HONG KONG, April 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Newborn Town, a leading global social entertainment company, released its unaudited operating data for the first quarter of 2026.
For the three months ended 31 March 2026, the company's total revenue is estimated to reach RMB 2,030 million to RMB 2,130 million, reflecting a year-on-year increase of approximately 33.0% to 39.6%. Revenue from social networking business amounted to approximately RMB 1,785 million to RMB 1,865 million, representing a year-on-year increase of approximately 31.3% to 37.2%.
Revenue from innovative business recorded approximately RMB 245 million to RMB 265 million, representing a year-on-year growth of approximately 46.7% to 58.7%, maintaining strong growth momentum.
Social Networking Business Deepened Its Competitive Moat as Flagship Products Continue to Strengthen Market Leadership
According to the announcement, the steady growth of social networking business revenue was driven by the company's continued global expansion and the deep integration of AI across the entire business chain, supporting the sustained growth of its flagship products.
In the first quarter of 2026, the company continued to advance its successful strategy of replicating its product operations and market expansion experiences, further strengthening its leadership in core markets such as the MENA region and Southeast Asia, while using flagship products as strategic pioneers to accelerate expansion into high-growth and high-value markets including Latin America, Europe, Japan, and South Korea, further enhancing its global social entertainment footprint.
In 2026, the Company's flagship products continued to deliver strong performance. The game-oriented social platform TopTop further improved its market position across GCC countries. According to data from Sensor Tower, in Q1, TopTop ranked 6th in the social apps category on the App Store's revenue rankings for the Middle East.
In new markets, TopTop continued to expand its footprint. TopTop made solid progress in high-value markets such as Japan and Europe, ranking among the Top 10 free casual games on the Japanese App Store multiple times during the first quarter.
Meanwhile, TopTop continues to leverage its UGC-driven ecosystem to expand into developed markets. It has grown into a widely adopted app in GCC markets such as Saudi Arabia and ranks among the leading products in its category globally.
The company's diverse-audience social networking business also maintained steady growth. HeeSay, the company's global community platform for diverse audiences, further strengthened its presence in Southeast Asia, consistently ranking among the Top 10 grossing social apps on the App Store in countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
A research report by Huaxi Securities noted that social networking and gaming apps continue to outperform across downloads, user engagement, and monetization. With its expanding global footprint, Newborn Town is well positioned to continue benefiting from these long-term industry trends, further reinforcing the certainty of its long-term growth trajectory.
Innovative Business Gained Strong Momentum, with AI Driving Rapid Revenue Growth
The company's innovative business also demonstrated strong growth momentum in the first quarter of 2026. According to the announcement, the growth in revenue from the innovative business segment was driven by the rapid expansion of the short drama business, supported by AI-powered content production and operations.
During the period, the company's short drama business progressed steadily across multiple overseas markets including Europe and North America, validating its full-chain capabilities in content creation and blockbuster content incubation.
Building on this foundation, Newborn Town is actively expanding into AI short dramas, leveraging AI technology to amplify content production, diversify genres, and optimize production costs, positioning short drama as a new growth engine for the innovative business.
Recently, the Company's short-form drama business was officially integrated with Seedance 2.0, becoming one of its first partner platforms. At the same time, through joint operations with platforms such as TikTok, the global reach of its short-form content has continued to expand. According to TikTok's first-quarter revenue-sharing report for short dramas, one of the Company's hit titles ranked No. 2 on the platform by first-month revenue.
In recent years, the company has continued to deepen the application of AI technologies across core business scenarios, comprehensively empowering R&D, operations, and commercialization efficiency. Its self-developed multimodal algorithm model, Boomiix, continues to upgrade, improving the accuracy of social matching and the intelligence of operations.
The company's Siyu AI, an internal data intelligence platform, significantly shortened turnaround times for data queries, anomaly analysis, and report generation. Its proprietary AI-powered design platform KIVI has also greatly enhanced both the efficiency and diversity of content production, including virtual gifts and marketing creatives.
In addition, the company continued to expand into consumer-facing AI applications by launching Aippy, exploring new ways to create emotional value through AI. To date, Aippy has surpassed 2 million cumulative downloads. Beyond this, the Company has launched NUSD Pay, an AI agent-based payment solution, which has completed core system development and entered the commercialization stage.
The company announced to allocate approximately HK$ 300 million over the next two years for share repurchases, which may be used for the company's employee equity incentive plans or cancellation in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and listing rules. The Board believes that implementing share repurchases under the current circumstances reflects confidence in the company's long-term business outlook and will ultimately benefit the company while creating value for shareholders.
On 6 March, Newborn Town was officially included in the list of eligible securities under the Stock Connect, broadening access for mainland investors. Since its inclusion, the company has seen significantly stronger market attention and trading activity. As of April 21, its average daily trading value exceeded HKD 180 million, approximately doubling compared to the three months prior to inclusion.
Following its inclusion in Stock Connect, the Company's shareholder base has continued to diversify, while its market presence has further strengthened, providing solid support for its long-term growth.
source: Newborn Town
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