Overseas revenue jumped while COL Group's total revenue fell

The figure or the record

On 29 April 2025, COL Group (中文在线集团股份有限公司, stock code 300364, Shenzhen Stock Exchange) filed its 2024年年度报告 (2024 Annual Report) via cninfo.com.cn. The filing's geographic revenue table states that overseas ('境外') revenue reached RMB303,165,054 in 2024, or 26.15 per cent of total revenue, up 132.41 per cent from RMB130,443,806 (9.26 per cent) in 2023. The accompanying 年度报告摘要 (Annual Report Summary) states total 2024 revenue of RMB1,159,119,215.32, down 17.73 per cent year-on-year, and a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB242,889,520.02. Both documents were read in the original Chinese.

What the documents establish

COL Group's chairman's letter, inside the same annual report, attributes the year's net loss directly to 'increased promotion and R&D investment in the overseas short-drama business, which remained in an investment-loss phase during 2024' (对海外短剧业务加大推广及研发投入，相关业务2024年度处于投入期利润亏损). Read together, the filing establishes that overseas revenue — which the company's own narrative ties to short-drama apps including Sereal+ and UniReel — grew sharply even as total revenue shrank, and that this growth came at a cost large enough to swing the company from a RMB89.4 million profit in 2023 to a RMB242.9 million loss in 2024.

Scope and caveats

The RMB303 million figure is a geographic-region revenue line ('境外', overseas), not a short-drama-specific line item; the filing does not disclose how much of that total came from short-drama apps against COL Group's other overseas content businesses, nor a per-app breakdown between Sereal+, UniReel or other titles. The company states it has produced nearly 100 overseas short dramas — a title count, not a revenue figure. This RMB, calendar-year 2024 filing, audited under Chinese accounting standards, cannot be compared directly to a dollar-denominated, app-store IAP figure without a stated exchange rate and a matching revenue definition.

What to watch

Editorially, the figure to watch is whether COL Group's 2025 annual report, due in spring 2026, shows overseas revenue crossing half of the total and whether the segment turns from a loss into a profit contributor, confirming the 2024 filing's own framing of overseas short drama as an investment phase rather than a mature business.

• Does a company's overseas revenue line match its own narrative about which product drove the growth, or is the link asserted without a breakdown?
• Is an overseas revenue figure denominated in the filer's home currency, with an exchange rate stated before comparing it to a dollar figure?
• Does a large percentage swing sit on a small base or a large one, with the base year's figure stated alongside it?

A 132 per cent jump in overseas revenue is a real, filed number; it is also 26 per cent of a company whose total revenue fell, which is a different story from a company whose overseas business is expanding while everything else holds steady.