Benzinga | Nov 23, 2021 05:01PM EST

Dada Q3 2021 Revenue RMB 1.68B

Dada Nexus Limited (NASDAQ:DADA, &quot, Dada&quot, or the &quot, Company&quot, ))))), China's leading local on-demand delivery and retail platform, today announced its unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021.



Third Quarter 2021 Highlights

* Total net revenues were RMB1,686.8 million.

* Total Gross Merchandise Volume ("GMV") of JDDJ for the twelve months ended September 30, 2021 was RMB37.2 billion, an increase of 74.6% year over year from RMB21.3 billion in the same period ended September 30, 2020.

* Number of active consumers for the twelve months ended September 30, 2021 was 57.1 million, as compared with 37.3 million in the same period ended September 30, 2020.

"Dada has always been committed to driving digital transformation in the retail industry and providing consumers with superior experience to meet the evolving demands," said Mr. Philip Kuai, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dada. "We are excited to strengthen strategic cooperation with JD under the omni-channel strategy to explore the enormous potential in the on-demand retail industry. We will continuously work together to create more value for retailers, brands and consumers and serve the development of the real economy."

"We are delighted to deliver another strong quarter and believe the encouraging trend will continue based on the strengthened partnerships with retailers and brand owners," said Beck Chen, Chief Financial Officer of Dada. "We are excited with accelerated total revenue growth year over year on a comparable basis1 and significant operating margin improvement. Driven by continuous expansion in partner and user base along with gains in operating efficiency, we remain confident on further revenue growth acceleration on a comparable basis1 and margin improvement in the fourth quarter."

Third Quarter 2021 Financial Results

Total net revenues were RMB1,686.8 million.

For the three months ended September 30,2020 2021(RMB in thousands)Net RevenueDada NowServices 704,961 592,508Sales of goods 14,034 21,781Subtotal 718,995 614,289JDDJServices note (1) 582,507 1,072,490Total 1,301,502 1,686,779

Note:

(1) Includes net revenues from commission fee, and advertising and marketing services of RMB297,382 for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and RMB643,704 for the three months ended September 30, 2021; Fulfillment services and others of RMB285,125 and RMB428,786 for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Net revenues generated from Dada Now were RMB614.3 million. The difference as compared to that of the third quarter of 2020 is mainly due to the fact that effective from April 2021, the cost of riders for last-mile delivery services has been directly paid through third-party companies instead of through the Company. Thus the Company no longer recognizes rider-related revenue and rider-related costs in the income statement for the last-mile delivery services. Aligning the revenue of Dada Now last-mile delivery services to a comparable basis, revenue growth from Dada Now would have been 90.5% year over year1, mainly driven by the increases in order volume of intra-city delivery service to chain merchants.

Net revenues generated from JDDJ were RMB1,072.5 million. The difference as compared to that of the third quarter of 2020 is mainly due to the increase in GMV from the same quarter last year, which was driven by increases in the number of active consumers and average order size. The increase in online marketing services revenue as a result of the increasing promotional activities launched by brand owners also constituted an increment of the net revenues generated from JDDJ.

Total costs and expenses were RMB2,282.3 million, compared with RMB1,758.1 million in the same quarter of 2020.

* Operations and support costs were RMB1,235.7 million, compared with RMB1,018.2 million in the same quarter of 2020. The rise was primarily due to an increase in rider cost as a result of increasing order volume for intra-city delivery services provided to various chain merchants on the Dada Now platform and retailers on the JDDJ platform, partially offset by the decrease of rider-related cost incurred by business upgrade of last-mile delivery services.

* Selling and marketing expenses were RMB780.3 million, compared with RMB499.2 million in the same quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily due to (i) growing incentives to JDDJ consumers, and (ii) an increase in personnel cost in connection with the Company's growing business.

* General and administrative expenses were RMB98.5 million, compared with RMB121.1 million in the same quarter of 2020. The decrease was primarily due to decreased share-based compensation expenses.

* Research and development expenses were RMB148.0 million, compared with RMB103.1 million in the same quarter of 2020. The increase was mainly attributable to the increase in research and development personnel cost as the Company continues to strengthen its technological capabilities.

Loss from operations was RMB565.8 million, compared with RMB449.9 million in the same quarter of 2020.

Non-GAAP loss from operations2 was RMB472.1 million, compared with RMB338.7 million in the same quarter of 2020.

Net loss was RMB542.7 million, compared with RMB434.0 million in the same period of 2020.

Non-GAAP net loss3 was RMB450.1 million, compared with RMB324.0 million in the same period of 2020.

Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of Dada was RMB542.7 million, compared with RMB434.0 million in the same quarter of 2020.

Non-GAAP net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders of Dada4 was RMB450.1 million, compared with RMB324.0 million in the same quarter of 2020.

Basic and diluted net loss per share was RMB0.57, compared with RMB0.48 for the third quarter of 2020.

Non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss per share5 was RMB0.48, compared with RMB0.36 for the third quarter of 2020.

As of September 30, 2021, the Company had RMB2,932.0 million in cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments, a decrease from RMB6,291.1 million as of December 31, 2020.

Pursuant to our $150 million share repurchase authorization announced in June 2021, as of October 31, 2021, we had repurchased approximately US$130.6 million of ADSs under this repurchase program.

Environment, Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance

The Company made a number of advances across its ESG initiatives in the third quarter:

* On September 27, Dada launched the first Dada Now Rider Festival, where riders participated in nationwide online and offline rider care activities. In September, Rider Talent Challenge hosted by Dada received over 10 million views on short video platform, allowing more people to learn about Dada Now riders' highlight moments.

* To improve riders' delivery experience, Dada not only initiates various rider care programs, but also focuses on system upgrade. For example, based on the dynamic timeliness database, Dada is now able to identify most of the unusual scenarios during the delivery process to flexibly estimate the pick-up and delivery time for riders, so that riders can improve delivery efficiency and be protected against abnormal cases. Dada proactively participates in the Special Action Plan for Aging- Friendly and Barrier-Free Updating of Internet Applications initiated by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. To ensure the ease-of-use of JDDJ App's customized mode for elderly and disabled users, Dada recruited blind volunteers across a number of cities to collect feedbacks and engaged in writing the learning manual of using smart phones for the elderly people.D