Beijing, Aug. 11, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Glory Star New Media Group Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: GSMG, GSMGW) (“Glory Star” or the “Company”), a leading mobile and online digital media and entertainment company in China, today released a letter to shareholders from Mr. Bing Zhang, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In the letter, Mr. Zhang provided an overview of the Glory Star’s progress in 2020 and outlined the Company’s future growth strategies. The original letter was written in Mandarin Chinese and can be accessed on the Company’s investor relations website at http://ir.gsmg.co/. The following excerpts are English language translations of key messages from the letter to shareholders.

To Shareholders, Colleagues, and Business Partners,
As this is my first letter to you as Chairman of Glory Star, I would like to take this opportunity to provide you with an overview of our progress in 2020 to date as well as our vision for the future. I would also like to thank all of our colleagues, shareholders, and business partners for their unwavering support, particularly during this challenging time. We are deeply serious about the trust placed in us by all parties and consider it an honor to move towards a common vision of the future together. In times like these, we cannot help but be reminded about what really matters, our family, our friends, and our health.

Since our successful listing on the NASDAQ stock market on February 19, 2020, we have sustained our remarkable growth trajectory, which continues to be driven by China’s rapid digitization progress as well as its social and economic developments. Now, after three years of operations, we have built a digital entertainment ecosystem that offers premium content, interactive live streaming, supply chain services, big data analysis, smart search services, and recommendation services. These services have helped our CHEERS app to not only attract over 100 million users nationwide, but also form partnerships with hundreds of established brands and service providers. In the 2020 China Content E-commerce Industry Overview Report by iResearch, Glory Star was named one of China's pioneers for the proprietary professionally generated video content e-commerce sector, the report also ranked us as number two in the market in terms of sales volume, which once again demonstrated our industry-leading position.

So far, in 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has presented each and every one of us with unprecedented challenges. Additionally, as the pandemic swept the globe, the world economy was also severely disrupted. These challenges and the resulting uncertainties will undoubtedly have a profound impact on the future economic developments of both China and the rest of the world. However, we believe that behind every adversity lies an opportunity, and as the outbreak continues to be brought under control in China at a steady pace, we are all beginning to return to our normal ways of life while the economy gradually recovers. Moreover, as a result of the travel restrictions and quarantine measures, we have also accelerated the pace of our digital transformation.

Despite the challenges from the outbreak of COVID-19 in the first half of 2020, our business lines maintained their solid growth trajectory. As of June 30, 2020, downloads of our CHEERS App had exceeded 121.0 million while the average daily active users for CHEERS App had reached 4.9 million. In the first half of 2020, our video content generated over 17.1 billion views online. We also delivered strong financial results in the first half of 2020 as our total revenues reached $29.4 million and our net income attributable to ordinary shareholders increased to $12.0 million. Gross Merchandise Value in the six months ended June 30, 2020, was approximately $20.0 million. Based on our results in the first half of the year, we remain fully confident in our ability to continue delivering robust financial and operating metrics for the remainder of 2020.

Looking beyond 2020, our goal is to grow our CHEERS App user base to 800 million users. As such, we will remain committed to our strategy of 1) fueling our e-commerce initiative with premium content, and 2) strengthening the capabilities of our CHEERS App and e-Mall marketplace to serve more of those consumers who have the desire to achieve a better lifestyle. Over the past year, Glory Star has also continuously introduced innovative services and created new business models, including the CHEERS video series, original short-form videos, e-commerce with PGC live streaming, online game portfolios, and product review programs. These content offerings not only enable consumers to experience a better lifestyle, but have also helped to fuel our business expansion and will sustain our rapid growth trajectory for years to come.

In the era of the fast-evolving internet, we believe that only those solutions capable of creating real value for customers will be able to stand the test of time. At Glory Star, we consider the attractiveness of our value propositions to be the core driver of our business success. Going forward, we will continue to experiment and drive innovation in order to better position ourselves at the forefront of the industry and thus generate increasing value for our users, partners, and shareholders in turn.

Bing Zhang
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Glory Star

About Glory Star New Media Group Holdings Limited
Glory Star New Media Group Holdings Limited is a leading mobile entertainment operator in China. Glory Star’s ability to integrate premium lifestyle content, including short videos, online variety shows, online dramas, live streaming, its Cheers lifestyle video series, e-Mall, and mobile app, along with innovative e-commerce offerings on its platform enables it to pursue its mission of enriching people’s lives. The Company’s large and active user base creates valuable engagement opportunities with consumers and enhances platform stickiness with thousands of domestic and international brands.