BEIJING, June 9 (TMTPOST)— The American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Bilibili sank as much as nearly 17% before closing 14.8% lower Thursday, when the most popular video sharing platform among younger generations in China posted worse-than-expected earnings in the first quarter of the year, underling the Covid-19 related challenges.

Source: Visual China

In the quarter ended March 31, 2022, Bilibili’s total net revenue rose 30% year-over-year (YoY) to RMB5.05 billion (US$797.3 million), missing the analysts’ expected RMB5.06 billion. The adjusted basic and diluted net loss per share (EPS) were RMB4.20 (US$0.66), compared with the market expectation of RMB3.93.

Bilibili management signaled the wider-than-expected loss was, at least partly, due to the Covid pandemic and its lockdowns. “In the face of the unexpected COVID-19 resurgence and lockdowns, the first quarter presented new challenges impacting businesses nationwide, particularly in Shanghai, where our headquarters is based,” the chairman and CEO Chen Rui remarked in the quarterly earnings release. Chen noted his company delivered solid growth in terms of user’s engagement as the average monthly active users (MAUs) and Average daily active users (DAUs) both increased more than 30% that quarter, and daily time spent per user increased to a record high of 95 minutes. Cost control and expense reduction play a key role in weathering the macro headwinds, according to Chen.

NIO, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, also saw ADRs plummet the same day after it reported quarterly financial results. The ADRs settled almost 7.7% lower following the Tesla’s Chinese rival’s weaker guidance. It expected the revenue in the current quarter to be between RMB9.34 billion (US$1.47 billion) and RMB10.08 billion (US$1.59 billion) , falling short on the analysts projected RMB11.65 billion, and the gross margin sharply contracted to 14.6% from 19.5% in the year-ago period, though its loss in the first quarter was smaller than expected with revenue topping analyst forecasts.

In the earnings call, NIO’s chairman and CEO William Bin Li blamed the gross margin pressure for the cost surge in materials including batteries and chips. Li said NIO witnessed significant battery cost increase in the second quarter, which peaked in April. NIO did take actions to mitigate the pressure by price hikes but Li forecasted the the gross margin of his company not to recover until the third quarter.