Significant growth, profitability and international expansion to underscore Appier's focus in second half of 2022 

Highlights and achievements for the second quarter of fiscal year 2022

• Revenue increased to 4.4 billion yen with the highest YoY growth rate of 56% over the last three years 
• Gross profit grew 57% YoY 
• Revenue from the US and EMEA markets increased over 9 times YoY and represented 12% of total revenue
• Achieved EBITDA margin of 5% with EBITDA profit of 213 million yen
• Operating margin improved by 7 percentage points YoY and EBITDA margin improved by 6 percentage points YoY
• Achieved 30% YoY growth in customer numbers with a record high last twelve months net revenue retention of 127.3% and lowest ever customer churn rate of 0.62%
• Upward revision of full year forecast from 17.8 billion yen to 18.5 billion yen, with YoY revenue growth rate further accelerated to 46% from 41% 

Appier’s second quarter performance summary

Appier Group Inc (TSE: 4180), henceforth referred to as Appier, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. Appier's robust growth in the second quarter was attributed to three key factors. Firstly, AI-powered solutions continue to deliver measurable returns for clients, prompting them to continue or expand their partnerships with Appier; secondly, Appier has achieved continued success in the US and EMEA given their large digital economies; and finally, substantial growth and expansion into other verticals in AsiaPacific has further deepened Appier's market presence.

Appier's continuing improved sales productivity and increasing usage from existing customers drove its revenue to 4.4 billion yen, with a historic high growth rate of 56% year-on-year (YoY), and gross profit grew by 57% YoY. Sustaining the momentum from its first quarter, Appier’s revenue from US and EMEA increased over 9 times YoY and represented 12% of its total revenue, a reflection of the company’s expectations for robust demand and profitable growth in light of international expansion. 

Appier’s AI technologies and product differentiations are crucial in defining and setting the pace of business growth. As more enterprises seek measurable profit returns, turning marketing spending into predictable returns solidified Appier clients’ digital deployment in the industry race to adapt smarter and more effective solutions. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) saw a 6 percentage points YoY improvement, while operating margin improved by 7 percentage points YoY. 

Robust demand from customers across different regions

The growth in the number of customers adopting more than two Appier solutions, along with considerable new customer wins, demonstrates Appier’s strong business resilience. Appier’s recurring revenue currently constitutes over 95% of its total revenue, which drove Appier’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) to 16.6 billion yen with a YoY growth rate of 53%. Emerging growth drivers across different regions will continue to fuel this momentum with more predictable business opportunities.

Appier’s AI technology plays an increasingly important role in privacy-focused and ROI-oriented markets. Appier’s last twelve months (LTM) net revenue retention (NRR) grew to a historic high of 127.3%, with its number of customers increasing to 1,228 with a 30% YoY growth. Customer churn rate also decreased to 0.62%, the lowest in Appier history.

New customers were mainly from the e-commerce and entertainment industries (34% and 25% of total new customers, respectively), driven by post-COVID demand for digital transformation and changing consumption patterns.

Customers in Northeast Asia continued to account for the largest share of global revenue at 62%, followed by Greater China (19%), US and EMEA (12%) and Southeast Asia (7%). Appier’s ongoing successful international expansion played an instrumental role in its growth this quarter. This remarkable growth can be attributed to the US and EMEA’s position as the world’s largest digital economies, along with increased product offerings and a bigger total addressable market (TAM). Further expansion to top-tier customers in other verticals also deepened Appier’s market presence.

Profitable growth in the second half of 2022

Appier revised up its guidance for the fiscal year to reflect its outperformance in the second quarter, forecasting 18.5 billion yen total revenue for the year, with YoY revenue growth rate further accelerated to 46% from 41%. A profitable second half of the year is expected given stronger revenue growth and better operating leverage. Appier’s recession-proof offerings, higher business resilience and larger TAM are key drivers for this guidance revision for 2022.

Guidance in gross profit has outpaced top-line growth to 9.6 billion yen with 54% YoY growth rate. Operating loss has been revised to 84 million yen, with significant improvements compared to Appier’s original guidance and getting closer to breaking even, while full-year positive EBITDA profit has been revised to 1.07 billion yen with a 2,423% YoY growth rate. 

Appier provides predictable returns on customers’ marketing spending, with its solutions offering direct revenue or profit impact in over 80% of customers. Furthermore, large enterprise customers with more than 10 billion yen annual revenue currently constitute over 90% of Appier revenues, underlining higher business resilience to overall macroeconomic conditions. Appier continues to maintain a market-leading presence in Asia Pacific, alongside further expansion to other verticals and geographies. 

“Our strong momentum over the past two quarters underscores Appier's significant growth alongside our customers. In particular, we achieved our highest year-on-year growth rate in the past three years. Our international expansion strategy continues to bear fruit for us, as the US and EMEA grew to form 12% of our total revenues at Appier,” said Dr. Chih-Han Yu, CEO and co-founder of Appier. “We are confident our solid business metrics will continue to see us through the second half of the year. Turning AI into ROI by making software intelligent will enable us to have a better chance at winning customers and transforming their budgets and investments into visible, high returns, helping them to better cope with market uncertainties and potential risks through Appier’s AI technologies and product differentiations.”

ROI-driven intelligent AI solutions empower product synergies

Appier’s solutions maximize customers’ product synergies and bring about lasting effects throughout the customer journey. Customers can now turn AI into ROI and exploit their full-funnel data with higher efficiency across all stages. Appier believes that AI is the key component in the 1st party data world and offers businesses cutting-edge software that enables real-time and precise prediction and advertising through three innovative approaches:

• Synergic AIXON and AIXPERT bundled solutions: Businesses can benefit from inferred insights generated from 1st party data, allowing them to further optimize their marketing spending through higher AI accuracy and timely user insights. Applying these insights to auto-adjusting budget and bidding strategies will enable businesses to make smarter campaign decisions and seize potential business opportunities.
• Combined AIQUA and BotBonnie solutions: With a single unified interface, businesses can now form an omnichannel customer journey map across multiple conversational channels (LINE, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc.) and owned channels (website, app) and gain a deeper understanding into user profiles. Businesses can then leverage these behavioral insights to take immediate action with tailored, real-time and personalized notifications triggered by user behavior along the journey.
• AiDeal’s smart promotion: Businesses can now use the power of Machine Learning and Deep Learning to predict and update hesitation scores along the user journey and dynamically generate the most optimal offering to individuals based on their purchase hesitancy. Through this, businesses can maximize the ROI uplift of campaigns without sacrificing profitability. 

With these, Appier is uniquely positioned to help its customers tackle the entire customer journey across all aspects of the funnel. Appier’s solutions are designed to help customer-centric companies build brand loyalty with their customers by arming them with a 360° view of the customer, using AI to deliver any actionable insights and turn a visitor into a customer, and a customer into a loyal one. 

Appier continues to focus on market-driven transformation and these cross-product synergies are a result of Appier’s ethos towards innovation. This is further underpinned by Appier’s customers’ growth and demand for digitalization as Appier remains committed to helping customers with their digital transformation journey and helping them deliver the best customer experience.

About Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that uses artificial intelligence to power business decision-making. Founded in 2012 with a vision of democratizing AI, Appier now has 17 offices across APAC, Europe and US, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange