plans to expand standardized content-marketing products, simplify advertising tools and further develop celebrity marketing to attract more mid-sized advertisers. Wang cited a World Cup campaign involving Wang Lao Ji and footballer Erling Haaland, which generated more than 5 billion topic views and 1.4 million discussions on Weibo, as an example of its integrated celebrity, content and event-marketing approach.
About Weibo (NASDAQ:WB)
Weibo Corporation operates one of China’s leading social media and microblogging platforms under the brand name Weibo. Launched in August 2009 by Sina Corporation, Weibo enables users to create, share and engage with short-form posts in real time. The platform supports text, images, videos and live streams, and offers features such as trending topics, hashtag campaigns and public discussion forums to facilitate user interaction and content discovery.
Weibo’s product suite extends beyond basic social networking to include digital content services such as live streaming, online games, value-added messaging and e-commerce integrations.
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