Yeah1 (YEG) has announced the business results of the third quarter 2024, with post-tax profit increasing by 11 times to VND34.3 billion, while the total profit in the first nine months of the year reached VND55.8 billion, or 4.5 times higher than the same period last year.

The business results are much better than those in the period when Nguyen Anh Nhuong Tong, dubbed as a ‘media tycoon’, was on president of the media group. From the huge loss of VND566 billion in 2019-2020 and nearly being delisted, Yeah1 has seen a boom under the reign of new leaders, president Le Phuong Thao and CEO Ngo Thi Van Hanh.

Yeah1 was once considered a big media group and a technology unicorn. Its share prices once reached a peak in the stock market after listing in mid-2018. Its market prices once made a record high of VND350,000 per share.

Tong was the founder and developed Yeah 1, an electronic news website for youth, into an economic group with revenue of VND1.7 trillion and profit of VND140 billion in 2018.

However, the business’ ambitious plan to develop rapidly suffered after YouTube’s announcement on breaking up cooperation with Yeah1 and the impact caused by Covid-19.

After it had to give up the game in Hollywood and postponed its $1 billion ambition, Yeah1 took a loss with commercial media business at below cost prices and rising sale costs.

In March 2019, Yeah1 had to sell 100 percent of its shares in ScaleLab, headquartered in Hollywood to its previous owners, Brenner Pass Investment Corp, at $12 million, the same price it paid when taking over ScaleLab in January 2019.

In 2020, YEG continued to take a heavy loss when expanding its media ecosystem to a consumer ecosystem, which was attributed to the economy as a result of Covid-19.

Breakthroughs

After the breakup with YouTube, Tong saw his assets decrease by 80-90 percent. In 2019, Tong was the businessman who lost the most money in the stock market with assets dropping from VND2.67 trillion to VND480 billion as YEG share prices fell from VND350,000 to VND37,000 per share.

Yeah1 then jumped into the omni-channel investment and trade with Giga1 platform under a cooperation agreement with Tan Hiep Phat, but they quickly broke up later. In mid-2022, Tong left the board of directors.

After changing hands, Yeah1 has changed its strategy, from expanding rapidly to going slowly. The current board of directors now includes five members – Le Phuong Thao, Ngo Thi Van Hanh, Nguyen Hoang Giang (president of DNSE Securities), Kim Min Soo and Dinh Hoai Nam (a member of SBS)

Thao joined Yeah1 in early 2022 and step by step has become the biggest shareholder. She has been in the top position at YEG since mid-2022. Thao holds 5.8 percent of YEG shares.

In 2023 and 2024, Yeah1 bet on ‘Chi dep dap gio’, a TV gameshow produced with the copyright from ‘Sister Who Make Wave’, a famous format in China, and ‘Anh trai vuot ngan chong gai’ with the copyright from ‘Call me by fire’ owned by Mango TV.

The Vietnamese gameshow market has become bustling again, with Vie Channel running ‘Anh trai say Hi’.

With the big gameshows, Yeah1 successfully called for sponsorship from big brands in the fields of finance and banking, cosmetics and food, including Techcombank, one of the largest Vietnamese commercial banks.

Yeah1 plans to organize the concert ‘Anh trai vuot ngan chong gai’ in Hanoi in late 2024. In 2023, Chi dep dap gio re song’ attracted 788 million viewers and 20 million interactions on social network platforms.

Yeah1 saw its revenue and profit increasing sharply, with its assets soaring by 30 percent in the third quarter over the same period last year.

However, its total liabilities have increased by twofold in the first nine months of the year, from VND409 billion in late 2023 to VND927 billion in late September 2024. Its short-term debt soared from VND171 billion to VND500 billion.

Manh Ha