So especially in the first half of next year so that, of course, we’re going to further reduce the cost and also optimize the cost as well as improve the operational efficiency and also do a lot of work in terms of the optimization of our cost structure. For example, we’re going to further concentrate and also doing more optimization works related to the expenses of marketing and also labor and human resources as well, so that we’re going to improve our core competence by doing that. And also, if you’re a very senior investors and following Weibo for a very long time, you should be nearing the story about 5 years before. So from 2017 to 2020, we had about the operational cost which was about 60% against our revenue and also in 2020, because of launch of new operational events and also businesses.
This particular figure improved to about 65%. And also in 2022 first half, because of the reduction of the revenue, this figure is going up further. But we don’t think that this is actually quite in line with the positioning and also the core strength of Weibo as a social media platform. So in the future, we’re going to really focus on advantages and also the key characteristics as well as further improve our core competence and then having a better situation by doing a lot of further more work on the optimization of our costs and also cost structure, so as to improve our operational efficiency further. So lastly, I would like to say that in Q4, as I have for state is, most of the offline events will happen €“ that should have been happening in Q2 and Q3 will be moved to Q4.
So that we’re not going to see as high operational margin as the previous quarter, but I think that this should be quite similar to Q2. And also in 2023, of course, we’re going to have a very stable plan for the growth of our operational margin and also really emphasize more, of course, on the investments to improve our core competency as well as launch most of our new businesses. And also, in the long run, while the market is fluctuating and also uncertain, definitely speaking, we have to keep a very good balance in terms of our development and also investment as well and also generate quite robust cash through all those means and also having a very good flexibility on our financial performance.
Operator: In the interest of time, the last question comes from Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs.
Timothy Zhao: Could management share your thoughts on the strategy to further diversify the revenue stream beyond advertising? And what are the key initiatives the company is investing to? And what is the management outlook for VAS revenue potential going forward?
Gaofei Wang: Thank you for the question. So I have to say that even if you can see that now in the advertisement module here Weibo, we do have actually a VAS. But if you’re talking about the first of all, the positioning and also the market influence also Weibo as a big social media platform. And also because of the importance and also the product of advertisement itself as a kind of a necessity or necessary product for the customers to actually launch the new products, we can see that the efficiency of the monetization by using the advertisement is actually the highest. And also, of course, that still, if you’re talking about a fluctuated market, still, we do see a lot of pressure on the pricing of this particular advertisement.
