AfreecaTV Soars with Strong Performance Amid Twitch Withdrawal...

AfreecaTV continues its upward trend, hitting a 52-week high. This is attributed to strong earnings and expectations of sustained benefits from the termination of the Twitch service.

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On the 16th, AfreecaTV recorded 121,600 KRW, marking a 52-week high based on closing price. This represents a 42.06% increase compared to the end of last year. The main driver of the stock price rise is the expected benefits from Twitch's termination. On December 6 last year, Twitch announced it would end its service in Korea on the 27th of this month. Following this news, streamers who were broadcasting on that platform decided to move to AfreecaTV or Naver's Chijijik. Donghwan Oh, a researcher at Samsung Securities, emphasized, "Since Twitch's withdrawal announcement in Korea, about 3,000 streamers have moved to AfreecaTV and started broadcasting by the end of January," adding, "The influx of streamers and users is expected to intensify after the end of this month."

Additionally, the company posted strong results in the fourth quarter of last year. AfreecaTV recorded revenue of 100.4 billion KRW and operating profit of 26.4 billion KRW in Q4, representing increases of 26% and 71% respectively compared to the same period last year. Hoyoon Jung, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, explained, "Platform revenue increased by 26.5% year-over-year to 68.5 billion KRW, with paying users (PU) showing quarterly growth for the first time in a while," adding, "Advertising revenue rose 20.9% year-over-year to 29.9 billion KRW, driven by seasonal effects and increased demand from brand content advertisers."

The outlook for this year is particularly bright. AfreecaTV plans to launch a new global streaming platform called 'SOOP' in beta service form starting May this year. Initially focusing on game content production centered in Thailand, the service will later expand to K-content and other areas. Furthermore, by the third quarter, AfreecaTV plans to rename its domestic platform service to 'SOOP.' The company intends to gradually revamp the overall service, including brand image (BI), user interface (UI), domain, and design.

According to FnGuide, securities firms forecast AfreecaTV's revenue and operating profit for this year at 403.7 billion KRW and 103.7 billion KRW respectively. These figures represent increases of 3.6% and 8.36% compared to the revenue of 389.5 billion KRW and operating profit of 95.7 billion KRW projected three months ago. As earnings grow, securities firms are competitively raising AfreecaTV's target stock price. Seven securities firms, including Korea Investment & Securities, Yuanta Securities, and Samsung Securities, have all upgraded their target prices for AfreecaTV.

Researcher Hoyoon Jung stated, "In 2024, with overseas expansion becoming more active, we can expect market expansion in the upstream sector as well, which is positive," adding, "Along with domestic revenue growth, the business scope can be expanded to areas such as VTubers." Researcher Donghwan Oh also emphasized, "This year marks the period when AfreecaTV's operating leverage will fully materialize through Twitch user inflow, global expansion, and increased revenue from existing BJs' star balloon sales."

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