(Yicai) Feb. 21 -- Bilibili’s shares surged after the Chinese video-sharing platform reported its first-ever quarterly profit, thanks to sustained high growth in its gaming and advertising segments.

Bilibili [HKG: 9626] closed up 16.5 percent at HKD180.30 (USD23.20) a share in Hong Kong today. In pre-market trading in New York, the firm’s stock [NASDAQ: BILI] was 5.7 percent higher at USD23.38 as of 7.32 a.m. local time, after adding 8.8 percent yesterday.

Net profit was USD12.2 million in the three months ended Dec. 31 based on Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, versus a CNY1.3 billion (USD179.5 million) net loss a year earlier, the Shanghai-based company’s fourth-quarter earnings report showed yesterday. Revenue jumped 22 percent to USD1.1 billion.

Bilibili had its first profit under non-GAAP standards in the third quarter of last year, reporting an adjusted USD33.6 million. Under GAAP accounting standards, it still lost USD11.4 million, which was 94 percent less than in the same period of 2023.

“We closed 2024 on a strong note, achieving our first quarter of GAAP profitability -- a milestone reflecting the value of our community and our relentless effort to enhance our commercialization efficiency,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Chen Rui.

Fourth-quarter mobile gaming revenue soared 79 percent to USD246.3 million, boosted by the strong performance of strategy game San Guo: Mou Ding Tian Xia, which was released last year. Advertising income jumped 24 percent to USD327.2 million, driven by optimization and better efficiency.

For the full year, Bilibili’s net loss narrowed 72 percent to USD186.8 million, while revenue climbed 19 percent to USD3.7 billion.

Bilibili also made reference to the current wave of open-source artificial intelligence models, particularly DeepSeek-R1, a powerful and affordable large language model released last month by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.

“We are also very encouraged by the emergence of new open-source AI models, making AI solutions accessible and cost-effective,” Chen said. “Leveraging our high-quality and exclusive data assets, we expect to benefit even more from this remarkable revolution, unleashing greater value from our unique community.”

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor