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Weibo's Revenue Dips as Ad Market Cools, But AI Keeps Users Hooked

MarketDash Editorial Team
20 days ago
China's Twitter-like platform posted a 5% revenue decline in Q3 but still beat Wall Street expectations. Monthly active users held at 578 million as the company leans harder into AI-powered content recommendations.

Weibo Corp. (WB) shares climbed Tuesday after the Chinese microblogging platform delivered fiscal third-quarter results that managed to outpace expectations despite a challenging advertising environment.

The company posted quarterly revenue of $442.30 million, down 5% from the year-ago period but comfortably above the analyst consensus of $435.75 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue declined 4% year-over-year.

Here's where things get interesting: Weibo's struggles aren't about users abandoning the platform. Monthly active users stood at 578 million in September 2025, while average daily active users held perfectly flat at 257 million compared to the prior year. The real story is advertising.

Advertising and marketing revenues came in at $375.4 million, down 6% year-over-year. Part of that decline traces back to a tough comparison, since last year's quarter benefited from spending around the Paris Olympic Games. Strip out advertising revenues from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), and the picture gets notably worse: ad revenue dropped 13% to $329.9 million.

The bright spot? Value-added service revenues increased 2% year-over-year to $66.9 million, showing some diversification beyond pure advertising dollars.

Adjusted earnings per share of 42 cents narrowly missed the consensus estimate of 43 cents. The adjusted operating margin compressed from 35% to 30% as profits fell 19.8% year-over-year, reflecting both the revenue pressures and ongoing investments in the platform.

As of September 30, 2025, Weibo held $2.04 billion in cash and equivalents, while generating $200 million in operating cash flow during the quarter. That's a solid balance sheet for a company navigating choppy waters.

CEO Gaofei Wang highlighted the company's push into what it calls an "intelligent search strategy" during the quarter. Weibo revamped its homepage to prioritize recommendation feeds over traditional chronological or curated content, a move designed to boost both content consumption and overall platform efficiency.

Wang also emphasized that Weibo strengthened its content marketing capabilities, improved conversion rates for promoted feed ads, and expanded AI adoption across its advertising technology stack. The goal? Better monetization efficiency even as overall ad spending remains under pressure.

It's the classic platform playbook: when you can't grow revenue through sheer user growth or advertiser spending, you squeeze more value from each user interaction through smarter algorithms and better targeting. Whether that's enough to reignite growth remains to be seen, but at least the user base isn't eroding.

WB stock traded higher by 2.51% to $10.20 in premarket action Tuesday following the results.

Back to News

Weibo's Revenue Dips as Ad Market Cools, But AI Keeps Users Hooked

MarketDash Editorial Team
20 days ago
China's Twitter-like platform posted a 5% revenue decline in Q3 but still beat Wall Street expectations. Monthly active users held at 578 million as the company leans harder into AI-powered content recommendations.

Weibo Corp. (WB) shares climbed Tuesday after the Chinese microblogging platform delivered fiscal third-quarter results that managed to outpace expectations despite a challenging advertising environment.

The company posted quarterly revenue of $442.30 million, down 5% from the year-ago period but comfortably above the analyst consensus of $435.75 million. On a constant currency basis, revenue declined 4% year-over-year.

Here's where things get interesting: Weibo's struggles aren't about users abandoning the platform. Monthly active users stood at 578 million in September 2025, while average daily active users held perfectly flat at 257 million compared to the prior year. The real story is advertising.

Advertising and marketing revenues came in at $375.4 million, down 6% year-over-year. Part of that decline traces back to a tough comparison, since last year's quarter benefited from spending around the Paris Olympic Games. Strip out advertising revenues from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), and the picture gets notably worse: ad revenue dropped 13% to $329.9 million.

The bright spot? Value-added service revenues increased 2% year-over-year to $66.9 million, showing some diversification beyond pure advertising dollars.

Adjusted earnings per share of 42 cents narrowly missed the consensus estimate of 43 cents. The adjusted operating margin compressed from 35% to 30% as profits fell 19.8% year-over-year, reflecting both the revenue pressures and ongoing investments in the platform.

As of September 30, 2025, Weibo held $2.04 billion in cash and equivalents, while generating $200 million in operating cash flow during the quarter. That's a solid balance sheet for a company navigating choppy waters.

CEO Gaofei Wang highlighted the company's push into what it calls an "intelligent search strategy" during the quarter. Weibo revamped its homepage to prioritize recommendation feeds over traditional chronological or curated content, a move designed to boost both content consumption and overall platform efficiency.

Wang also emphasized that Weibo strengthened its content marketing capabilities, improved conversion rates for promoted feed ads, and expanded AI adoption across its advertising technology stack. The goal? Better monetization efficiency even as overall ad spending remains under pressure.

It's the classic platform playbook: when you can't grow revenue through sheer user growth or advertiser spending, you squeeze more value from each user interaction through smarter algorithms and better targeting. Whether that's enough to reignite growth remains to be seen, but at least the user base isn't eroding.

WB stock traded higher by 2.51% to $10.20 in premarket action Tuesday following the results.