Sohu.com's Q4 and FY 2024 Results: What to Expect and Key Trends

As the Chinese online media, video, and game industry continues to evolve, Sohu.com Limited (NASDAQ: SOHU) is set to report its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 financial results on February 18, 2025. With the company's management team hosting a conference call following the quarterly results announcement, investors and analysts will be eager to gain insights into Sohu.com's performance and future prospects.



To better understand Sohu.com's financial performance and the key factors driving its growth or decline in the brand advertising and online games segments, let's analyze the trends and developments from the past few quarters:

1. Brand Advertising Segment:
- In Q1 2024, brand advertising revenues were US$16 million, down 29% year-over-year (YoY) and 20% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ).
- In Q2 2024, brand advertising revenues rebounded to US$18 million, up 12% YoY but down 12% QoQ.
- In Q3 2024, brand advertising revenues were US$1.9 billion, down 15% YoY but up 6% QoQ.
- The decline in brand advertising revenues may be partially attributed to seasonality, as mentioned by Dr. Charles Zhang, Chairman and CEO of Sohu.com Limited.
- To improve brand advertising revenues, Sohu.com should focus on enhancing user experience, refining products, optimizing algorithms, and proactively integrating its product matrix and resources to stimulate content generation, consumption, and social distribution. Additionally, hosting various events and campaigns can help stimulate users' interaction and content provision on their platforms, gaining more monetization opportunities.

2. Online Games Segment:
- In Q1 2024, online game revenues were US$118 million, down 9% YoY but up 3% QoQ.
- In Q2 2024, online game revenues were US$129 million, up 10% YoY but down 10% QoQ.
- In Q3 2024, online game revenues were US$1.28 billion, up 9% YoY but down 13% QoQ.
- The stable performance of the online games segment can be attributed to high-quality content updates and stable game operations.
- To maintain and improve the performance of the online games segment, Sohu.com should continue to focus on high-quality content updates and stable game operations. Additionally, leveraging unique IPs and differentiated advantages can help gain more monetization opportunities and attract more users to the platform.

In conclusion, Sohu.com's financial performance has evolved with mixed results in its revenue streams. Brand advertising revenues have been volatile, while online game revenues have shown consistent YoY growth. Total revenues have grown YoY but have experienced QoQ decreases, indicating a need for further analysis to identify the underlying factors driving these trends. As Sohu.com reports its Q4 and FY 2024 financial results, investors and analysts will be looking for insights into the company's strategies to address the challenges in its brand advertising segment and maintain the growth of its online games segment. By focusing on user experience, content generation, and stable game operations, Sohu.com can potentially reverse the decline in brand advertising revenues and maintain the growth of its online games segment.